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Only a few days ago, Malala Yousafzai was finishing her final high school exams. On Tuesday, she landed in Iraq to meet with displaced girls here who have spent years out of school. This is not how most young people spend the summer before college, but Yousafzai has become a champion of education rights for girls since the Taliban tried to kill her in 2012 in Pakistan.

I want to ensure that there are more girls that can speak up and stand with me, because there's nothing special in me[I dont] have some kind of special ability or talent, Yousafzai said in an interview with TIME in the Hassan Shami camp for internally displaced people, just outside the newly liberated city of Mosul . We need to encourage girls that their voice matters. I think there are hundreds and thousands of Malalas out there.

Yousafzai is visiting Iraq as part of her Girl Power Trip , aiming to raise awareness about the importance of girls education, in particular visiting areas affected by poverty and conflict. We were living in the same situation, Yousafzai tells a dozen Iraqi schoolgirls seated at metal desks. We were displaced in the Swat Valley [in Pakistan] for three months because of terrorism and extremism.

Most of these girls lived under ISIS for almost three years and only escaped Mosul as Iraqi forces took their neighborhoods in the spring. Many like, Nayir, the 13-year-old from western Mosul accompanying Yousafzai on her visit, stopped attending school in 2015. The first year ISIS was there I stayed in school, says Nayir, whose name has been changed to protect her identity. But then, the second year, ISIS changed the curriculum.

Teachers in Mosul describe how the militants showed up at schools with new books. The math lessons used bullets instead of apples and Arabic lessons told inspirational stories of young suicide bombers. Parents were in a tough positioneither send their children to school and risk having them indoctrinated by ISIS, or keep the home with no education at all. Like many parents, Nayir choose the later. For almost two years, she sat in the house.

Before ISIS, I lead a normal life. I went to school. I went out with my sister and my friends, says Niyir. We couldnt do anything under ISIS.

Nayirs family fled Mosul in April, after ISIS killed her father and blew up their home. Now they live in the Hassan Shami camp and Nayir attends class with other Iraqi girls. In some way, the girls attending class in this tent, in the 40-degree heat, are the lucky ones. The United Nations childrens organization, UNICEF, says 3.5 million children are missing out on education in Iraq, putting them at increased risk of child labor, recruitment into armed groups and early marriage, particularly for girls.

Some families prefer their daughters to get married earlier, because there's burden on the family, said Yousafzai. Some displaced families, across the region, marry-off their daughters, simply because they are unable to feed and support them. [We need to] ensure that this message is sent to refugee families [..] that education is important for their daughters.

Yousafzai also says the international community needs to increase financial support for education for displaced children. They would say that these families are going to return [home] anyway, so let's not invest in infrastructure. There are no schools, Yousafzai said, giving the example of Syrian refugee children, many of whom have not been to school since they fled the country more than five years ago. People often forget that this is the way that the refugee children can have a future, that you educate them, otherwise it is a generation lost. If you don't educate these children, then it is very challenging for the country to rebuild.

Countries also need to step up to help those who flee war-torn countries out of fear or desperation, she adds. "If you look at how many people are suffering because of wars and conflicts, we have to open our hearts, we have to open our homes, we have to support these people."

Yousafzai, hasnt been able to return to her country, Pakistan, since she was flown to the U.K. for emergency medical treatment after the 2012 attack. Instead shes been finishing high school in the British city of Birmingham. While she tours Iraq, shes waiting for the results of the her A-Level exams the equivalent of the U.S. SATs and to find out if shell get into Oxford University. Its been tough for the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate to balance her advocacy work with the normal concerns for a new high school graduate .

It has been challenging, because I was getting my own education. I had to go to school. I had to do my homework. I had exams. I had teachers, she told TIME. And then, I come out of school and then there's another life, where you have lots of things to do.

Yousafzai turned 20 years old on Tuesday. In the almost five years since the attack she has gone from a child victim of the extremism, to one of the worlds best known activists. I wanted to change the world when I was 11. I wanted to be the prime minister of Pakistan and fix everything, she said. And I still believe in change. I still believe that through your contributions, raising your voice, you can bring change in your community.

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'We Have to Support These People.' Malala Yousafzai Visits Iraq to Meet Girls Who Lived Under ISIS - TIME

He continued: We are not the reason Iraq is falling apart. I think Iraq is a fabricated state. It was built on the wrong foundations.

And then there is Syria. The civil war across the border, as much as the sectarian policies of the former prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, helped the Islamic State regenerate in Iraq after its predecessor, Al Qaeda in Iraq, was largely eradicated. The group was able to expand into Syria before sweeping across the border in 2014 and taking Mosul.

