Mustafa Al-Khaqani @Khaqani_M shared the an interesting picture (below) showing the guidance on battlefield rules issued a few days ago by Shi’i marja’ Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani spreading amongst fighters engaged in the Fallujah operation. What follows is a rough translation of this guidance with the original Arabic text below: “So it comes to the fight with those
Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi is currently locked in a political struggle over reform of Iraq’s political system. To cut a long story short, he is looking to reduce the number of cabinet positions, merge certain ministries, and bring in a number of ‘technocrats’ from academic and technical fields into ministerial roles. Al-Abadi’s reforms
I have updated my map of key figures in the Iraqi state, legal, military, and intelligence structures to account for recent changes at the Ministry of Interior, Intelligence, and the head of Baghdad Operations. Key sackings and resignations, as a result of ISIS attacks on Baghdad that have resulted in mass civilian casualties, include: Zuhair Gharbaoui
‘Iran prepares to occupy Fallujah, the Kurds prepare to occupy Raqqa, and the Arabs prepare to watch part eight of Bab al-Hara…’, so tweeted Faisal al-Qassem this morning (27/05/2016) in response to the two operations currently underway against IS in Iraq and Syria. Qassem’s message encapsulates some of the long-established tropes of Arabist discourse, namely
Important notes: Firstly, this is a work in progress, I will be developing it as time goes on. Secondly, I don’t claim that this information is reliable, in fact many of the sources are unverifiable, journalistic, or from information that is recycled by security analysts and think tankers within the defence establishment. Other sources include
Qassem Soleimani photo causing a stir…
Some interesting images have been circulating on social media regarding the Fallujah operation currently under way in Iraq. This photo was reportedly shared yesterday by Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba (which emerged from Asa’b Ahl al-Haq), bearing the group’s logo and stating that it was taken ‘near Fallujah’. It shows Iranian Quds Force commander (the ‘Iranian Karla’ in
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