Iraq

ISIS has “executed” 232 people near Mosul and taken tens of thousands of people to use as human shields against advancing Iraqi forces, the UN says. A spokeswoman for the UN’s human rights arm told CNN that the terror group had carried out the mass killings on Wednesday, punishing people who had defied its orders. […]

The Islamic State relies on religious precedence to absolve responsibility for the individual and group. As such, they’re finding authority to run from the battle. Nearly everything that the Islamic State does, in their view, has some kind of canonical precedent. They wish to create their own currency, based on the Quranic meaning of currency, […]

The small dorm room in Kirkuk, with gray-speckled terrazzo floors and wooden cots, was home to Monaly Najeeb and six other Christian women after ISIS took hold in Mosul and they were forced to abandon college. They restarted their studies in the Kurdish-controlled city, in that humble room, where they could once again study, pray and even […]

Hundreds of Islamic State militants are thought to have been killed since Iraqi forces launched an offensive to retake Mosul last week, the US military says. Two generals said the jihadist group had suffered the losses as troops and allied fighters, backed by US-led air strikes, advanced on several axes. Up to 5,000 IS fighters […]

Iraqi forces explored a network of tunnels and uncovered a bomb-making facility on Thursday in a village near Mosul that was recently retaken from the Islamic State group, offering a glimpse of the challenge they will face as they move closer to the city. Ten days into the offensive, the special forces are still at […]

ISIS is sending “suicide squads” from Syria to its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, witnesses have told CNN, as tens of thousands of troops close in on the key city to take it from the militant group’s control. Witnesses said hundreds of new arrivals had streamed into Mosul from the group’s heartland of Raqqa, Syria, in […]

Turkey is a NATO partner that stands with U.S. troops on the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, but it’s an ally that’s increasingly turning its guns on fighters the U.S. sees as vital to crushing ISIS. On Wednesday, Turkey launched one of its biggest airstrikes in decades — bombing 18 positions in northern Syria and […]

Just over a week into the battle for Mosul, and the vast coalition seeking to oust ISIS from Iraq’s second city is making swifter than expected progress. But for all its gains — 78 villages liberated, and nearly 800 ISIS fighters killed as of Monday morning — the Iraqi coalition is encountering fierce resistance from […]

Iraqi forces shelled Islamic State (ISIS) positions outside Mosul on Monday as fighting to retake the extremist-held city entered its second week. A rights group, meanwhile, urged a probe into a suspected airstrike last week that mistakenly hit a mosque, killing over a dozen civilians. The purported airstrike in northern Iraq struck the women’s section […]

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s push for Iraq to let Turkey play a role in the Mosul battle encountered resistance Saturday from Iraq’s prime minister, who said his country’s forces will oust Islamic State of Iraq and Syrian militants from the northern city. “I know that the Turks want to participate, we tell them thank […]

The latest on developments in Iraq where Iraqi forces and their allies launched a major offensive this week to retake Mosul, the country’s second-largest city from the Islamic State group (all times local): 4:30 p.m. An Iraqi military spokesman says troops have repelled an attack by the Islamic State group on a western town, describing […]

You can’t keep your gun. Grenades, knives, bombs, other tools of war – you can’t keep those either. When you leave the military, no matter who you are or what you sacrificed, your boots are yours but your tools belong to the government. And it is that seemingly reasonable rule that caused Trevor Maroshek so […]