After the Iraqi army and the Shia militia Hashd al-Shaabi recaptured the areas around Kirkuk that have been controlled by Kurdish forces since 2014, Barzani's will to enforce the result of the indepen Read more...

Lacking support, the Syrian revolution suffered a series of defeats, a consequence of which was the rise of the ISIS. Marcus Halaby examines the fallout of this development Read more...

The attack by the Islamic State, formerly ISIS, against the Kurds, Yazidis and other religious and national minorities in Iraq and Syria has taken a murderous toll within a very short time. Read more...

The withdrawal of the last US combat troops from Iraq does not mean that Iraq has become a free and independent state, writes Simon Hardy Read more...

Iraq and the US have negotiated a draft agreement setting out a timetable for US troop withdrawal. It states that combat troops must be removed from Iraqi cities by 2009 and from the rest of the country by 31 December 2011. Some are heralding the agreement as the beginning of Iraq's future as an independent state. But as the US struggles to maintain its economic and political influence in Iraq and steps up the pressure against the resistance in Afghanistan where there are 60,000 foreign troops  the need for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US and UK troops from the region is as urgent as ever. Read more...

The leaders of the Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL) argue socialists should not fight for the withdrawal of US and UK troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. It claims that, were the occupation to end immediately, the Iraqi labour movement would be annihilated by reactionary Islamic forces. Read more...

Just weeks after the media retrospectives on the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, a new round of violence was unleashed on the country's long-suffering people, leaving at least 500 dead. While an Iranian-brokered ceasefire has brought some relief, Jeremy Dewar warns that this is the start of a battle to break up Iraq and hand its oil wealth over to the imperialist multinationals. Read more...