Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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A Kurdish peshmerga fighter flashes the sign for victory after re-capturing the village of Tel Asquf from Islamic State (IS) militants on the eastern outskirts of Mosul Dam, near the northern city Mosul, on August 18, 2014. (AFP PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE)

Opinion: The US and the liberation of Mosul

by Wafiq Al-Samarrai | Feb 24, 2015 | Opinion

It is wonderful that every time the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) shows up or advances towards the outskirts of Mosul, particularly near the Iraqi Kurdistan region, it is swiftly targeted by the US air force. This is unlike the situation in the western Anbar...

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Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps soldiers march during an annual military parade in Tehran, Iran, on September 22, 2013. (EPA/Abedin Taherkenareh)

Opinion: Iran and ISIS in Iraq

by Wafiq Al-Samarrai | Jan 1, 2015 | Opinion

US Senator John McCain described the presence of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iraq as being a source of concern for the US. In the days following the capture of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Washington issued a statement saying...

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Protesters burn a police vehicle during the fighting in Ramadi December 31, 2013. (REUTERS/Ali al-Mashhadani)

Opinion: The Sabotage of Anbar

by Wafiq Al-Samarrai | Nov 30, 2014 | Opinion

When the protests began in Anbar, I wrote an article in which I described what happened as Fitnah, an Arabic word that means sedition. The worst thing about the protests was that they were dominated by clerics too young to be up to the required level of religious...

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Smoke rises over Syrian town of Kobani after an airstrike, as seen from the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province, October 18, 2014. A U.S.-led military coalition has been bombing Islamic State fighters who hold a large swathe of territory in both Iraq and Syria, […]

Opinion: What Went Wrong in Kobani?

by Wafiq Al-Samarrai | Oct 19, 2014 | Opinion

I have been of the opinion that directing airstrikes on Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) positions in Syria has been a mistake since the international campaign against the group began. ISIS must first be defeated on Iraqi territory and thereby driven out of the...

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US Vice President Joe Biden speaks to students of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine during his visit in Kiev on April 22, 2014. (AFP PHOTO / SERGEI SUPINSKY)

Opinion: Biden’s Gift to ISIS

by Wafiq Al-Samarrai | Aug 31, 2014 | Opinion

Once again, US Vice President Joe Biden returned to talk about the possibility of dividing Iraq into three federal states—Sunni, Shi’ite and Kurdish. As a man advances in age and his career, one would expect him to become wiser and more knowledgeable, not the...