Kurds

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ISIS Tunnels Found Under Iraqi City

Video footage shows extensive network beneath Sinjar

(Newser) - Video newly obtained by the AP sheds light on ISIS strategy under the Iraqi town of Sinjar: Militants from the Islamic State built a network of tunnels, complete with sleeping quarters, electricity, boxes of US-made ammunition, antibiotics, and sandbag fortifications. The video footage of the tunnels was uncovered by Kurdish...

US Soldier Killed in Raid That Freed ISIS Hostages

US, Kurdish commandos freed 70 from prison in Iraq: reports

(Newser) - An American soldier was killed and 70 hostages held by ISIS were freed in an overnight raid on an Iraq prison by US and Kurdish commandos, a Defense Department spokesman tells CBS News . Iraqi officials—who noted that the raid near the northern town of Hawija included a combination of...

Foreign Policy Questions Trip Up Trump

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt put Trump on the spot about terrorist groups

(Newser) - Donald Trump may have spent last night on Wikipedia after what the Washington Post describes as "some uncomfortable moments" during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt yesterday. Touching upon foreign policy with the presidential candidate who's said he would be "so tough" on ISIS, Hewitt...

What Happened in Turkey Yesterday: Stunning, 'Nuclear'

Liberal pro-Kurdish party will have seats in Parliament for first time

(Newser) - "This is a nuclear explosion" is how an expert on Turkey puts it to the Washington Post . The country's ruling party today finds itself with few options to form a new government after it was stripped of its parliamentary majority and opposition parties ruled out joining it in...

UN: ISIS Atrocities Loom in Besieged Border Town

World must act now to save Kobani, envoy warns

(Newser) - The world has seen the "massacres, humanitarian tragedies, rapes, horrific violence," and other atrocities that unfold when ISIS seizes a town—and it needs to act now to stop the same happening in the Syrian border city of Kobani , a UN official warns. The UN special envoy for...

Fears Mount That Key Border Town Will Fall to ISIS

Turkey's president says as much

(Newser) - The Syrian border city of Kobani continues to grab headlines today, with reports placing ISIS closer than ever to the heart of the city, which remains in Kurdish hands. The Wall Street Journal reports that ISIS yesterday managed to raise two of its black flags in the city's outskirts....

Hitting ISIS From the Air Isn't Working, Say Kurds

While on the ground, data suggests ISIS is getting ammunition from US, its allies

(Newser) - The start of a new week brings not much in the way of encouraging ISIS news. The latest:
  • The news: Kurdish fighters battling ISIS in northern Syria say the airstrikes aimed at the militants there haven't done much to stop the group's advance on Kobani. Kurds put ISIS'
...

Oil Tanker 'Vanishes' With $100M Cargo

Kurdish ship carries crude that may legally belong to Iraq

(Newser) - The US Coast Guard has lost track of a Kurdish tanker carrying $100 million in disputed oil off the coast of Texas, the Independent reports. Headed for Galveston, the United Kalavyrvta was anchored at least 60 miles off-shore when it vanished from radar screens. The ship's haul fell under...

US Strikes Iraq With Land-Based Bombers

President Obama updates Congress with a letter

(Newser) - The US has expanded its air campaign in Iraq with attacks aimed at helping Iraqi forces regain control of the strategic Mosul dam. The White House said President Obama notified Congress today that the widened mission would be limited in duration and scope. The administration's letter to Congress said...

Thousands of Iraqis Trapped on Mountain by Extremists

Yazidis running out of water, face beheadings by militants if they descend

(Newser) - The Islamic State regards Iraq's Yazidi minority as devil worshippers, so when militants captured the village of Sinjar this weekend, 60-year-old Yazidi farmer Kareem Sido fled to the mountains with thousands of others. What he found there were people dying of thirst in conditions so dire that he risked...

