Mosul

by Patrick Cockburn Published in www.counterpunch.org/ The battle for Mosul is a ferocious struggle that has now been going on for 256 days, or two months...

The Mosul’s centuries-old al-Nuri Grand Mosque and its distinctive leaning minaret, one of Iraq’s most famous landmarks, was destroyed Wenseday. Iraqi military blamed ISIS for...

Up to 500,000 People Fled Mosul Since Beginning of Military Operation   Up to 500,000 people have fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul since the government troops launched...

US accused of war crimes in air strikes on Iraqi city of Mosul By Bill Van Auken   Amnesty International issued a report Tuesday charging the...

The leaders who denounced Putin for deadly airstrikes in Syria are not speaking out over the siege of the Iraqi city America and the...

By Mehmet Bildik Original post date: 25 January 2017 Before World War I , Britain had enjoyed almost a century of unparalleled peace and prosperity. Despite rapid...

After having left Syria, Bartlett took part in a press conference organized by the Syrian mission to the United Nations. After giving a brief statement about what she has observed in Syria and how she is aware firsthand of the Western media’s deception in terms of coverage of the crisis, she was questioned by a Norwegian journalist, Christopher Rothenberg, who challenged her claims that the Western media was lying.

54,000 Iraqi troops and 5,000 US servicemen supported by 90 warplanes and 150 heavy artillery pieces - were invested in the Mosul campaign when it was launched in October. They proved unable to beat 9,000 jihadists. Aware of the crisis on the Mosul front, the Pentagon has drawn up plans for sending out US reinforcements in the hope of turning the tide of the stalled battle.

Cavusoglu insisted that invading Iraq is Turkey’s “most natural right.” Turkey presently has about 500 troops in Iraq, which they’ve had for around a year. The Iraqi government has repeatedly demanded Turkey withdraw, but Turkish officials have insisted they will stay and participate in the war against ISIS.

If the anti-Isis forces ultimately succeed in recapturing Mosul it will be the fifth time the city has changed hands in the course of 13 years of war. The first time was in April 2003 when the Iraqi army was breaking up and surrendering and the Kurdish Peshmerga burst into the city. There was looting on a mass scale which the Arabs blamed on the Kurds and vice versa, but in fact both took part. I saw crowds ransack the governor’s mansion, the Central Bank and the university.