Iraq

Bombs Over Erbil
The murky militia that took responsibility for Monday’s attack in Iraq issued a statement claiming that it “only targets the American, Turkish, and Israeli occupation bases.” Though many armed groups and others in the country have, for more than a decade, demanded an end to the “American-Israeli occupation,” the addition of “Turkish” is significant.

Inglourious Basterds of Mosul
It took five hours to watch the 101-minute Netflix film on Mosul and process the emotions that resulted from the realistic portrayal of brutal warfare in my hometown.

Walk by the Wall
A university teacher from Mosul describes decades of hardship and horror in his city under Saddam Hussein’s regime, then the U.S. occupation, and under ISIS’s rule.

How Iraq’s Top ISIS Scholar Became a Target for Shiite Militias
Although Husham al-Hashimi helped the Iraqi government understand and hunt down ISIS terrorists, his last secret research project was on the criminality and extremism of Shiite militias. They assassinated him for it.