Iraq

Threat of war looms closer in Iraq as Isis take strategic towns

24 June 2014
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) has continued its spectacular advances in Western Iraq. It seized more Sunni Muslim majority towns near the capital Baghdad, as well as all the country’s western border crossings.

A line in the sand: The great carve-up of the Middle East

24 June 2014
Many of the modern borders in the Middle East were created by a secret agreement between imperial powers Britain and France during the First World War, explains Annette Mackin

The Arab revolutions mix despair and hope

24 June 2014
Only in the most mechanical understanding of history do relations of oppression and exploitation automatically translate into revolution.

Insurgents seize cities as crisis in Iraq grows

17 June 2014
Renewed fighting in Iraq threatens to push the country into a new sectarian hell, writes Simon Assaf

Wars exposed weakness of the west

17 June 2014
One of the biggest surprises of the crisis in Iraq has been Western warmongers going cap in hand to Iran.

The West wrecked Iraq last time—Don't let them do it again

17 June 2014
Tony Blair has called for a new war on Iraq in the wake of the crisis erupting in the country.

The spiral into sectarian civil war is the West's bitter legacy in Iraq

13 June 2014
It was a war that cost an estimated one trillion dollars, fought, we were told, as part of the global “war on terror”. But 11 years, on the invasion of Iraq has become a nightmare for the West and the region.

News in-brief

03 June 2014
CBI cashes in on public money, Cop suspended over Rigg death, Bed cuts mean more sectioned, Iraq war letters won't come out

Britain in war crimes probe

14 January 2014
The International Criminal Court has been asked to investigate former British politicians and troops over allegations of “systematic torture” in Iraq.

US intervention in Iraq encouraged growth of Al Qaida

07 January 2014
The US is sending advanced weapons to the Iraqi government to help crush a growing rebellion in Anbar province in the west of the country. Anbar was a centre of the resistance against the 2003-2011 US occupation.

Thousands killed in Iraq in chaos made by the US

29 October 2013
Car bombs in Baghdad killed dozens of people on Sunday of last week.

Chelsea Manning exposed US ‘bloodlust’

04 June 2013
The former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been jailed for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks. Here is an article from 2013 about the case.

Secret prison shows up Britain's dirty role in war

04 June 2013
The government claims that the military is in Afghanistan to uphold the law. But Ken Olende shows the brutal reality behind Britain’s ‘war on terror’

The wars that fuel the rage behind Woolwich attack

28 May 2013
Some commentators claim the attack on a soldier in Woolwich has nothing to do with the “war on terror”. Ken Olende explains how the brutality of Western imperialism feeds bitterness, resentment and violence

International round-up

21 May 2013
Protest in Italy, carnage in Iraq, shortages in Venezuela

US leaders backed cruel treatment

23 April 2013
It is “indisputable” that the US government used torture after 11 September 2001—and top officials are ultimately to blame.

British troops are accused of ‘hanging and torture’ in Iraq

23 April 2013
British troops in Iraq tortured then hanged a teenager, his uncle has told a public inquiry.

The US’s ‘strategic pivot’ to the Pacific

21 March 2013
Alex Callinicos considers the options for US imperialism on the tenth anniversary of its invasion of Iraq

Iraq: how the west lost

21 March 2013
Iraq was supposed to be the war that finally erased the memory of defeat in Vietnam. Instead, says Simon Assaf, ten years on it is clear that the conflict dealt another blow to imperialism

Baha Mousa inquiry verdict is just the tip of the iceberg

31 December 2012
Iraqi Baha Mousa died as a result of his treatment at the hands of British troops, according to a public inquiry. This included "hooding" and being held in stress positions.