Every Iraqi Urged to Pick Up a Weapon

Iraq's top cleric says 'everyone who can' must fight

(Newser) - Iraq's top Shiite cleric issued a statement during Friday prayers today, calling on everyone—Shiite and Sunni alike—to fight back against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the New York Times reports. It is "the legal and national responsibility of whoever can hold a weapon, to...

20K Syrian Refugees Flood Iraq in 4 Days

10K came yesterday alone

(Newser) - Here's some perspective on the 2,000 Syrian refugees the US has agreed to take in : since Thursday, 20,000 Syrian refugees have fled across the border into Iraqi Kurdistan—10,000 of them yesterday alone. The UNHCR doesn't know why the sudden exodus has occurred this weekend...

Syria &#39;Now 3 Countries&#39;
 Syria Is 'Now 3 Countries' 
Aug 5, 2013 12:32 AM CDT

Syria Is 'Now 3 Countries'

'As a distinct single entity, Syria has ceased to exist,' analysts say

(Newser) - As Syria's bloody civil war grinds on, the country is now split into three parts—each boasting its own flags, security agencies, and judicial system—and the longer the conflict lasts, analysts say, the more difficult it will be to piece together a coherent Syrian state from the wreckage....

Russia Sends Syria Ships— and 'Ship Killers'

Moves seem designed to ward off international military intervention

(Newser) - Russia is reportedly sending military aid to Syria that seems designed to counter any attempt at military intervention from the US or other Western countries. US officials tell the New York Times that Russia has sent the regime new, radar-equipped anti-ship cruise missiles, weapons that could fend off an international...

Kurdish Rebel Leader Declares Ceasefire

From jail, Abdullah Ocalan calls for peace

(Newser) - In what he'd promised would be a "historic" pronouncement, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) called for a full ceasefire today, urging the PKK's armed factions to withdraw from Turkey. Massive crowds gathered in Diyarbakir, Turkey's largest predominantly Kurdish city, to hear...

Apparent Execution in Paris as 3 Kurd Activists Shot

One victim is top militant Sakine Cansiz

(Newser) - Three Kurdish women were found dead at a Paris pro-Kurdish center early today, and France's interior minister is calling it an execution. The three activists were shot; local media reported they were shot in the head, but police would not confirm that, the AP reports. One of the victims...

Turkey Puts 44 Reporters on Trial; 900 to Go

Kurdish journalists face charges of 'terrorism'

(Newser) - Turkey put 44 Kurdish journalists on trial today, accusing them of fomenting armed rebellion against the state—possibly the first of many trials against more than 900 indicted reporters, the Guardian reports. Officials say today's defendants are terrorists, yet some are accused of writing articles about prison abuse, war...

Lawmaker's Kidnapping Roils Turkey

Huseyin Aygun is first lawmaker to be taken by Kurdish rebels

(Newser) - Turkish troops launched a search yesterday for a lawmaker kidnapped by Kurdish rebels near the eastern city of Tunceli, authorities and the lawmaker's party said. Huseyin Aygun, from the main opposition Republican People's Party, was abducted last night at a roadblock between the town of Ovacik and Tunceli;...

Syria Showdown: Regime Descends on Aleppo, Damascus

Syrian forces pulling out of country to retake biggest 2 cities

(Newser) - Heavy shelling was reported today in Aleppo and Damascus, as government forces and rebels both gear up for a major showdown, reports Reuters . The Syrian military is sending convoys of tanks, troop carriers, and other hardware to the vital central cities, leaving rebels in control of much of the countryside....

Turkey Kills 35 Civilians in Attempted Hit on Rebels

Kurdish officials claim the dead were actually teen cigarette smugglers

(Newser) - Turkey's air force attacked suspected Kurdish rebel targets across the border in Iraq, but the roughly 35 people killed were teenage smugglers mistaken for guerrillas. A ruling party spokesman said today the victims "were not terrorists," but people smuggling cigarettes into Turkey from Iraq. He added that...

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