Iraq
Iraq: Yazidis resist ISIS; Turkmen threatened
A Yazidi militia is fighting alongside Peshmerga to re-take Sinjar from ISIS, while the UN's Iraq envoy warned of an imminent massacre of Turkmen at ISIS-besieged Amerli.
Author: CounterVortex
One Year of Breathing Death
Aug. 21 marked the one-year anniversary of the chemical weapon attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, found by international investigations to have been the work of the Bashar Assad regime. The Syrian diaspora around the world held protests and… Read moreOne Year of Breathing Death
Greater Middle East
One year later, Syrians recall chemical massacre
Opposition activists say they have confirmed 27 cases of chemical gas use in Syria since the UN passed UNSCR 2118, calling for destruction of all chemical weapons in the country.
Iraq
Iraq: Shi’ite militia blamed in mosque massacre
Up to 70 were massacred during prayers at a Sunni mosque in Iraq's Diyala governorate—apparently by a Shi'ite militia seeking retribution for a bomb attack on their forces.
Greater Middle East
Turkey: clashes over monument to PKK leader
Tens of thousands joined the funeral for a youth killed by Turkish troops who attacked local Kurds trying to protect a statue of PKK guerrilla leader Mahsum Korkmaz near Diyarbakır.
North Africa
Libya: who bombed Tripoli?
Unidentified warplanes carried out air-strikes on targets controlled by Islamist militias in Tripoli. Libya said the planes were foreign, but the US, Italy and France denied involvement.
The Caribbean
Aruba frees wanted Venezuelan ‘narco-general’
Gen.Hugo Carvajal, a top Venezuelan official wanted in the US on drug trafficking charges, was arrested in Aruba—but freed by the courts before he could be extradited.
Iraq
Iraq: atrocities mount against Yazidis
ISIS released a video showing the forced mass "conversion" of hundreds of captive Yazidis. Some 90,000 displaced Yazidis now face horrific conditions, without even rudimentary shelter.
Iraq
Iraq: ISIS sells Yazidi women; Iran intervenes?
Kurdish parliament leaders charged that ISIS is selling abducted Yazidi women in Mosul, and that an Iranian Quds force has intervened against ISIS—with US connivance.
Iraq
ISIS massacres in Syria; Assad to aid Kurds?
ISIS fighters are accused of executing some 700 tribesmen who rose against them in eastern Syria, as Bashar Assad said he is ready to back Kurdish forces against the jihadis.
Iraq
Iraq: Yazidis stand and fight; Baghdad worries
A Yazidi militia group has entered the fight against ISIS, clashing with militants near Sinjar—while Baghdad's army command objected to foreign military aid to Kurdish forces.
Iraq
New massacres in Iraq; Hezbollah joins the fray
ISIS fighters carried out a massacre of Yazidis at an occupied village, while Hezbollah militiamen are accused in a massacre of Sunni Arab residents in central Iraq.