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ISTANBUL, Turkey (Kurdistan24) - Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan invoked on Monday an early 20th-century irredentist document that claimed the Iraqi city of Mosul as Turkish soil. Erdogan's remarks came amid the commencement of a long-anticipated operation by the Iraqi Army, Kurdistan's Peshmerga Forces and the US-led Coalition to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State (IS). In Mosul "a history lies for us. If the gentlemen desire so, let them read the Misak-i Milli (National Oath) and understand what the place means to us," Erdogan declared. The Turkish president referred to an Ottoman Parliament-sealed, 1920 pact that designates Kirkuk and...

A member of the elite British SAS reportedly killed an ISIS militant with an axe after his gun jammed. British press reports say the joint U.S.-U.K. operation’s mission was to free the death cult’s sex slaves. The mission was a success and some of the would-be jihadi brides were little more than children, The U.K. Sun reports. But one of the Brit commando’s gun jammed on him as one extremist raced towards him. The brave Brit grabbed a nearby axe and slammed it against the fanatic’s head, killing him. “Members of ISIS had been in the area for a few...

VideoNear Mosul, Iraq (CNN)Iraq's military says it has inflicted "heavy losses of life and equipment" on ISIS in a district southeast of Mosul, as Iraqi-led forces close in on the city in the long-awaited battle to recapture it from the terror group. Hours after the beginning of the offensive, Iraq's military said it had inflicted losses and made advances in the Hamdaniya district, while Masoud Barzani, president of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, said "we have achieved a lot of success so far."

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced late Sunday the start of a military offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city, from the Islamic State group. State TV showed a brief written statement announcing the start of the widely anticipated military offensive to drive the terror group out of the northern city home to more than a million civilians. Broadcasts showed the prime minister, dressed in a military uniform, speaking while flanked by senior officers. State TV broadcast patriotic music within minutes of the announcement. The thuds of sporadic artillery shelling rumbled across the rolling Nineveh plains in the...

The offensive to liberate Mosul from ISIS control has begun, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a televised statement early Monday. "Our dearest people in Nineveh province, the victory bell has rung, and the operations to liberate Mosul have begun," he said. "I am announcing today the beginning of these heroic operations to liberate you from the brutality and terrorism of ISIS. God willing, we will meet soon on the ground of Mosul where we will all celebrate the liberation and your freedom." The fight is expected to last weeks, if not months, and if the battles to wrest...

(WASHINGTON)— President Barack Obama is preparing to send more troops to Iraq to help reclaim the city of Mosul from the ISIS, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The troops will train and advise Iraqi forces as planning for the Mosul operation ramps up, officials said. Though the precise number of troops was not immediately disclosed, one official said roughly 600 addition troops would be sent. It wasn’t clear whether the troops would include special operations forces, some of which are already serving in Iraq.The decision expands the U.S. military footprint in Iraq just as Obama readies to hand over the conflict...

ISIS previously has used commerical, off-the-shelf drones for surveillance and to deliver ordnance, and now it is is using drones to deliver explosives, Colonel John Dorrian, the spokesman for U.S. military operations in Iraq, told reporters on Wednesday. He confirmed that one enemy drone exploded after it was shot down: “We know that there was an improvised device on a — on a — a drone. And when that was brought back to the camp, it exploded. So, the reason or the way or the manner in which that happened — still digging into that.” Dorrian said the drones have...

Amal Clooney nearly caused an international incident at the Iraqi UN Mission of Iraq in Manhattan when she lectured the ambassador on Islamic State and showed up with an unauthorized camera crew. According to the New York Post, the human rights lawyer wife of George Clooney originally demanded to meet with the prime minister at the mission during the UN General Assembly, but that was rejected and she settled for the country’s UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim, two Iraqi officials confirmed. Get our exclusive newsletter—the best of Heat Street every day She arrived with Yazidi refugee and Noble Peace Prize nominee...

Saddam Hussein had a secret torture room built in the basement of the Iraqi mission to the United Nations in New York’s Upper East Side, it has been reported. The Iraqi dictator ordered the installation of the “detention room” inside the five-story building at 14 East 79th Street when he rose to power in 1979, two unnamed Iraqi officials told the New York Post. “It was a dark room. The doors were reinforced in a way that nobody could break in or out. You didn’t need to soundproof it,” one official said. The other official added: “You’re not going to...

