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A delegation representing Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org) agreed with the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), Mr. Ali Mohsin Ismail Al-Alaq, means of cooperation between the two parties. The delegation headed by Mr. Ahmad Obeidat, Executive Director of the Baghdad Office, presented the various services provided by TAG-Org, particularly in the fields of []

By John Lee. Iraq reportedly bought 50,000 tonnes wheat from Australia on Sunday at $312.50 a tonne c&f free out. The tender, which closed on 31st July, was open to wheat from the United States, Canada or Australia. According to Reuters sources. wheat from the United States was offered lowest at $299.19 a tonne c&f []

This past week theInternational Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Migration Agency, sent emergency teams from its Erbil, Iraq, mission to provide front-line non-food item (NFI) assistance to an informal settlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The settlers are principally nomadic herders fleeing ISILs last remaining major stronghold in Iraq: Tal Afar. Following the fall []

By Fazel Hawramy forAl-Monitor.Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views ofIran Business News. Iran and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have become entangled in a war of words as the referendum on Iraqi Kurdistans independence nears. Both sides are now making veiled threats, which if they []

U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria on Monday, conducting 35 strikes consisting of 42 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported yesterday. Officials reported details of yesterdays strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports. Strikes in Syria In Syria, []

Prime Minister Dr. Haider Al-Abadi has presided over the first meeting of the Higher Committee for Investment and Reconstruction. The Higher Committee for Investment and Reconstruction has held its first meeting under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister Dr. Haider Al-Abbadi, in the presence of all members of the Committee. Dr. Abadi stressed during the []

Hexagon Composites subsidiary Hexagon Ragasco has received a new major order for LPG cylinders from Gas Filling Company (GFC) at a total value of around USD 15 million (approximately NOK 120 million). Deliveries are scheduled to commence in fourth quarter of 2017 and continue through first quarter of 2018. With this order, Iraq is expanding []

By John Lee. Al-Iraqia Shipping Services & Oil Trading (AISSOT) has announced it will start bunkering operations at several Iraqi ports, with a focus on Basra, Khor Al-Zubair and Umm Qasr. According to a report from Ship and Bunker, the company a joint-venture company of Iraqi Oil Tankers Company (IOTC) and Arab Maritime Petroleum []

Tuesday marks the third anniversary of the U.S.-led coalition air campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, during which millions of people have been freed from ISIS control, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said today. Briefing the Pentagon press corps, Davis said the air campaign was a response to a terrorist army []

U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria on Sunday, conducting 34 strikes consisting of 40 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported yesterday. Officials reported details of yesterdays strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports. Strikes in Syria In Syria, []

By Ahmed Tabaqchali (pictured), CIO of Asia Frontier Capital (AFC) Iraq Fund. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. The equity market, as measured by the RSISUSD index was down -4.4% for the month, recovering from lows of -10.0%, on further declining turnover. []

On August 5, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under the Government of Japan signed a loan agreement with the Government of the Republic of Iraq in Baghdad to provide a Japanese ODA loan of up to 21.556 billion yen (equivalent to approximately USD 191 million[1]) for the Hartha Thermal Power Station Rehabilitation Project (Phase []

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Iraq Business News

A court in Iraq has sentenced 27 Isis soldiers to death by hanging over their role in a massacre of up to 1,700 army recruits in 2014.

One of Isis earliest gruesome propaganda videos was of the execution-style killings at Camp Speicher in northern Iraq when the organisation launched its surprise offensive over the border from Syria in June that year.

There were between 4,000 and11,000 cadets stationed at the base near Tikrit when Isis overran it. Isis divided up their captives depending on whether they were Shia, Sunni or non-Muslim, and murdered an estimated 1,095 non-Sunni soldiers, a later inquiry by Iraqs Human Rights Ministry estimated.The true number of men still missing is not known, but estimatessuggestit could beup to 1,700 people.

Mosul after the war: Utter and total devastation

The victims were trucked to various locations, including a former palace of SaddamHussein, lined up and shot at point black range, beheaded, or choked to death.

Some bodies were disposed of in the Tigris River, and at least 12mass graves were discovered when Iraqi coalition forces managed to retake the city and surrounding area in 2015.

As well as this weeks sentencing, 36 Isis members were hanged in August 2016 after being found guilty of the same crime in a mass trial. Another 25 suspects have been released due to a lack of evidence.

The sentenced men have the right to appeal the courts decision.

The death sentences come as rights groups have expressed concern over possible abuses of men accused of being in Isis following the recapture of the city of Mosul, which effectively means the end of Isis rule in the country.

More than 5,000 men suspectedof fighting on behalf of the militants are thought to be currentlyheld in overcrowded and stiflingly hot conditions in local prisons.

Prisoners are infected with diseases, lots of health and skin problems, because theyre not exposed to the sun, one prison warden told the AP last month, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The majority cant walk. Their legs are swollen because they cant move.

For many Iraqi soldiers and civilians, there is very little sympathy for those accused of fighting with Isis.

