Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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A member of Halparki Kirkuk practices his dance moves. (Hannah Lucinda Smith)

Dancing in Kirkuk

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | Jul 10, 2014 | Majalla Blogs

On a baking hot Monday afternoon just before the start of Ramadan, a group of teenagers filed into a dilapidated sports hall in Kirkuk. There was no air-conditioning and no watercooler, and the sweat dripped down their faces as they started to dance. But they beamed...

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Residents line up to purchase gas at a station in Kirkuk on June 21, 2014. (Asharq Al-Awsat/Hannah Lucinda Smith)

Iraqi oil infrastructure “sabotaged” before ISIS attack—industry source

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | Jun 26, 2014 | Middle East

Kirkuk, Asharq Al-Awsat—Iraq’s oil infrastructure was subjected to repeated sabotage and theft in the months before the fall of Mosul, an industry insider has told Asharq Al-Awsat. “There was a sabotage on the pipeline from Baiji two weeks before the attack on Mosul,”...

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(Asharq Al-Awsat/Hannah Lucinda Smith)

A City Almost United as Iraq Divides

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | Jun 25, 2014 | Features

Kirkuk, Asharq Al-Awsat—With its crumbling ruins and ghostly relics of communities that have long since disappeared, Kirkuk’s ancient citadel tells the story of what may happen to Iraq in the near future as deftly as it illustrates the city’s past. We passed through...

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Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers preparing for deployment in the battle against the militant Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in mid-June 2014. (Asharq Al-Awsat/Hannah Lucinda Smith)

Warnings on Iraq ISIS attack ignored—KRG official

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | Jun 20, 2014 | Features

Jaloula, Asharq Al-Awsat—Intelligence and security officials in Iraq’s Kurdish region say they warned Baghdad and Western intelligence agencies six months ago about an impending attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Rooz Bahjay, a senior security...

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People walk along a damaged street in Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria on April 3, 2014. (Reuters/Mohamed al-Khalif)

ISIS, Syrian government continue siege of Deir Ezzor

by Hannah Lucinda Smith | Jun 17, 2014 | Middle East

Gaziantep, Asharq Al-Awsat—Residents trapped in a rebel-controlled area of a major city in eastern Syria say they have been under siege since the country’s presidential elections earlier this month, and are running out of food and fuel. Speaking via Skype from the...