Without peace in Syria, officials say, there is little chance for peace and stability in Iraq.

Syria and Iraq are closely connected, Mr. Maliki said in an interview this year. If the situation in Syria is unstable, Iraq will be unstable.

When asked about the future of Iraq after the Islamic State, Mr. Maliki said: The state cannot control the situation. The coming phase will be bad.

With the larger questions hanging over the country, the immediate challenge of stabilizing Mosul is monumental, especially in the citys west side. The fight has essentially turned the city into two, divided by the Tigris River. The west is a gray, dusty wasteland of flattened buildings and upturned, charred trucks; even the windows of the cars civilians are driving have been blown out. Cross the bridge, though, and suddenly the world emerges in light and color, with shops and restaurants open, and loud traffic jams.

Fighting continued on Monday in a small patch of the old city, and security forces there rescued two more girls from Iraqs Yazidi religious minority who had been held as sex slaves. The United Nations, meanwhile, put out an urgent call for funding from other nations to help the nearly 700,000 civilians still displaced from the fighting.

All day long on Monday, Iraqi state television played patriotic songs in honor of the security forces, and later in the evening, a news flash alerted that Mr. Abadi would make a historic speech, surrounded by soldiers. The prime minister, once again, declared victory in Mosul, saying, Iraq is now more united than ever, and he declared Tuesday a national holiday of celebration.

In the skies over Mosul, Iraqi airplanes dropped three million leaflets on a city where many of the residents are no longer there.

Each leaflet showed a map of Mosul in the colors of the Iraqi flag red, white and black with the message: Mosul has been returned to the bosom of Iraq.

Falih Hassan contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on July 11, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Iraq Celebrates A Win in Mosul As Rifts Widen.

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Iraq Celebrates Victory Over ISIS in Mosul, but Risks Remain - New York Times

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Iraqi security forces with the support of coalition forces are finally getting close to defeating ISIS in Iraq, which begs an important question: What comes next? More to the point, what governmental structure would best protect the many ethnic groups that live there?

Part of the answer will be provided this year by a referendum scheduled for Sept. 25. The Kurdistan Region will ask its people if they support Kurdistans independence. We expect that the answer will be overwhelmingly yes. President Masoud Barzani has also made it clear that the referendum will include areas that have long been disputed between Baghdad and Irbil, giving people in those territories an opportunity to decide their own future as well.

Iraqis, like the Kurds who have suffered under regimes that failed to protect its citizens from persecution and, in some cases, violence, should be given their say about what form of government provides them the best security. Self-governance is clearly the right answer.

To be sure, the referendum wont be the end of the story. Other actions would need to be taken before Iraqi Kurdistan can declare sovereignty. Negotiations are required between Baghdad and the Kurdistan. In those talks, the United States will play the critical role of an honest broker. America can ensure that the negotiations are fair, productive and deliver the best possible outcome for both sides.

A stable Iraq is in everyones best interest. An independent Kurdistan would share hundreds of miles of border with Iraq, and our economic ties are deep. Iraq would be one of Kurdistans most important trading partners, and no one outside of Iraq would have a greater incentive for peace and stability in the country.

The challenges of achieving independence for any country are great but not insurmountable. Negotiating an amicable divorce with Baghdad will be difficult, but there are no cardinal rules against it and many successful examples of peaceful secessions.

For decades, Iraqis have seen cycles of genocide. Under Saddam Husseins fascist state, Kurds, Shia and others suffered decades of terror, oppression and numerous attacks on civilians with the most deadly chemical weapons.

In Kurdistan in the 1980s, the state conducted a dedicated, sustained campaign to break the back of our economy, destroy our way of life and, ultimately, exterminate our people. The Baathists called the campaign Anfal, a Koranic term for the spoils of war.

The departure of Saddam did not end of the suffering. Militias and criminal gangs kidnapped wealthy elites, assassinated academics, and ethnically cleansed areas with impunity. In 2014 the Yazidis, Christians and others again suffered genocide, this time at the hands of ISIS. Our economy has suffered both from the war against ISIS and the humanitarian crisis, but also from Baghdad cutting off our share of the federal budget.

