By SETH J. FRANTZMAN On August 7, 2014 US president Barack Obama authorized operations to confront Islamic State after ISIS assaulted Yazidis near Sinjar and began a genocide of the […]
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN In mid-October 2017 Iraqi forces, backed by Shia militias, launched an offensive to take Kirkuk from the Kurdistan Regional Government. It was a major setback for […]
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN Saudi Arabia’s minister of Gulf Affairs called on October 30th for Hezbollah to be “toppled” in Lebanon. “Those who believe that my tweets are a personal stance […]
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN Renewed clashes at Altun Kupri between Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi Security Forces on October 20th led to more confusion in the ongoing crises that is reshaping […]
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN Hawija, a town near Kirkuk in northern Iraq, was conquered by ISIS in June 2014. It was home to around 150,000 people. It was a mostly […]
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN Over the last two years I have written about the war against Islamic State. This has involved numerous visits to northern Iraq to cover the battle […]
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN In June 2014 when ISIS rolled into Mosul many western media called them “insurgents.” Within a month they had expelled Christians from the city, ending 1,600 […]
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN There is an article making its rounds claiming an independent Kurdistan would be a “failed state.” It has been republished by Newsweek, the website eKurd, and the […]
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN A lot of people have read Jared Yates Sexton’s tweets about getting death threats after he outed a Reddit user who made a gif about Trump […]
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN Just after noon on May 29th the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), a mostly Shia group of militias that have been officially part of […]
