Iran
Kurdish factions clash on Iranian border
After weeks of tense stand-off, clashes broke out on the Iran-Iraq border between the PKK and Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), aligned with Mahmoud Barzani.
Tag: Kurdistan
Greater Middle East
Syria: Kurdish-Assyrian alliance against ISIS
Kurdish forces of the People's Protection Units (YPG) have formed an alliance with the Assyrian Military Council to fight ISIS for control of northeast Syria's Hassakeh governorate.
Iraq
ISIS franchise: Nigeria to Yemen to Pakistan
Over the past two months, the ISIS international franchise has made gains from West Africa to the Indian subcontinent, with militants in several countries proclaiming for the "caliphate."
Greater Middle East
PKK announces deal with Turkish state
Turkey and the Kurdish rebel movement announced a landmark political deal that calls for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to lay down arms and join the civil political process.
Iraq
Cultural legacy lost as ISIS torches Mosul library
Many rare and antique volumes were lost as ISIS forces put the Mosul library to the torch—over vociferous pleas and protests from the city's notables.
Iran
Iran executes Kurdish juvenile offender
Iran executed Saman Naseem, follower of a secular Kurdish dissident group who was 17 years old when he was sentenced to death for "enmity against God."
Greater Middle East
Turkish troops in Kobani incursion
Turkish forces crossed into Syria, officially to relocate an Ottoman historic site that had been threatened by ISIS—but also to intimidate the autonomist Kurds in control of the region?
Greater Middle East
ISIS and the neocons: fearful symmetry?
The map that ISIS has drawn up of its proposed "caliphate" has internal borders closely mirroring the new borders that neocons seek to impose on the Middle East.
Iraq
Kurdish forces advance towards ISIS capital
Kurdish and allied Free Syrian Army forces, backed by US air-strikes, have advanced into Raqqa governorate, where ISIS has its de facto capital at the provincial seat.
Greater Middle East
Kurdish forces drive ISIS back from Kobani
Kurdish forces continue to drive ISIS back from Kobani, and have retaken more than 100 villages from the jihadists since pushing the last of them out of the urban center.
Iraq
ISIS and atrocity pornography: politics of horror
The ISIS immolation video reveals a totalitarian cult, but Jordan and other regimes in the anti-ISIS coalition are also despotic—while Syria's pro-democratic forces are betrayed.
Greater Middle East
ISIS burns cannabis, snorts coke?
As ISIS burns the cannabis fields of northern Syria, Kurdish fighters at Kobani claim that ISIS forces besieging the town are snorting cocaine to keep their spirits up.