When Iraqs constitution was drafted in 2005, we in Kurdistan envisioned a federal system that could have led Iraq to realize its potential for prosperity for all Iraqis. Kurdistanis voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Iraqi constitution on that basis. But over the past 12 years, leaders in Baghdad have centralized power. Our initiatives to develop our region, particularly in growing an oil and gas industry from scratch, were treated as liabilities rather than assets. Despite our worries about the direction of the country, our friends in America and the West encouraged us to remain part of the country and participate in government, which we did.

But now it is time for the people of Kurdistan to determine their future, knowing all that has happened in the past century since Iraq was created and all that has passed since 2005.

Like the United States, we have invested blood, time, energy and treasure to make Iraq work. Now its time for Iraq and Kurdistan to be good neighbors with good fences rather than be under one roof and a thorn in each others side. The United States can play a pivotal role in that effort.

Falah Mustafa Bakir is the head of the Department of Foreign Relations of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

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Negotiating an amicable split - Washington Times

GILLETTE, Wyo. Robert James has lived his nightmares.

James drove a gun truck, the second in a convoy of Humvees, the first of which had its sole job to find improvised explosive devices or get blown up by them.

On his first mission in Iraq in 2006, the lead truck took a hit.

"Can you imagine that?" James asked, more than 10 years removed from the explosion.

Imagine with James being in the middle of a war zone and having a truck 600 meters in front of you get blown up by a bomb hidden in the dirt.

James tried to explain it like the moment "right before you think you're going to get in a car accident."

The blood in your body doesn't flow through your veins. It floods them. Your heart stops pumping and vibrates in your chest. Your fingertips go numb, your senses are on high alert and there's no stopping the inevitable.

"That's how you live when you get over there. Constantly," he said. "Then, every time you roll out of that gate, multiply it by 10."

In August the next year, James was blown up by an IED twice in nine days.

He rolled out of the gate 63 times for convoy missions, drove more than 15,000 miles at an average speed of 10 miles an hour and spent a total of 14 months in Iraq on high alert.

Then he brought the war home with him.

In this June 30, 2017 photo, Robert James walks his two service dogs, Apollo and Ares during a trip to Cam-plex Park in Gillette, Wyo. It wasnt until 2015 that James began cognitive processing therapy for his PTSD. It started with a counselor in Rock Springs and he later got psychiatric help in Sheridan. Thats when he was introduced to the idea of a service dog. Photo Credit: Kelly Wenzel/Gillette News Record via AP A NAVY MAN

James grew up the youngest of seven kids in the tiny town of Encampment.

He knew he wanted to join the military at a relatively young age. Both his adopted father and brother served stints with the Army and Navy. James made up his mind fairly quickly which branch he would join.

"Who doesn't want to see the world at the taxpayers' expense?" he said.

Navy it was.

James also wanted to join for the quality education provided to a service member.

He enlisted in 1988 as an operations specialist working the radar on board a ship. He then joined the reserves and was out of the service for six years, then joined the Navy again as an equipment operator in the construction battalion for five years until finally joining the Wyoming National Guard in 2005.

In January 2006, his company got a warning order for active deployment training. That happens from time to time, James said, just to put the fear of war in the men and women, to keep them on their toes.

"Yeah right," he thought at the idea of being deployed.

Six months later, he was on a plane to Iraq.

He had trained to be a fueler for the mission, but three days before they left he was given a new duty: gun truck driver. That's what he did for a living as a civilian, driving trucks and teaching other drivers before they got their commercial driver's licenses.

"The little training they give you before going over there for the National Guard isn't what really happens over there," he said. "Not even close."

There's no preparing for the real thing. No drill to make it as real, no staged mission to get the blood pumping like it does behind enemy lines in the desert.

He remembers the heat the most, how the Middle Eastern summer was year-round, how the sweat seeped through everything. The adrenaline, the fear, the unknown. Here he was, a Wyoming National Guard member who had two years left on his enlistment and the only thing he thought he'd have to worry about was paying the bills.

Now he was worrying about staying alive.

"Do you really think anyone really wants to go to war?" he asked. "No. They don't."

He said it like someone who has seen things things he tries his hardest to block from his memory.

"I try to forget everything, but you can't," he said. "I saw some nasty (stuff) over there. Things I don't like to talk about with anyone."

He's only discussed the things he's seen with four people: His wife Jennifer, his gunner, an old friend and one of his bosses.

"I don't want to relive it," he said. "It's bad enough."

In this June 20, 2017 photo, Robert James uses his PTSD service dog in order to calm him down in stressful situations, mainly by blocking out everything and focusing mainly on petting Apollo on the head, in Gillette, Wyo. It wasnt until 2015 that James began cognitive processing therapy for his PTSD. It started with a counselor in Rock Springs and he later got psychiatric help in Sheridan. Thats when he was introduced to the idea of a service dog. A BITTER HOMECOMING

The panic attacks started within weeks of returning home. They were triggered in crowded rooms, small spaces, coffee shops, even grocery stores.