But detainees protest their innocence and organisations such as Human Rights Watch have repeatedly accused Iraqi forces of unlawful interrogations, beatings and even executions of men and boys believed to be part of Isisthatcould amount to war crimes.

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Iraq to hang 27 Isis members over role in massacre of army recruits at Camp Speicher - The Independent

Its been 12 years since Omar Hassan Majed fled Baghdad, but it sometimes feels as if he never left home.

Hustling from room to room at his oncology clinic in Amman, Jordan, he jokes with the Iraqi nursing staff and drinks tea with the resident anesthesiologist, a childhood friend. And many of his patients are Iraqis. By the time he stops for dinner at an Iraqi grillat the corner of Mosul and Basra streetshes gone hours without seeing a Jordanian.

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It sounds bizarre, I know, but there are so many Iraqi doctors here, Majed says. It makes me wonder if there are any still in Iraq.

Since the 2003 U.S. invasion, Baghdads intellectual and cultural elite has left its turbulent homeland, fleeing violence, persecution and an economy with fewer and fewer good jobs. Tens of thousands have moved to the U.S., where many have enjoyed considerable success. Over half a million othersincluding many of the countrys most educated peoplehave moved elsewhere in the Middle East. And their numbers have increased since the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) conquered up to 40 percent of the country in 2014.

ISIS has since been pushed out of most of Iraq, but many Iraqis arent returning. In countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and the Gulf states, talented Iraqi migrs continue to staff hospitals, design roads, extract oil and lecture students. And as the country continues to bound from one crisis to the next, in part due to rampant corruption and mismanagement, its most educated citizens are succeeding in their new homesand finding life in exile more and more appealing.

We needed a safe environment to work and live, and they needed skilled labor, says Ali Nawaz, a Saudi-based petroleum engineer, who skipped out of Baghdad after a death threat in 2006. Its been a good match.

This isnt the first time Iraq has been hit with a brain drain. Previous warswith Iran in the 1980s, for instancehad a similar effect, but the turmoil that followed the American invasion, and the subsequent war with ISIS, has been far more harmful in this regard. Not only is the Iraqi school system in shambles, but the recent flight of professionals has made life harder for those left behind. More than 8,000 doctors have left in recent years, contributing to grave medical shortages, according to Rudaw, a Kurdish TV network.

It is too difficult to be a successful doctor back in Iraq because of the security, because of the fear of kidnapping, says Nagham Hussein, a Baghdad-trained physician who left more than a decade ago.

There are few such fears in her new homeAmmanwhere Iraqs loss has quickly become Jordans gain.

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War in Iraq, ISIS Crisis Fuels Brain Drain, Making Life Harder for Those Left Behind - Newsweek

BASHIQA, Iraq (Reuters) - Yazidi men and boys in the town of Bashiqa north east of Mosul are rebuilding a shrine destroyed by Islamic State as they wait for the return of women from their community taken captive years ago by the jihadists.

They are hoping to celebrate their first religious festival for three years in the Malak Miran shrine next month but the big celebration will happen after the release of Yazidi women, taken by Islamic State when it overran the plain of Nineveh in 2014.

More than 3,000 Yazidis, mostly from Sinjar to the west of Bashiqa, were killed - with more than half shot, beheaded or burnt alive - and about 6,800 taken for sex slaves or fighters.

Islamic State fighters are now reportedly selling captive women and girls before they make their escape from their beseigned Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, according to the U.N.

"The real festival will come when all our captives are freed," said the shrine's supervisor, Shaker Haidar al-Mujewar.

Volunteers come every day to help with the rebuilding and they gather from time to time for prayers in the unfinished temple, clustering around candles to recite prayers in the local Kurdish dialect.

Residents and other Yazidi families are funding the reconstruction, Mujewar said.

Yazidis in Bashiqa were able to escape before Islamic State seized the town and the militants were driven out in November 2016, about a month after the start of the offensive to retake Mosul, the northern city used by the militants as their capital.

Many of Bashiqa's families are still living in camps.

Bashiqa is now under the control of the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who helped take it back from Islamic State. The Sinjar mountain, the other main area of Yazidi settlement in Iraq, is also under Kurdish control.

The Yazidi faith combines elements from various ancient Middle Eastern beliefs. Eid Hajjin, the Yazidi festival which falls early September, celebrates Abraham, a prophet they have in common with Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

The shrine is closely associated with Abraham as Yazidi religion says it was Malak Miran, or the Angel Miran, who saved the prophet from the biblical King Nimrod's furnace of fire.

Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Louise Ireland

Link:
Long wait for captive Yazidis' return spent rebuilding shrine in Iraq's Bashiqa - Reuters

Iraq, once the cradle of civilization, has and continues to experience one of the most horrific violent conflicts in modern history that defies any semblance of civilized humanity.

It is hard to imagine the mammoth death and destruction that has been inflicted on the Iraqi people by foreign powers and domestic terrorism.

Yet, the country can still overcome the horrors of the past 14 years, provided its leaders correctly reassess the changing regional and domestic dynamics and agree to allow all Iraqis, regardless of their sect and cultural orientation, to choose their own political and civil structure.

