Iraq – CounterVortex

Iran

Iranian Kurds deny receiving US weapons

Leaders of all the major Kurdish opposition parties in Iran denied that they have received weapons from the United States, after President Donald Trump said that Washington had sent arms to the Iranian protesters through the Kurds. “We sent guns to the protesters, a lot of them,” Trump told Fox News. “And I think the Kurds took the guns.” This was immediately refuted by leaders of the the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) and the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK). (Image: Middle East Forum via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East

Air-strikes target Iraqi paramilitary force

Air-strikes on an Iraqi military base killed seven and wounded 13, ramping up diplomatic tension between Baghdad and Washington. The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)—a network of militias that are officially part of Iraq’s military structure but including groups with strong links to Iran—said the US was responsible for the first strike on Habbaniyah airbase in Anbar province. Iraq’s Defense Ministry said the second strike hit a medical clinic on the base, which is shared with PMF units. (Image: Pixabay)

Iraq

US troops to remain at Iraq air base

A “small force” of US troops will remain at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad air base in order to fight ISIS, the Baghdad government announced. The decision reverses plans for a full withdrawal of US forces from the base. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said that a force of up to 350 Pentagon advisors and support personnel would stay at the base in western Iraq, as well as al-Harir base in Iraqi Kurdistan. The decision to allow the US troops to stay was made in response to “developments in Syria,” al-Sudani said. This presumably refers to the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, after the draw-down agreement between the US and Iraq was reached. (Photo: Spc. Timothy VanDusen/US Army via Task & Purpose)

Iraq

Iraq: mysterious drone strikes on Kurdistan oil-fields

Three days of drone attacks on oil-fields in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region have brought operations at several facilities to a halt and slashed crude output. The targeted sites include fields at Zakho, operated by Norway’s DNO; the Sarsang field, operated by US-based HKN Energy; and the Ain Sifni field, operated by Hunt Oil, all in Dohuk governorate. Kurdistan authorities also said a drone was downed near Erbil airport, which hosts US troops. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Kurdish authorities blamed the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units, a paramilitary network aligned with the Baghdad government and backed by Iran. The attacks come amid renewed dispute between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government over whether the KRG may enter into hydrocarbon contracts with foreign firms. In May, the central government filed a complaint against the KRG for signing gas contracts with two US companies, including HKN Energy, asserting that all oil and gas deals must go through Baghdad. (Map: UNHCR via ReliefWeb)

Greater Middle East

PKK resolves to dissolve at 12th Congress

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) held its 12th Congress in the Medya Defense Zones of northern Iraq, where delegates voted to dissolve the group’s organizational structure and end the armed struggle against the Turkish state that it has waged since 1984. The congress was convened in response to the “Call for Peace and a Democratic Society” issued in February by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been imprisoned in Turkey since 1999. The statement called for his followers to lay down arms and pursue a civil struggle for Kurdish rights. However, Turkey continued to carry our air-strikes on the Medya Defense Zones right up to the very eve of the congress, and even in the days after it concluded. Turkey has also continued its campaign of air-strikes on the Rojava region of northern Syria, where PKK-aligned Kurdish forces have established an autonomous zone. (Image of PKK flag: Wikipedia)

Greater Middle East

Trump launches air-strikes on Yemen, Iraq

President Donald Trump ordered a series of air-strikes on Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, promising to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthi rebels cease their attacks on shipping along a vital maritime corridor. Houthi authorities said 13 civilians were killed in the strikes. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who control the capital, have said they will resume attacks on ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s renewed blockade on aid to Gaza. Following the January Hamas-Israel ceasefire, the Houthis had paused their campaign of attacks on shipping, which they depict as a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians (although many targets are not linked to Israel). Days before the strikes on Sanaa, a US air-raid in Iraq’s Anbar province reportedly killed Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, the second-highest ranking ISIS leader. (Photo: CENTCOM)

Greater Middle East

Turkey strikes Syria, Iraq after Ankara attack

Turkey launched air-strikes on supposed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) targets in Syria’s Rojava autonomous enclave and Iraq’s Kurdistan region in retaliation for an attack on the headquarters of a defense contractor in Ankara. Five were killed and two attackers reported “neutralized” in the explosion and armed assault at the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) facility in Ankara’s Kahramankazan district. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkish authorities quickly blamed the PKK. Strikes were reported on the Rojava towns of Qamishli, Derik, Kobane, Tal Rifaat, and Manbij. Rojava’s autonomous authorities said that at least four civilians were killed, including a five-year-old child, and 15 people injured. (Image: Pixabay)