The worst one happened in a movie theater. He told his doctors at the time about the attacks, but their advice was just to try and live as normal a life as possible.

The combination of the sound, the dark and claustrophobia in the movie theater gave James one of the worst attacks he's had. When he's overcome with panic, his chest becomes tight, he has trouble breathing, he can't focus on what's going on and the only thought that runs through his mind is "Get out."

He doesn't even remember what movie he was there to see. Sometimes it all goes dark.

Along with three herniated discs in his back and a screw in his ankle, James was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from the war.

The last explosion that gave him the brain injury was the worst of them. All he remembers is a bright flash.

"You're trained to deal with everything while you're there, but when you come back home, there's so much you're not trained to deal with," he said. "They don't train you how to readjust. There's no process for that."

At home, he began to lose his cool, and anger issues that weren't there before emerged. His wife told him for two years to seek help. He thought she was full of it.

"I thought it was normal, freaking out like I did," he said. "I didn't know anything (different) was going on."

A SERVICE DOG

It wasn't until 2015 that James began cognitive processing therapy for his PTSD. It started with a counselor in Rock Springs and he later got psychiatric help in Sheridan.

That's when he was introduced to the idea of a service dog.

One of the frustrations that James has with the Department of Veterans Affairs is that it won't cover expenses for service animals for PTSD.

The federal agency does pay for service animals for veterans with visual, hearing or mobility disorders, but not for former service members whose only disability is PTSD.

The VA has studied the potential benefits of service animals for PTSD patients, but the agency has said that research has been inconclusive.

Without the help from the VA, James had to find a trainer and a dog on his own. Most trainers who work with service animals for PTSD require patients to relocate for a number of months to be there for the training.

"It was very discouraging because I would have had to relocate down in Arizona or Florida and be there for the entire time the dog was training," he said. "I couldn't uproot my family, especially after buying a house. That just wasn't going to happen."

That's when he found Tiffany Fitterer.

In this June 30, 2017 photo, Robert James walks his PTSD service dog Apollo at Cam-plex park in Gillette, Wyo. It wasnt until 2015 that James began cognitive processing therapy for his PTSD. It started with a counselor in Rock Springs and he later got psychiatric help in Sheridan. Thats when he was introduced to the idea of a service dog Photo Credit: Kelly Wenzel/Gillette News Record via AP

THE TRAINER AND THE DOG Fitterer is 24 years old and has been training service animals for just about five years.

She trains in the small town of Toronto, South Dakota, and was first introduced to James through Jennifer's cousin's son.

From the start, James didn't know that a service dog could actually help him. Fitterer sat him down and explained that men and women who come home from active duty have a hard time making connections, and a service animal is a perfect companion.

"When they are in the military they know what they're trained to do, so when they come home, so much of that is lost," Fitterer said. "Giving them a partner like a service animal, now they have a job to do and something to take care of."

In reality, Fitterer said, the dog is the one doing that for them.

James told her about his panic attacks, about his chest tightening. He told her about never being able to have his back to a door. He told her about loud noises, crowded rooms full of children, the nightmares.

Fitterer gathered all the details and told him to find a dog.

"I need you to look for it and feel it," she told him. "It's an absolute feeling."

"She said I had to have a bond with him instantaneously," James said.

"If the dog comes up to you and sits in front of you, that's a good start," Fitterer told him. "Then when you reach down and touch it, you'll have this feeling come over you like you've never felt or experienced before."

James thinks he looked at 50 to 60 shelters and farms for a dog. In Sturgis, he met a woman who had two Rottweilers. One was named Apollo, his brother Ares.

"You know those butterfly feelings?" James asked, referring to when you watch your bride walk down the aisle. "Quadruple that. That's the feeling I ended up having with Apollo when I initially touched him."

This was in April 2016. Fitterrer worked with Apollo for three months. In mid-July, James traveled to Toronto to do his own training so Apollo would follow the commands that Fitterer had worked through.

"Each dog and each human is different," she said. "Once I know the bond is there, everything else falls into place for how I do what I do."

James' life has completely changed since the first days of having Apollo at his side.

Mostly for the good. He had one bad run-in with a local restaurant that seemed intimidated by Apollo's size and asked them to leave. That ticked him off, but he's mostly kept his cool and has been able to transform his behavior.

