Is Iraqi Kurdistan heading toward civil war? By Denise Natali

The campaign against the Islamic State (IS) in Mosul has diverted attention from simmering problems inside the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that will affect post-conflict stabilization. Within the last several months alone, there has been another assassination of a Kurdish journalist, an "honor" killing of a university student, death threats against a female Kurdish parliamentari

Read More

How Rex Tillerson got his lesson on Iraq. By MATT DAILY *

A trip to Baghdad in 2013 offered the Exxon CEO a taste of the complicated Middle East politics he'll have to navigate if he becomes secretary of state. As CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, had to deal with the antagonism between Iraq's central government and the regional government in the Kurdish north In 2013, Re

Read More

Iraqi women join battle against Islamic State. By Adnan Abu Zeed *

BAGHDAD — Miad Jubouri, an Iraqi mother of five who joined the ranks of the Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State (IS), has been participating in the battle as part of the Lions of the Tigris faction for the past two years. In a patriotic and conservative Iraqi society, Jubouri’s fight alongside the male-dominated Iraqi security forces has caught the attention of both the com

Read More

International oil companies pull out of Kurdistan. By Dilshad Abdullah*

Dilshad Abdullah

ERBIL, Iraq — Exxon Mobil has pulled out of three of the six exploration blocks it operated in the Kurdistan Region. The American oil giant withdrew from Betwata, Arbat and Qara Hanjeer in Sulaimaniyah province, raising many questions about the sudden step. Hemen Hawrami, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party's foreign relations office, announced during a Dec. 26 press

Read More