Contents: Mattis and Tillerson work to prevent Iraq vs Kurd military confrontation in Kirkuk; ISIS fighters permitted to leave Raqqa, Syria, with human shields; Syria demands ‘immediately’ pullout of Turkey’s forces from Idlib province
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which voted to secede from Iraq last month, warned on Twitter Wednesday that Erbil had intelligence that the government in Baghdad was planning a “major attack” on its military, the Peshmerga, in the disputed region of Kirkuk.
WASHINGTON — The United States warned that an independence referendum Monday for Iraqi Kurdistan to break away from Baghdad will “increase instability.”
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey warned Wednesday that plans by the leadership in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region to hold a referendum on independence could lead to civil war, in Ankara’s strongest warning yet against next month’s poll.
Some activists claim northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region is removing members of the Yazidi minority group for joining the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) or publicly opposing the upcoming independence referendum.
Kurdish officials are hitting back against Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has expressed “strong opposition” to a September referendum on establishing an independent Kurdistan in what is now Iraq.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the upcoming referendum on Kurdish independence on Iraq “wrong” and “a threat to the territorial integrity of Iraq,” despite his country’s friendly ties with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The Baghdad-sanctioned Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a predominantly Shiite paramilitary group backed by Iran, has pushed out the U.S.-designated terrorist group known as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from areas south of the Yazidi-majority Sinjar region in northern Iraq.
The prime minister of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq described his recent visit to Russia as “an opportunity to expand the relationship” with the Kremlin “in all fields, including energy, economic and political sectors.”
The autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq will likely become an independent state after the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is defeated in the country, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) told lawmakers.
Six armed Iraqi Kurdish parties have reportedly joined forces in advance of expected protests and clashes on Iranian soil on March 21, the Kurdish New Year known as Newroz.
A group affiliated with a predominantly Shiite paramilitary force backed by Iran and legally operating as a component of the Iraqi military has reportedly bombed Kurdish Peshmerga positions in northern Iraq’s Sinjar region, Rudaw reports.
The United States is expected to build its biggest consulate building in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq that has been pushing for independence.
Fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), an Iraqi state-sponsored umbrella organization of mostly Iran-allied Shiite militias, have established a presence in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region with the ultimate purpose of erecting a base there, Rudaw has learned from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group the United States and other NATO allies designated a terrorist organization, claims its fighters will only leave Sinjar, Iraq, once it goes back to the control of the Yazidis, a minority group that calls the area its home.
Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said in no uncertain terms that his government would consider deploying its Peshmerga soldiers against members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who have refused to leave Iraq’s northern Sinjar region.
Various officials from the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq have reportedly congratulated Republican Donald Trump for his U.S. presidential election victory, noting that they hope he will boost American support for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and its Peshmerga troops.
Members of the Yazidi minority community in northern Iraq, targeted for genocide and sexual slavery at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), feel abandoned by humanitarian groups and governments that have shifted their attention to the growing number of displaced persons escaping the Iraqi city of Mosul, reports Rudaw.
Authorities from the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq have reportedly forced about 250 displaced Sunni Arab families to leave Kirkuk after Sunni sleeper cells were accused of helping Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists carry out an attack in the Kurdish-controlled city.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter is expected to visit Turkey Friday, a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unleashed a scathing critique of the ongoing efforts by the U.S.-led coalition to push the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) out of Iraq, demanding a bigger role for Turkish troops.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — American troops, including some who are embedded with advancing forces, are “in harm’s way” as they collaborate with troops from Iraq, the Kurdish Peshmerga, and Iran-linked Shiite militias in the fight to retake Mosul from the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), according to the Pentagon.
Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists are “dead set” on using chemical weapons and are likely to try to use them in an attack as U.S.-backed Iraqi troops advance on Mosul, which is considered the terrorist group’s last major stronghold in Iraq, warned the Pentagon.
The highest-ranking military officer in the U.S. confirmed that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) used a potentially deadly “sulfur-mustard blister agent” to target a base in northern Iraq that houses American troops. This marks the first recorded chemical attack on the United States since the jihadist group conquered swaths of Iraq in 2014.
Turkey is seeking a greater role in fighting the Islamic State in Syria, even hoping to collaborate with the U.S. military to liberate Raqqa, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The declaration has alarmed Russia, which is expressing “concern” at an expansion of Turkey’s military action in the region.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has decided to assume control over all the schools in its jurisdiction linked to the religious movement led by imam Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkish President Recep Erdogan blames for the failed coup attempt against him.
The co-leader of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which controls large swathes of northern Syria, has solicited help from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq.
Fighting between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and rebels affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) has reportedly erupted near the border with Iraq.
The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has stepped up its chemical attacks against Peshmerga fighters of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, a top commander of the Kurdish force told Breitbart News.
The Rudaw news service reports that provincial authorities in Erbil expect up to 900,000 refugees to flee the war zones of Fallujah and Mosul into Iraqi Kurdistan, but the central government in Baghdad has been slow to coordinate with the Kurds.
Turkish warplanes have renewed airstrikes against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq, Reuters has learned from military sources.
Displaced members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority group are being forced to live in abandoned buildings due to overcrowded refugee camps, reports Quartz.
Some Yezidis, echoing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), tell Breitbart News that the damage to the infrastructure in Iraq’s Sinjar district and the threat that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) still poses to the region prevents them from returning home.
President Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq echoed Turkey’s position and said the terrorist group known as the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and the U.S.-backed Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria “are exactly one and the same thing.”
The Obama administration is contemplating providing an emergency aid package to the cash-strapped Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq because it has been unable to pay its Peshmerga force, which has received military assistance from Russia.
According to an eyewitness in Northern Iraq, Islamic State jihadists used chemical weapons against the Kurdish Peshmerga this week. Dave Eubanks with the Free Burma Rangers witnessed the use of chemical weapons by the terror group during a current relief mission in Iraqi Kurdistan, where he is helping internally displaced persons (IDP) and doing medical treatment and training.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Peshmerga forces have rejected a recent report by human rights NGO Amnesty International, accusing them of burning and destroying Arab homes in northern Iraq, as baseless, Rudaw reports.
The brother of Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), claims Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani turned down two opportunities to meet with the Kurdish guerrilla chief while visiting Ankara, Turkey to discuss the fight against the Islamic State.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, based in northeastern Erbil, has requested the Russian government keep its fighter jets out of its airspace when conducting missions against enemies of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Iraq.
A Russian soldier crossed Istanbul’s Bosporus aboard a warship, waving around a surface-to-air missile launcher, an action the Turkish government condemned and has branded “provocative.”
Heavy weapons from the United States destined for Iraq’s Kurdish peshmerga forces fighting the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) have arrived in Kuwait and are expected to be delivered in a month, a senior peshmerga official told Rudaw.