Appalling human cost

Since the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies in 2003,up to 500,000 civilianshave been killed. From 2006, there have been40,000 recorded terrorist attacksaveraging more than 7,100 deaths per year.

Nearly 225,000 persons have become refugees, and 3.1 million are internally displaced. The destruction of infrastructure and socio-economic dislocation created widespread hunger and disease, especially among the tens of thousands of children who are vulnerable and suffering from malnutrition.

All this human and material devastation culminated with the rise of ISIS that has ravaged the country, while the internal indiscriminate terrorism between Sunnis and Shiites continues unabated.

This tragedy is unfolding as the Iraqi government and people are still languishing in the shadow of death and ruin, wandering about the political wilderness in search of ways to piece the country back together in the wake of ISIS eventual defeat. These efforts, however, may well prove to be an exercise in futility.

Deep divisions

The Abadi government ignores the fact that the Iraqi Kurds are on the verge of establishing their own independent state following the upcoming mid-September referendum, and that the Sunnis will reject the status quo ante and never again subjugate themselves to the whims of a Shiite government in Baghdad.

Having suffered intense discrimination, oppression, and wanton violence perpetrated against them, especially during the eight years of the Maliki government, the Sunni community has long since concluded that their future wellbeing depends on their will and ability to govern themselves.

They are determined to follow the footsteps of their Kurdish counterparts by establishing autonomous rule as a prerequisite to ending Sunni-Shiite bloodshed.

The carnage between the two sides that started immediately following the 2003 Iraq war continues to rage, claiming the lives of hundreds each week. It is unlikely to abate as long as:

1. The Iraqi government and outside powers, including the United States, are still absorbed by the illusion of maintaining Iraqs geographical unity.

2. Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are waging a proxy war in Iraq to secure their geostrategic interests to become the regions hegemon.

The legacy of ISIS

In many ways, the rise of ISIS and its control over much of the Sunnis three provinces further deepens the Sunnis resolve to fight for their independence from any internal or external power.

In addition to the egregious mistreatment they have suffered under the Maliki government, the Sunnis endured the brunt of ISIS brutality and horrific ruling methods.

Children were affected the most, as they were witnessing the unspeakable cruelty of ISIS in real time. Children were recruited to commit the most heinous crimes; hundreds of thousands have been traumatized as they were forced to watch beheadings and the gruesome treatment of innocent bystanders suspected of committing petty crimes.

The liberation of Mosul offers a new beginning to build a promising future for Iraq. In that regard, I maintain that Iraqs strength rests on the three main sects becoming first politically independent from one another.

The central governments responsibility

The central government must support the establishment of an independent Sunni entity and amend the constitution to reflect the new political and territorial divisions.

Internally, the Iraqi government must address the endemic corruption which consumes nearly one third of the countrys revenue, establish a fair and impartial judiciary, engage in economic development, and refrain from infringing on the Kurds and Sunnis internal or external affairs as they put their own houses in order.

Given that the Sunnis three provinces have no oil, their economic development depends on securing their share of revenue by passing the long-anticipated oil law.

In addition to that, the new Sunni entity would need the financial support from the Gulf states, the United States and the European Union to become a viable entity.

The central Shiite-led government in Baghdad must not hold them hostage by denying them their legitimate share, thereby preventing them from establishing their own state. This would be the recipe for continuing bloodshed and destruction that will only deepen the gulf between them, to the detriment of the countrys future.

Wider implications

The benefits of this roadmap are enormous, as it will first impact directly on the future stability of Iraq, and bring an end to the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran as they come to realize that neither can change the reality of Sunni-Shiite coexistence, both in Iraq itself and as neighbors.

This arrangement would also mitigate the Iranian threat, which the Gulf states and Israel view as the source of regional tension and violent conflict.

Moreover, it would significantly reduce militant activities, enhance regional security, and start a process of peace and reconciliation to end the revenge and retribution that would inevitably ensue, given the horrifying violence that they have inflicted on one another for the past fourteen years.

It is only when the Sunnis establish their own entity and build the infrastructure of an independent state will they feel empowered and confident to work closely with the Kurds and the Shiites as equals, which will pave the way for a functioning confederation between them at a later date.

The United States role

The role of the United States at this early stage is critically important. The United States must support the establishment of an independent Sunni entity, maintain residual forces throughout the transitional period, train and equip security personnel, rein in extremist groups, and guide the Sunnis in the development of a political structure consistent with their beliefs, culture and aspirations.

To be sure, the death and destruction from which the Iraqis have suffered during the past 14 years must come to an end.

Children have been affected the most; they have suffered from malnutrition, disease, and dislocation, with enduring psychological scars that will last a lifetime. Tens of thousands have been killed, and as many became orphaned, not knowing what happened to them and why.

It is time to end the Iraqi tragedy. Much of the healing and prospects for a better and more promising future is in the hands of the Iraqi people themselves it is they who must rise above sectarianism, and it is they who must chart their own destiny.

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Ending Iraq's humanitarian crisis - Salon