Foreignpolicy.com

The Iraqi soldiers, Kurdish Peshmerga, and Sunni tribesmen battling the militants will get some of the weapons they've long asked for.

nytimes.com | By PAUL SALOPEK

KARS, Turkey — “WE have enemies.”

The old Kurdish woman said this by way of running me off. I had trekked into her mountain hamlet at dusk, hoping to camp nearby. She waved a hand at the stone homes around us. Most were empty. There had been a killing between neighbors. The house of the perpetrator had been leveled. Fearing retribution, his relatives had run for their lives. Armed members of the victim’s family were now guarding the place against their return. The watchmen’s lonesome campfire seesawed in the wind high up on a cliff.

Ft.com | Foreign editor Roula Khalaf

The Kurds of northern Iraq face terror from Isis and political pressure from Baghdad – jeopardising their long-held dream of independence.

Al-monitor.com

ISTANBUL — Iraq’s new oil minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, conceded at an energy summit here on Nov. 19 that he inherited a depleted budget and that the central government now values an oil pipeline from the Kurdish area of Iraq to Turkey whose construction Baghdad once bitterly opposed.

Huffingtonpost.com | by David L. Phillips (*)

Kobani represents a crossroads in the war against the Islamic State (IS). The battle for Kobani is also a defining moment in US policy toward the Kurds, the construction of Kurdish national identity, and the West's view of Turkey as an ally.

By Michael Georgy and Isabel Coles

(Reuters) - The government of Iraq and the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan have reached a deal to ease tensions over Kurdish oil exports and civil service payments from Baghdad, Iraq's finance minister told Reuters on Thursday.

By BEN HUBBARD

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s central government and the autonomous region of Kurdistan reached an interim agreement on Thursday over oil exports and budget payments, at least temporarily easing a bitter dispute that has threatened the government’s stability.

Pbs.org |  by Jason M. Breslow

As the Islamic State continues its march through Syria and Iraq, the jihadist group is quietly utilizing a network of former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to help militarize a fighting force that has effectively erased the border between both nations and left roughly 6 million people under its rule.

Foreignpolicy.com | by Justine Drennan

As the Obama administration has ramped up its campaign against the so-called Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, it has tried to present itself as acting with the support of a broad range of partner nations.