Iraq
US prepares ground troops for Syria
The Pentagon is dispatching some 2,500 combat troops to back up forces fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, as the US-led anti-ISIS coalition continues to fracture.
Tag: Yazidis
Iraq
Iraq: protest Kurdish detention of Yazidi woman
Amnesty International is demanding that Iraq's Kurdish authorities immediately release a Yazidi woman who has been held for nearly two years after surviving ISIS captivity.
Iraq
UN: ISIS genocide continues in northern Iraq
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that ongoing human rights violations against the Yazidi minority in Iraq at the hands of ISIS may amount to genocide.
Iraq
Demand war crimes trial for ISIS leaders
Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi and Kurdish Regional Government authorities to prosecute ISIS fighters for war crimes against the Yazidi minority.
Iraq
Syria: Kurdish feminist leads anti-ISIS offensive
Rojda Felat, a Kurdish revolutionary feminist, is leading the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces' offensive on Raqqa, capital of the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate.
Greater Middle East
Syrian Kurds declare autonomy —at what price?
Kurds officially declared their own "Federation of Northern Syria"—to be swiftly denounced by the Assad regime, the opposition and regional powers alike.
Iraq
Chemical attacks on Kurds —in Iraq and Syria
Peshmerga forces in Iraq say ISIS repeatedly used chemical agents in recent attacks, while Syrian Kurdish militia accused Islamist factions of a chemical attack in Aleppo.
Iraq
Iraq: Yazidi women take up arms against ISIS
Hundreds of Yazidi women who escaped from ISIS sex slavery have formed an all-female battalion to join an assault against their former abusers in northern Iraq.
Iraq
Iraq: mass graves disturbed, HRW says
Mass graves at liberated Mount Sinjar are being disturbed, threatening critical evidence in proving possible genocide committed against the Yazidis, according to Human Rights Watch.
Iraq
‘Staggering’ civilian death toll in Iraq: UN report
A UN report details severe impacts on civilians from the ongoing conflict in Iraq, with 19,000 non-combatants killed last year, 3.2 million displaced, and an estimated 3,500 held in slavery.
Greater Middle East
Turkish pot calls Russian kettle black…
Turkey's prime minister accuses Russia of "ethnic cleansing" with air-strikes targeting Turkmen in Syria—as Ankara continues to attack Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq alike.
Iraq
Barzani bows to Turkish incursion, PKK betrayed
Kurdish strongman Masoud Barzani has invited a Turkish military force into his territory, with the apparent aim of driving the PKK from northern Iraq.