Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Saturday confirmed a drone strike targeting the residence of Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in Duhok amid escalating tensions in West Asia, triggering a sharp blame game between the United States and Iran.
'The war against ISIS is what earned the Kurds global recognition of being some of the best fighters that overshadowed regular armies,' points out Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Two-hundred Indians landed in New Delhi from Najaf in trouble-torn Iraq on a special chartered flight of Iraq Airways early on Sunday.
Protesters attacked what they deemed to be US' disproportionate response -- the killing of 24 militiamen on Sunday in retaliation for the death of an American contractor on Friday.
As allies and opponents of the US-led occupation of Iraq swung behind the UN text to legitimise the Baghdad government, saboteurs blew up part of the Kirkuk-Turkey pipeline, the second such attack in less than 24 hours.
Thirty-five people were also wounded in the attack on a police station in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
As envoy Suresh K Reddy readies to leave for Baghdad, distinguished diplomat Chinmaya Gharekha says India will have to tread carefully in the strife-torn nation.
A day after it was set up, the Haryana government control room has so far got information about 45 persons from the state, stranded in strife-torn Iraq. Majority of those stranded in Iraq hail from the northern parts of Haryana
The Islamic State rakes in over US $1 million (Rs 6.4 crore) per day in extortion and taxation and the dreaded terror group has enough assets to cover its expenses despite falling oil prices, according to a media report.
A special Air India flight carrying 46 Indian nurses set free by Sunni militants ISIS in strife-torn Iraq and 137 others arrived in Mumbai on Saturday. The flight carrying 183 Indian nationals from Erbil landed in Mumbai at 8:43 am.
Forty six Indian nurses initially stranded at a hospital in Tikrit and later moved to Mosul have been freed by the fighters of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
We bring you a collection of some of the best photographs taken this week by Reuters photographers.
OPEC's move to cut output has pushed up oil prices. From here it could go either way: oil could reach $100/barrel or an analysis of demand and supply might follow, say Abheek Barua & Bidisha Ganguly.
The best in international photojournalism was recently announced by World Press Photo's Annual Photo Contest. Despite fierce competition, the jury was forced to select just a handful of images from more than 73,044 photos by 4,548 photographers across 125 different countries. This year's grand prize was awarded to Venezuelan photographer Ronaldo Schemidt, earning him the title of Press Photographer of the Year. Here are some of the winners.
Given that India will get a huge part of its oil supplies from Iran through its government-owned oil PSUs, any unwelcome shocks in global crude rates could be absorbed well enough.
Driven from its self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State is down but not out. Where once they confronted armies, the extremist Islamist group's adherents have now staged hit-and-run raids and suicide attacks. In some cases, the group has claimed responsibility for atrocities, including the bombings of churches and hotels in Sri Lanka that killed at least 253 people. Its involvement is not always proven, but even if the link is ideological rather than operational, Islamic State still poses a security threat in many countries.
Brent hit a session high of $114.69 a barrel, its loftiest since September last year.
'With technology advancing rapidly, the need for branches is declining.'
'It is important to destroy, to undermine, to debunk the narrative of ISIS,' Olivier Roy -- one of the world's leading experts on radical Islam -- tells Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel in an exclusive interview.
The US and its allies must evolve a more comprehensive long-term plan to defeat the new danger that the caliphate poses to the world order. And India too must do its bit for course correction, says strategic expert Gurmeet Kanwal.
