Yazidi Kurds’ mass grave found in western Mosul

Nineveh: The bodies of 80 Yazidi Kurds was found in mass grave in western part of the Iraqi northern city of Mosul, official said. The official to follow Yazidi affairs in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Hadi Dobani, told NRT that 80 Yazidi bodies, including 33 children and 20 women, were found in Badosh, western Mosul. He told NRT that the bodies might have been buries by the militants of the Islamic State (IS) during its attack onto the region in August 2014. Dobani said findings show torture on parts of the body and gun shots in the heads of the victims. More than 11 mass graves have been found in the region after retaking their control from the militants of the IS. The radical group committed heinous crimes against people in the region after its control to the militants in August 2014. kurdpress.ir

Militants launch attack on Kurdish Peshmerga outside Mosul

Mosul: Islamic State (IS) militants on Sunday launched an attack on Kurdish forces in the town of Bashiqa, near Mosul, a Peshmerga commander said. Commander Lashkir Khurani told NRT that militants attacked Peshmerga forces from three directions at dawn. Kurdish forces repelled the attacks after an hour and a half of fighting, Khurani said. “IS casualties are unknown, and Peshmerga forces suffered no casualties,” he added. Anti-IS coalition partners did not provide air support during the attack as Peshmerga managed to push the militants back by the time warplanes approached the area. Bashiqa or Bashik is located 25 kilometers northeast of Mosul’s city center. Its residents are a mix of Yazidi and Shabak Kurds as well as Assyrians and Muslim Arabs.nrttv.com

$500 million appeal for Iraq to be launched: UNICEF

Humanitarian organisations are preparing to launch a fundraising appeal for $500 million (454 million euros) for the crisis created by the Islamic State group in Iraq, UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency said on Monday. The announcement came a day ahead of a meeting in Paris of the US-led coalition of countries working to defeat the jihadist group in Iraq and Syria. “The humanitarian situation in Iraq is close to disaster! We urgently need extra resources in order to continue assistance,” Philippe Heffinck, UNICEF’s representative in Iraq, said in a statement in French. According to the UN agency, eight million Iraqis are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, in particular the roughly three million people who have been forced to flee their homes since the start of the IS offensive in June 2014. Access, however, has been hampered by the fighting and a lack of funding is now even threatening such humanitarian assistance as has been possible, UNICEF said…AFP

Iraq not ready to negotiate with Islamic State: Masum

Slemani: Iraqi President Fouad Masum said his country is not ready to negotiate with the Islamic State (IS) since it is a “terrorist group,” but went on to say that Baghdad could sit down to negotiate with a political party,if one existed within the organization. “[IS] does not recognize any political group and doesn’t accept any system of living but its own,” Masum said in an interview with VOA’s Persian service on Thursday. “With [IS], we fight until they kill or we die. That is why we cannot accept negotiation,” the President said. Masum added that eliminating IS inside of Iraq would not be easy as officials believe there are sleeper cells throughout the country and region. “One must think about fighting [IS] on many fronts. One war is on the ground. The other is draining its financial sources,” Masum said. The President called for more international intelligence coordination and cooperation to find those supporting and working with IS. nrttv.com

Kurdistan receives Iraq’s Anbar refugees through air and land

Erbil: Baghdad Airport released a statement reading that Iraqi airways transported displaced Anbar people to Kurdistan region airports free of charge, and Iraqi immigration office in Erbil announces receiving 500 displaced families daily from Anbar Province. According to the Baghdad Airport statement, the Iraqi Minister of Transportation ordered Iraqi Airways to prepare for transportation of large number of refugees to Kurdistan region. Meanwhile, the regional Office of the Ministry of Displacement and Migration announced Sunday that the Kurdistan capital city of Erbil receives daily about 500 displaced families coming from Baghdad by air, calling on international organizations to accelerate the provision of assistance to the displaced because their numbers exceeded the energy of Kurdistan region. Aliah Bazzaz, Director of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Displacement and Migration in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, told Middle East newspaper “since the start of military operations to liberate Anbar province 500 families move to the city of Erbil by air”…milletpress.com

Gulf Keystone eyeing Maersk’s Jon Ferrier as new CEO

May 31 Gulf Keystone Petroleum is set to name Jon Ferrier, a senior executive at Danish-based shipping company Maersk, as its new chief executive to replace John Gerstenlauer, Sky News reported, citing unnamed sources. Ferrier’s appointment could be expected as soon as this month, the broadcaster said. However, no formal agreement has been reached yet between Ferrier and Gulf Keystone, it said. Gerstenlauer, the current chief executive, is expected to retire after stepping down from the board, Sky News said. Kurdistan, Iraq-based Gulf Keystone promoted Gerstenlauer from chief operating officer in July last year. The company, which appointed Andrew Simon as non-executive chairman in March, is also in talks with several parties about a possible sale…Reuters

PM Abadi says Iraq lost 2,300 Humvees to Islamic State

Baghdad: Iraqi security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armoured vehicles when the Islamic State group (IS) overran the northern city of Mosul, according to the country’s prime minister. Clashes began in Mosul, Iraq’s second city, late on June 9, 2014, and Iraqi forces lost it the following day to IS, which spearheaded an offensive that overran much of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland. “In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons,” Haider al-Abadi has said in an interview with Iraqiya state TV. “We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone.” While the exact price of the vehicles varies depending on how they are armoured and equipped, it is clearly a hugely expensive loss that has boosted IS’s capabilities. Last year, the US Department of State approved a possible sale to Iraq of 1,000 Humvees with increased armour, machineguns, grenade launchers, other gear and support that was estimated to cost $579m…AFP

Iraq exported 97 million barrels of oil in April: Baghdad gov’t

Baghdad: The Iraqi Oil Ministry has announced the government exported an estimated 97 million barrels of oil worth $5 billion in April through the State Organization for the Marketing of Oil (SOMO). “According to early statistics of SOMO, the capacity of the oil exporting and its revenues in Iraqi oilfields has increased in April,” said Asim Jihad, an Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesperson, in a Monday statement. The SOMO estimate includes the average exports of the Kurdistan region exported through SOMO, but neither SOMO nor the Iraqi Oil Ministry mentioned Kurdish oil in their reports. “Iraq has exported more than 83 million barrels of oil through Basra ports in the south of Iraq and more than 13 million barrels have been exported to the Ceyhan port in Turkey in the north,” Jihad added. The cost of Iraqi oil last month reached $55 per barrel, he continued. In early April, Iraq said it would resume crude exports through a pipeline to Turkey within days, as Erbil and Baghdad tried to resolve a serious dispute over energy exports. rudaw.net

Germany military delegation visits PUK politburo in Slemani

Slemani: A military delegation from Germany led by Brigadier Schneider, the commander of German troops in Kurdistan Region, visited headquarters of PUK Politburo in Slemani (Sulaimaniyah) and welcomed by Hakim Qadir Hama Jan, Member of Executive Body of PUK Politburo. Rizgar Ali, Hamid Haji Ghali and Blesa Jabar Farman, member of PUK Politburo, were also present at the meeting where both sides discussed the latest developments in Kurdistan Region, Iraq and the area including the war against Islamic State group (IS), resistance of the Peshmerga forces against terror and ways of further handing international aid and ammunition to the Peshmerga army. Most of the refugees from other parts of Iraq prefer moving to the peaceful Kurdistan region due to facing discrimination by Shiite in Baghdad and other parts of middle and south of Iraq…milletpress.com | Ekurd.net

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