Free Republic

Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a fresh attack on Islamic State (IS) forces early on Sunday as part of a campaign to capture Mosul, the militants' de facto capital in Iraq, Kurdish officials said. The advance began after heavy shelling and air strikes by a United States-led coalition against IS forces, a Reuters correspondent reported from Wardak, 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Mosul. The militants fought back, firing mortars at the advancing troops and detonating at least two car bombs. A Peshmerga commander said a dozen villages had been taken from the ultra-hardline Sunni militants as Kurdish forces headed toward...

You take your wife to what you thought was a family restaurant, far removed from the watchful eye of the puritanical rulers of your city. To get there, she has to be covered in black from head to toe, with only a narrow slat for her eyes, like any woman who wants to come out of the house. You settle down and tell her, "Honey, you can take that face mask off and relax. They're not going to come around here." She happily obliges, and you look forward to a nice meal in a place where you used to go...

A TV host broke down on camera recently while discussing the persecution of Christians in Iraq. Nahi Mahdi was speaking with two panelists on Asia TV when he was overcome with sadness over the travesties taking place in his country. "(It is terrible) when people come and force you to leave your home," one panelist said in the July 20 airing, translated by MEMRI TV and reported by The Blaze. "This is what happened to the Christians today." "Yes, the Christians," Mahdi interjects. "Today... I cried at home." The television hosts then began to weep, using his keffiyeh to wipe...