Latest Articles about Iraq
From “Jihad of Open Fronts” to Lone Wolf Attacks—The Enduring Legacy of al-Qaeda’s Abu Musab al-Suri
The latest issue of al-Qaeda’s Inspire Magazine prominently featured a call for ‘lone wolf’ style attacks on Americans. This is the first time that al-Qaeda made a call for lone wolf-style jihadists to conduct attacks in the United States since 2017. The article praised attackers... MORE
Turkey Conducting Targeted Killings of PKK Leaders in Iraq: What’s Next?
Northern Iraq has long been a safe haven for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is a Kurdish militant group recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and European Union. The group has been waging an armed struggle in Turkey since 1984.... MORE
Iranian-Backed Iraqi Militias Deter Turkish Intervention in Sinjar
In February, indications of an incoming Turkish military operation targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Sinjar, northern Iraq led to a flurry of Iranian-backed militia activity targeting Turkey. Qais al-Khazali, leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), one of the most prominent Iranian-aligned militias in... MORE
Arrested and Released: A Profile of Iranian-Backed Militia Commander Qassim Musleh
On May 26, Iraqi security forces arrested Qassim Musleh, a prominent Shia militia leader. He is the commander of the strategically important western Iraq sector within the Iranian-backed militia umbrella organization, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). Authorities were not quick to provide media sources with... MORE
The Long Arm of Turkish Drones: A Post-Mortem Analysis of the Life and Times of Syrian Born PKK Leader Sofi Nureddin
Contemporary Turkish counterterrorism campaigns rest on sophisticated, close cooperation between the Turkish military and national intelligence with a pronounced use of drones. This was reflected in a recent operation, which targeted one of the top Syrian-Kurdish figures of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), Halef al-Muhammad,... MORE
Iraqi Prime Minister Walks Tightrope Between Shia Militias and the United States
One of the most critical issues in Iraq currently is the relationship between its Shia-led government and Iranian-backed Shia militias. This issue has been important for U.S. military strategy in the Middle East. The only two military actions ordered by President Joe Biden thus far... MORE
How Nordic Countries are Handling the Question of Repatriating Islamic State Women
As the self-styled Islamic State (IS) “caliphate” collapsed in March 2019, the international community was faced with the problem of more than 70,000 IS family members stranded in Syria. The Kurdish Peshmerga gathered these family members into camps in northeastern Syria. Currently, these camps still... MORE
Maximum Pressure: Turkey’s Anti-PKK Counter-Terrorism Campaigns in Northern Iraq
In late April, the Turkish military launched a large-scale cross-border counter-terrorism campaign into northern Iraq, targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and its network. The push into northern Iraq followed two main axes: Operation Claw-Lightning and Operation Claw-Thunderbolt (Pençe-Şimşek and Pençe-Yıldırım). Thus far, the counter-terrorism... MORE
Abu Walaa’s Islamic State Network and Germany’s Counter-Terrorism Prosecutions
A German court sentenced on February 24 the alleged “Islamic State leader of Germany” to a lengthy prison sentence. The trial against Salafist preacher Ahmad Abdelaziz Abdullah Abdullah, better known as Abu Walaa, lasted three-and-a-half-years and provides insights into radicalization and Islamic State (IS) recruitment... MORE
Death of Abu Yasser al-Issawi Unlikely to Affect Islamic State Operations in Iraq
On January 28, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced that the wali, or governor of Islamic State (IS) in Iraq, Abu Yasser al-Issawi, was killed during a security operation. Issawi was assassinated in the Wadi al-Shay valley in southern Kirkuk, an area known for an... MORE