Iraq Diaries: Bridge-Building And Liberation Of Tikrit From ISIS

Tikrit was a test case for Iraq’s ability to unite the country after ISIS massacred 1,700 air force cadets, mostly Shia, at Camp Speicher there to drive a permanent sectarian wedge for the Iraqi state’s implosion

Iraq Diaries: Ayatollah As Breath Of Fresh Air For West

The Iranian revolution and the captivity of 52 Americans crystalized dormant Islamophobia with ubiquitous Khomeini at its center decades before the US invasion of Iraq put another Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani under the global spotlight for entirely different reasons as someone unlike the Iranian revolutionary leader

Iraq Diaries: Ground Zero Of Spirited Fightback Against ISIS

The seeds of perhaps the most spirited fightback ever against terrorism were sown in narrow Rasool Street in Iraq’s Najaf, where Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa in 2014 from his small house urging all able-bodied men to resist ISIS Pope Francis on his way to Sistani's residence for a meeting in 2021. By … Continue reading Iraq Diaries: Ground Zero Of Spirited Fightback Against ISIS