By Ahmed Ali and Nichole Dicharry, Institute for the Study of War Iraq Updates (IWS) Key Takeaway: The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs) which include Iraqi Shi'a militias are continuing to challenge the presence and positions of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in the Baiji area north of Tikrit in northern Iraq. The ISF and PMUs ha
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Key Takeaway: The deployment of Iraqi Shi'a militias to Anbar province to support anti-ISIS Iraqi Sunni tribes in combating ISIS is a unique and important dynamic that underscores the desperate need of anti-ISIS Anbari tribes for support. The acceptance of militia presence in the Sunni heartland was almost certainly the result of the recent increase of targeting of Albu Nimr
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Key Takeaway: ISF and Iraqi Shia militias continued the operation to retake Baiji district from ISIS. Meanwhile, ISIS increased its VBIED attacks in Baghdad as Shia commemorate the holy month of Muharram with gatherings in the open that make them vulnerable. Baiji is located just south of Hawija district of southwestern Kirkuk province, an area where ISIS and other armed
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Key Takeaway: Tribal dynamics in Anbar are evolving as ISIS pursues its Euphrates offensive. ISIS is targeting members of the Albu Nimr tribe in Hit district in retaliation for their anti-ISIS stance. This targeting has ranged from the execution of anti-ISIS male members of the tribe to the displacement of large numbers of families from the district, creating a humanitarian cr
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Little by little, oil exports via Turkey from Iraq's semiautonomous northern region of Kurdistan are rising, transforming the parameters of the eight-year oil dispute between the federal authorities and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil. Baghdad's legal case against the KRG continues to deter almost all buyers of Kurdish pipeline crude, but thanks to clandesti
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