Critical State, a foreign policy newsletter by Inkstick Media, takes a deep dive this week into how the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 not only dismantled the government but destroyed an entire nation, forcing a mass exodus of certain ethnic and religious minorities.
Refugees and aid workers say Iraqi security forces are forcibly returning civilians from refugee camps to unsafe areas in the predominantly Sunni Anbar province, exposing them to death from booby-traps or acts of vigilantism.
A New York Times correspondent talked with some of the ISIS recruits whose leaders instructed them to surrender.
The news that ISIS has taken Ramadi hits home for veterans like Tom Daly. As a Marine, he helped US forces take the capital of Iraq's Anbar province by building an alliance with Sunni nationalists who are now targets for ISIS fighters.
ISIS moves to update its fighters with reports in their own languages.
He confounded American commanders in Iraq and all but saved the regime of Bashar al-Assad. But until recently, few people outside of military circles knew the name of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. He's a public and popular figure in his home country now — and just as powerful as ever.
A number of American veterans of the US-led War in Iraq are picking up their guns and heading back to Iraq, joining the fight as volunteers with the Kurdish peshmerga forces.
A major offensive against ISIS forces is under way in Iraq, and the Iraqi army is getting plenty of support from Iran and its Iraqi Shiite allies. One country that isn't getting involved, however, is the United States.
A battle has begun in Iraq for control of the city of Tikrit: Saddam Hussein’s hometown. ISIS has held it since June last year, and now government forces are trying to take it back. But there are concerns that Shiite militias might seek vengeance for ISIS atrocities.
A seasoned war correspondent who thinks he's seen it all negotiates his way into ISIS-controlled Mosul. What he finds is a chilling enthusiasm for killing.
While many in Iraq's north are happy that the Kurdish militias are taking territory back from ISIS, Iraq's Arabs in the north are also afraid about what it will mean for them. Some Kurdish Peshmerga fighters these days are declaring an end to cooperation with Arabs.