Russian, Syrian and Iranian military commanders have set up a coordination cell in Baghdad in recent days to try to begin working with Iranian-backed Shia militias fighting the Islamic State, Fox News has learned.
Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri dismissed Islamic State and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as illegitimate but said his followers would join them in fighting the Western-led coalition in Iraq and Syria if possible.
The Prime Minister of Iraq has established a committee that intends to identify and document the homes and properties that have been fraudulently or forcefully seized from his country’s Christians.
Despite persecution from Islamic terrorists, Christians in Iraq will not receive any support from the United States government.
The U.S. military and Iranian-backed Shiite militias are getting closer and closer in Iraq, even sharing a base, while Iran uses those militias to expand its influence in Iraq and fight alongside the Bashar al-Assad regime in neighboring Syria.
The United States is expected to announce on Wednesday plans for a new military base in Iraq’s Anbar province and the deployment of around 400 additional trainers to help Iraqi forces in the fight against Islamic State.
Islamic State militants staged attacks near Baghdad and the Libyan city of Surt on Tuesday, underscoring the group’s persistent strength on both fronts despite a monthslong American-led air campaign against it in Syria and Iraq.
The U.S. military said Sunday it launched airstrikes around Haditha Dam in western Iraq, targeting Islamic State insurgents there for the first time in a move to prevent the group from capturing the vital dam.
Iran has supplied weapons and ammunition to Iraqi Kurdish forces, Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani said on Tuesday at a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Arbil, capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region.
Iraq’s president named a new prime minister to end Nuri al-Maliki’s eight-year rule on Monday, but the veteran leader refused to go after deploying militias and special forces on the streets, creating a dangerous political showdown in Baghdad.
Iraq has effectively been split into three States, each representing ethnic factions, according to a former U.S. Ambassador.
Russia has begun supplying military helicopters and fighters jets to Iraq, a report said Thursday, as Iraq’s defense minister visited Moscow to press for equipment to thwart a jihadist offensive, AFP reported.
The U.S. military expects the Islamic State to target Baghdad International Airport in the next weeks, trying to cut off Iraq’s lifeline of military aid flowing to Iraq.
Saudi Arabia has sent 30,000 troops to reinforce its 500-mile-long border with Iraq against jihadists, the Telegraph reported.
The ‘Islamic State’ continued its assault on the Iraq’s Balad air force base, formerly known as Camp Anaconda, as U.S. does not expect F-16s to be supplied in Iraq until the fall.
The Iraqi parliament fails to elect a new prime minister as Sunnis and Kurds shun the parliament leading to concerns Iraq will break apart into sectarian regions. Meanwhile, the well-armed ‘Islamic State,’ which has captured enough U.S. made weapons for 200,000 soldiers, took another border town yesterday.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) declared the establishment of a “Caliphate” on Sunday announcing that its leader as the ruling “Caliph”, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were surrounding at least two major military bases in Northern Iraq while Iraq expects a shipment of Russian-made jets within a few days to “turn the tide” in the war.
The Shiite-Sunni sectarian war breaking out in Iraq is threatening a widespread regional war. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) is on the move as it threatens to cut off ‘supply routes to Baghdad.’ ISIS forces are within miles of the Haditha Dam, Iraq’s second largest dam, located on the Euphrates River. Meanwhile, Syria bombed ISIS targets inside of Iraq. The NY Times reported Iran is sending military aid including drones to Iraq. Those are just a few of the headlines we cover in today’s Full Coverage Report.
The High Commission for Human Rights in Iraq has confirmed that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant has begun imposing the jizya or poll tax on Christians in Mosul, according to the Assyrian International News Agency.