Iraq
Kurdish diva wages culture war on ISIS
Kurdish-American pop singer Helly Luv is facing death threats from ISIS after travelling to the frontline in northern Iraq to produce a music video cheering on the Peshmerga.
Author: Bill Weinberg
Iraq
Syria war toll passes quarter million
Nearly a quarter of a million people have died in Syria's war since March 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights—over a third civilians.
Greater Middle East
Turkey slips toward internal war
As Turkey continues to bomb Kurdish anti-ISIS fighters in Iraq, violence is quickly spreading within Turkey itself—with bombings and armed clashes from Istanbul to the Kurdish east.
Planet Watch
Four Corners haze: harbinger of climate change
Federal authoriites approved an expansion of coal-mining and burning in the Four Corners area—as NASA has detected a massive methane plume over the region.
Iraq
PKK-aligned Yazidi militia battles ISIS
Young Yazidis—including women—are returning to Iraq's Mount Sinjar from which they were "cleansed" by ISIS last year, fighting to reclaim their homeland from the jihadists.
Planet Watch
Obama pursues nuclear ‘modernization’ —not disarmament
Despite early pledges to seek a nuclear-free world, Obama is launching a "modernization" of the US arsenal that actually makes atomic war more likely.
Iraq
Turkey continues to bomb anti-ISIS forces
The US and Turkey have reached an agreement to keep Kurdish forces out of the northern Syria "buffer zone" as Ankara expands its air-strikes in both Syria and Iraq.
North Africa
‘Narco-jihadist’ threat seen in North Africa
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and related networks are said to control Saharan smuggling routes for Moroccan hashish to fund their regional operations.
Iraq
US betrays Rojava Kurds (inevitably)
Washington has given Turkey a green light to crush the revolutionary Kurds—in Turkey, Syria and Iraq alike—as the price of Ankara's cooperation against ISIS.
Iraq
Turkey launches Syria intervention
With US support, Turkey is moving to seize its "buffer zone" in Syria—ostensibly against ISIS but actually against the Kurdish forces that have been the most effective against ISIS.
Greater Middle East
Turkey in new crackdown on ISIS —and PKK
As Turkey opens Incirlik Air Base to US warplanes, it has launched sweeps against supporters of both ISIS and their enemies in the PKK and allied leftist forces.
Greater Middle East
North Korean troops fight in Syria?
Pro-opposition sources in Syria say a force of North Korean soldiers has arrived in Damascus, and been mobilized to the rebel-controlled suburbs of Ghouta district.