Greater Middle East

Regional war looms closer after Golan rocket strike

Israeli warplanes hit several targets in southern Lebanon, as diplomats worked frantically to prevent a regional war after a rocket strike that killed 12 youths in the Golan Heights. Israel is blaming Hezbollah for the rocket, which struck a football field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams. Hezbollah has denied responsibility, asserting that a projectile from Israel’s own Iron Dome missile defense system hit the village amid strikes on military targets elsewhere in the area by the Iran-backed Lebanese armed organization. Israel and Hezbollah have been trading strikes over the Lebanese border since Oct. 8, a day after the start of the war in Gaza. Israel has killed 527 people in Lebanon since then, according to an AFP tally, including at least 104 civilians. Israel says 23 of its civilians and 17 soldiers have been killed by Hezbollah rocket-fire over this period. (Image: Pixabay)

Watching the Shadows

From Baghdad to Bialystok —to Pico-Robertson

In Episode 232 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the politics of the ugly dust-up between pro-Palestinian protesters and local Jewish residents in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pico-Robertson—and notes the anniversary of June 1941 anti-Jewish pogroms in Bialystok, Poland, and Baghdad, Iraq. Propagandistic and distorted portrayals of the LA protest as mere arbitrary anti-Semitism ignore the fact that the targeted synagogue was hosting a real estate event promoting sale of lands to create “Anglo neighborhoods” in Israel, and probably in the occupied West Bank (which would be a clear violation of international law). On the other hand, insensitivity to (or ignorance of) the historical context(and contemporary context) that makes an angry protest outside a synagogue an inevitably problematic “optic” only abets the propaganda. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: The Great Synagogue of Bialystok before it was destroyed by the Nazis in 1941. Via Jewish Historical Institute)

Iraq

Iraq: harsh backlash hits sexual, cultural dissidents

Iraq’s parliament has passed a law criminalizing same-sex relations, with a punishment of 10 to 15 years in prison. An earlier draft of the law had proposed the death penalty. The new law also includes prison terms for those who “promote homosexuality” or “intentionally” act “effeminate.” Just as the law was being passed, Iraqi TikTok star Om Fahad was shot dead outside her home in Baghdad. Om Fahad, whose real name was Ghufran Sawadi, won nearly half a million followers for sharing videos of herself dancing to pop music. In February 2023, she had been sentenced to six months in prison after a court found that her videos contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality.” (Image via Instagram)

Greater Middle East

Podcast: Iraq, Palestine, escalation and errata

In Episode 212 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes stock of the latest escalation in the Middle East—and continues to note discrepancies in the reportage. US air-strikes on Iraq are said to have targeted the self-declared Islamic Resistance in Iraq, and its constituent militias such as Kataib Hezbollah. But some reports indicate the actual target has often been the Popular Mobilization Forces, a paramilitary network integrated into Iraq’s official security services. Meanwhile, insufficiently noted media accounts report “no evidence” to back up Israeli claims of Hamas co-optation of UNWRA, which has led to a devastating cut-off of funds to the UN agency by the Western powers. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image: Pixabay)

Greater Middle East

Neither US imperialism nor Islamic Republic

In Episode 211 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg takes stock of the potential for escalation to world war as Joe Biden retaliates for a deadly drone strike on US forces by an Iran-backed militia with air raids on 85 targets in Iraq and Syria. The same militias that have been attacking US forces in Iraq and Syria have also brutally repressed protesters in Iraq, and fought for the genocidal Bashar Assad regime in Syria. Tehran’s paramilitary network has also carried out deadly repression of protests within Iran itself. The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, now also coming under US bombardment, are responsible for war crimes against the Yemeni people and repression of their popular movements. It is necessary to oppose Biden’s widening of air-strikes against Iran’s paramilitaries, but also to oppose the Islamic Republic, equally a force of regional reaction. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Photo: London rally in solidarity with Iranian protesters, October 2022. Credit: Sinai Noor via Wikimedia Commons)