ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) — Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said on Sunday (October 29) the he would give up his position as president on November 1, after an independence referendum he championed backfired and triggered a regional crisis. In his address, his first since Iraqi forces launched a surprise offensive to recapture Kurdish-held territory in mid-October, Barzani vigorously defended his decision to hold the September 25 voting, saying its results can never be erased. Barzani […]
Tag: Kurdish
Manhunt after Istanbul nightclub massacre kills 39
by Stuart Williams with Raziye Akkok in Ankara Agence France Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish police launched a massive manhunt Sunday for a gunman who killed 39 people, including several foreigners, in a rampage at an upmarket nightclub in Istanbul where revellers were celebrating New Year. After the latest in a string of deadly attacks to hit the country, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the carnage sought to sow chaos, but vowed Turkey […]
Car bomb attack kills 18 at Turkish military checkpoint
ANKARA, Turkey (AFP) — Eighteen people were killed Sunday when a van packed with five tonnes of explosives blew up in Turkey’s restive southeast, the prime minister said, in an attack blamed on Kurdish militants. The bombing, which killed 10 soldiers and eight civilians, was one of the deadliest attacks on Turkish security forces since the attempted coup of July 15 when a rogue military faction tried to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “The attack […]
40 dead as Turkish shelling, raids hit Syrian civilians
by Layal Abou Rahal with Stuart Williams in Istanbul BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Turkish shelling and air strikes killed at least 40 Syrians on Sunday, a monitor said, in the first significant civilian casualties in Turkey’s intensifying campaign in northern Syria. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said the army had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” in air strikes as part of its unprecedented operation inside Syria. The bombardments came after Ankara suffered its first military fatality […]
Iraqi Kurds says Islamic State used chlorine gas against them
Iraqi Kurdish authorities said on Saturday (March 14) they have evidence that Islamic State had used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against their peshmerga fighters. The Security Council of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region (KRSC) said in a statement that the peshmerga had taken soil and clothing samples after an Islamic State suicide bombing in northern Iraq in January. It said laboratory analysis showed “the samples contained levels of chlorine that suggested the substance was […]