During his recurring nightmares, James will be woken up by Apollo. In a crowded room, Apollo will sense James' heightening blood pressure and heart rate and have his owner focus on him instead of everyday chaos.

James likens it to plasma globes, the glass balls with a high-voltage electrode in the center of the sphere.

"Imagine my brain is that ball. Those normal pathways aren't there anymore because being (in Iraq) changed it," he said. "All of a sudden it (could) explode everywhere. That's what happens. It's a zero to instant type of problem. And (Apollo) will stop it."

Apollo has almost a dozen commands, from sit, kneel and stay to touch and give, which is something James can say to have Apollo turn a light on in a room before he enters it.

"Dogs are sensory creatures," James said. "They can pick up on (our senses) easily, especially when Apollo and I have that connection."

Just a few weeks ago, Fitterer got a text from James about how he was able to attend his son's concert.

When he was getting dressed for the show, James was scared as ever. The concert was for every fifth and sixth grader in the city who played a string instrument. His son plays the cello.

It was the most crowded room he's ever been in since coming home from the war.

At one point during the show, Apollo heavily leaned on one of James' legs. That was the moment James knew everything would be all right.

"(Now) he can go to the grocery store by himself and not fear or panic about someone coming up behind him in that cramped checkout area," Fitterer said. "A year ago he couldn't have done that. Now he doesn't bat an eye."

ANOTHER BEST FRIEND

A few months of having Apollo at home, James got a call from Fitterer.

The relationship between Apollo's brother, Ares, and the veteran that had been working with him didn't pan out.

James brought in Ares and had both dogs at home.

Ares is named after the Greek god of war. Apollo, the son of Zeus, is the god of many things, including light, truth, prophecy and healing.

To this day, James lives with the war that damaged him.

In his nightmares, he's reminded of the tragedies. His guardians are even named after the very idea that trapped him in dark corners and after the light that now shines in his new life.

They live cohesively with each other and alongside him. He has more control over his fears and anxieties all thanks to the healing powers of animals at the end of a leash.

Information from: The Gillette (Wyo.) News Record, http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com

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Service dogs help Iraq War veteran in Wyoming deal with PTSD - Military Times

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region Iraq has one of the highest rates of Tuberculosis (TB) in the region, with over 15,000 people affected in the country annually, says a report by the Iraqi government and the United Nations.

In a report published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday, the Iraq Ministry of Health reported that the country has the highest amount of TB rates in the region, which can be lethal if left untreated.

TB is a highly contagious bacterium that usually attacks the lungs but can also damage other parts of the body such as the brain, kidneys or spine. It is an airborne bacterium spread when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks.

In cooperation with the World Health Organization and Health Cluster partners, IOMs Emergency Health Program has been supporting the Iraqi Ministry of Healths National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) since 2014.

The conflict in Iraq has created enormous humanitarian challenges, including placing additional strain on the health system, and the exacerbation of health needs, said IOM Iraqs Chief of Mission, Thomas Lothar Weiss. IOM Iraq is pleased to work together with Iraqs Ministry of Health and humanitarian partners to educate vulnerable populations about the risk of Tuberculosis and to support prevention and treatment.

IOM was selected this year to be the primary recipient of the Global Fund to provide support for Iraqi NTP. IOM and NTP collaborated to design a major TB program intervention aiming to control TB in Iraqis most vulnerable populations such Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Syrian refugees and returnees.

Between 2014 and 2017, more than 300 TB cases were detected by IOM at NTP heath facilities among IDPs and Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan region and Kirkuk.

However, Iraqs NTP recorded a total of 7,246 TB cases in 2016 alone with 305 cases identified being IDPs.

It was reported in 2015 by NTP that the total number of TB patients exceeded 8,000 individuals. Of those, 29 percent were completely cured, 62 percent successfully completed treatment, and 3 percent (240 people) died from TB. Other cases were transferred or did not complete treatment.

This year, NTP has confirmed a significant rise in TB cases, mostly due to TB patients fleeing Mosul who had no access to health care as well as IDPs in remote, hard to reach locations who have received delays in diagnosis and treatment.

To combat an outbreak of TB, IOM is increasing efforts by carrying out initial screening at IDP camps and within host communities.

Additionally, IOM is providing TB awareness campaigns, training more medical staff, providing support to TB screening facilities as well as early detection and diagnosis of TB cases in IDP camps and other emergency sites for Iraqs displaced.

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Report: Iraq suffering one of highest rate of TB in region - Rudaw