Over the past few weeks, there has been a rash of attacks on medical professionals in Baghdad. It has caused protests, debate, bad memories and more than a few doctors to consider leaving the country. The article below is re-posted from the Niqash website.
by Mustafa Habib
Last...
Blog archive: Iraq
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6th August 2017
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20th February 2017Last Friday Iraqi police jubilantly announced they had arrested an ISIS terror suspect disguised as a woman. In the eyes of the police this was an example of the trickery ISIS employs to in order to carry out its attacks. But the suspect, detained at a checkpoint in Karbala province,...
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29th January 2017Donald Trump ended his first week as president by signing an executive order that means citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen will not be allowed to enter the United States. Although the travel ban is one of a series of measures aimed – according to Trump – at "...
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20th January 2017The volunteer militias formed to fight the Islamic State group are now policing Baghdad’s neighbourhoods. But as they do, they compete with the real police, ignore the real laws and often act more like a mafia. By Mustafa Habib in Baghdad (reposted from niqash.org) In Baghdad, Jafar al-...
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13th January 2017The border between Iraq and Syria is 600 km long – and porous. As ISIS is gradually driven back in Iraq, this raises the question of how to prevent militants from returning via Syria. Securing the border is no simple matter and, as Mustafa Habib explains in the article below, it's an area where...
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9th July 2016Iraq’s law on how local parties are funded and founded has the potential to change the political landscape for better. But various parts of the new act seem to contradict one another. It is less than a year before Iraq holds the next round of significant elections; the provincial elections,...
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16th March 2016Fighting for Fallujah against the Islamic State has been going on for months. Why is it taking so long? Politics, popular sentiment and muddy farming roads are all part of the answer. By Mustafa Habib in Baghdad, via Niqash For several months now, soldiers from the Iraqi army’s First...
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28th December 2015Documents reportedly captured from the Islamic State and circulated by the US government include what appears to be an official fatwa authorising the killing of "apostates" for food or organ transplants. According to a US government translation, IS's Research and Fatwa Committee was asked to...
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23rd December 2015The royal families of the Gulf have long had a passion for hunting with falcons in wild and sometimes dangerous places. In recent times, the decline or extinction of suitable prey in their home countries coupled, perhaps, with a hankering for excitement, has led them to places that are...
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21st December 2015One of the photos posted from Iraq by Nayef bin Eid Mohammed Al Thani a few days before he and his Qatari companions were kidnapped Arabic media reports suggest the nine Qatari royals kidnapped in Iraq last week are being held by Iranian-linked Shia elements whose demands are political and...
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1st May 2015Almost a month since the Islamic State group was expelled from Tikrit, the city is a graffiti-covered ghost town ruled by opposing groups of gunmen, none of whom trust one another. By Mustafa Habib in Tikrit, via Niqash In Basha Street in the centre of the Iraqi city of Tikrit,...
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5th December 2014Last week ISIS announced the shutdown of almost all mobile phone services in the Iraqi city of Mosul. The move is certainly not winning friends for the Islamist militants who control the city: it's causing enormous disruption for businesses and individuals as well as depriving...