In a 2009 email recently declassified and released by Citizens United, longtime Hillary Clinton aide and confidante Huma Abedin told a Clinton Foundation executive that there was an unspecified “disaster” involving the then-Secretary of State. ‘Where are you,” read the subject line of an email from the foundation’s Doug Band. “I’m with her, we had a disaster,” Abedin emailed back. “U?”(continued)

An interview with the filmmakers behind “Our Last Stand,” a new documentary about the on-going genocide perpetrated against Middle Eastern ChristiansA young boy, 10 years old or so, faces the camera. Like many young boys, he is happy to be interviewed. This is war-torn Iraq, however, so he tells of the day ISIS came to his village. He starts to recount, horror after horror, what took place. It is hard to accept that one so young has already seen so much evil. Gradually, his retelling of what happened slows and he breaks down. It is hard to watch as the...

A young boy, 10 years old or so, faces the camera.Like many young boys he is happy to be interviewed.This is war-torn Iraq, however, so he tells of the day ISIS came to his village. What took place, horror after horror, he starts to recount. It is hard to accept that one so young has already seen so much evil. Gradually, his urgent retelling of what happened slows and he breaks down. It is hard to watch as the tears flow down his cheeks. He tries to stem them, brushing them away Â… but to no avail. His grief...

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is at death’s door after being poisoned by a mystery assassin in Iraq, it has been reported. Three other senior jihadis were also afflicted by the toxin in Al-Ba’aj, southwest of Mosul – Islamic State’s biggest city in Iraq. The four have reportedly been rushed for treatment at a secret location. FARS, an Iranian news agency, say that ISIS is now arresting several suspects to find out who has struck a blow at the terror group’s self-proclaimed ‘Caliph’. The evil Iraqi cleric is known to have been personally responsible for the rape and torture of...

(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – Iraqi media outlets reported on Wednesday that a malfunction caused an explosive belt to explode and kill 16 members of the Islamic State (ISIS), including senior leaders, during their meeting in Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk. Alsumaria stated, “Today, an explosion took place amid a meeting of ISIS members in al-Mahawes village in Hawija district (55 km southwest of Kirkuk),” adding that, “The explosion resulted in the killing of 16 members of the Islamic State group, including senior leaders, as well as wounding of 16 others.” “A number of the ISIS members were wearing explosive belts during the...

Ship Carrying Dozen North Korean Missiles Intercepted in Arabian Sea W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 10 — A ship carrying a dozen Scud-type missiles from North Korea was intercepted in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, U.S. officials said. They said the missiles were believed to be headed for Yemen. The ship was stopped and boarded about 600 miles east of the Horn of Africa, the officials said. U.S. intelligence had been tracking the vessel closely, said U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The ship contained about a dozen short- to medium-range...

THE UNITED STATES is concerned classified documents allegedly stolen by Leandro Aragoncillo and Michael Ray Aquino may have ended up in the hands of communists, according to an official of the National Bureau of Investigation. Ricardo Diaz, chief of the NBI’s Interpol division, said at a recent meeting that US officials noted that known leftists were at the forefront of so-called destabilization efforts and mass actions in the country. “They said there was a possibility that the classified government information from the White House and FBI [the Federal Bureau of Investigation] are now in the hands of the local...

As U.S. and Iraqi forces prepare to launch an offensive to retake Mosul, we found out this week that 615 more troops will be deployed to assist in intelligence gathering for the Iraqi government forces that will be spearheading the attack. The number of U.S personnel already in Iraq is estimated between 4,900-6,400 men (via NBC News): The Department of Defense is preparing to dispatch 615 more U.S. troops to Iraq to help government forces oust ISIS from the city of Mosul, the White House announced Wednesday. The soldiers will provide logistics support for the Iraqi forces and not spearhead...

The Obama administration official most likely in line to become the next U.S. envoy to the Coalition to Counter the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) has falsely presented himself as an official U.S. ambassador by the administration for the last five months, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Brett McGurk, a deputy special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition who serves under General John Allen, was temporarily appointed by the administration as an ambassador on Oct. 18, 2014. He was conferred this rank through a little-known legal loophole that allows the administration to...

Islamic State militants will no longer control any oil in Iraq after being ousted by government forces last week from an area near Kirkuk. The ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim have been driven out of Shirqat by co-ordinated Iraqi force. DT "Take the Oil” Iraqi forces have yet to recapture the Najma oil-field, near Qayyara, but its producing wells are no longer accessible to IS government offensive and (US) air strikes. The reality is that it is extremely difficult to extract and smuggle oil while our forces are advancing towards Mosul...," oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad.

Erdogan: Mosul offensive will commence October 19 By Zhelwan Z. Wali yesterday at 07:30 Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. AP photo ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed on Sunday that the battle to push the Islamic State (ISIS, Daesh) out of their stronghold of Mosul will commence on October 19. “It is said that the battle for Mosul against Daesh will kick off on October 19 and that we all have to be prepared for this event,” Erdogan said in a meeting with...