Two people were injured in Iranian forces' direct fire near Dzawar village of Nawsood city, Hangaw Human Rights Organization reported.

Another mountain couriers named Mukhtar Kuik, aged 45 who is from Marivan was ambushed by border forces and was seriously injured when he fell from the heights of Nawsood mountains, according to the report. 

according to the belongings of several couriers were also seized by the Iranian border guards. 

The number of foreign workers in Iraq has exceeded 1 million, and only 71,000 of them have official permits, the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said on Monday.

Th Iraqi Labor and Social Affairs Minister Ahmad al-Asadi has said there are more than 1 million foreign workers in Iraq, many of whom work illegally and pose a threat to the Iraqi labor market.

Najm Aqabi, spokesman for the ministry, said there were no official statistics on the number of foreign workers who are not licensed, and no one can determine the exact number, because they did not come to work but on travel visas. The number of officially licensed workers is 71,146.

Meanwhile, Mazhar Mohammed Saleh, the prime minister's financial adviser, said foreign workers who are officially registered take $600 million out of Iraq annually.

Ministry of Electricity of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq said in a statement, until now they have installed 1.3 million smart electricity meters, which is 92 percent of the Kurdistan region, adding that smart meters have reduced electricity waste by 30 to 40 percent.

Kamil Qazaz, Deputy Minister of Electricity, said in a statement that 92% of the smart meter project for control and electronic electricity has been completed, which has reduced the burning of electricity transformers.

Demand has reached 4,541 MW, while production is only 3,500 MW due to the repair process.

Kamil Qazaz said that the demand for electricity will increase to 6,000 MW in the summer season.

Iraqi Oil Ministry Spokesman Assem Jihad told Kurdsat News that the meeting between Iraq, Turkey and the Kurdistan region began in Baghdad this afternoon to discuss the issue of oil exports.

He said the issue of oil exports between Baghdad and Ankara will not be resolved in a single meeting, so today's meeting is the beginning of a series of other meetings on the same issue.

The oil ministry spokesman said today's meeting will be held in Baghdad and the next meeting will be held in Ankara.

The Oil and Gas Committee of the House of Representatives has submitted two new proposals to the Oil Minister to resume the export of oil of the Kurdistan region as it has been stalled for the past months.

Ali Mashkur, a member of the Iraqi parliament's oil and gas committee, told the official Sabah newspaper that Oil and Gas Committee has proposed two new ways to export Kurdistan oil to the Iraqi Oil Minister, and these include exporting the oil through State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) through the south, with exports through the Iraq-Banyas pipeline through Syria.

He added that Iraq will take all diplomatic measures to resume the process of exporting Kurdistan oil through the Turkish port.  Because the stagnation of the process will cost Iraq millions of dollars every day.

If Turkey continues to delay the resumption of Kurdistan's oil exports, Iraq will use southern routes to export the region’s oil.

Journalist and activist Ranj Pishdari said on Facebook Monday morning that among the survivors were pregnant women and children.

"There are 64 migrants and our yacht has broken down," one of the migrants said in a video posted before the rescue.

Ranj Pishdari said that after holding a telephone call with the Greek police through 112, they went to the migrants and after several hours all the Kurdish migrants were rescued.

“According to the information, all the migrants are safe,” Ranj Pishdari said.

In the past eight years, 548 Kurdish citizens have died on their way to Europe and the bodies of 234 people have not been found, according to statistics from the Lotka Agency for Refugee Affairs.

In 2022 alone, 17 people died and seven are still missing.

More than 300,000 migrants entered Europe by 2022, despite the lack of eligibility for asylum. 

Salih Moslem, the co-chairman of the Kurdistan Democratic Union Party (PYD), said that Turkey will continue its plan of erasure and destruction and conspiracy against the Rojava after the elections. Referring to the Turkish presidential elections where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won.

Turkey has not stopped its attacks and targets everyone, Muslim added. Regarding the Astana meeting scheduled for November 21, Muslim said Russia needs Turkey now.

Especially because of the sanctions imposed on Moscow as a result of the war in Ukraine, it is no longer an international issue, and he does not expect Russia to do anything, because there are many treaties between them.

He stressed that the autonomous administration of Rojava recently announced a roadmap to resolve the Syrian problems. Turkey does not want a solution for Syria, nor does it want the Kurds to participate in it, the PYD co-leader noted.

According to a report by the Iranian Human Rights Organization, 307 people have been executed in Iran and Rojhelat in the first five months of this year, a threefold increase compared to last year.

Iran's Human Rights Organization (IHO) has released a report on death penalty in Iran. In the first five months of 2023, 307 people have been executed in Iran and Rojhelat.

In May, 142 people were executed, four a day, the highest number in a month since 2015. Of the 142 executed, 37 percent were Kurdish and Baluch prisoners. Of the number 31 were Baluchs, 22 Kurds, nine Turks and six Afghanis. According to the report, 59 percent of those executed this year, or 180, were charged with drug abuse.

174 people were executed in the same period last year, an increase of 76 percent in the first five months of 2023. The Iranian government has been accused of imposing the death penalty on many charges, the report added.  

It has expanded the range of charges that carries the death penalty, such as charges of insulting religious sanctities and expressing opinions on social networks, as well as the death penalty for sexual intercourse.

Iranian Human Rights Watch warned of the growing use of the death penalty and called on the international community to take serious and practical steps to stop executions in Iran.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International says the increase in the number of executions in Iran and East Kurdistan is shameful, tripling compared to the same period last year.

Khanzad is a novel authored by Arez Abdullah that stresses the importance of women’s role in Kurdish society.

Arez Abdullah said, “I have highlighted the role, heroism and reign of the ruling Emir Khanzad who played a great role in terms of politics, justice and self-reliance in the region.”

Khanzad is a historical novel, the author depicts the Soran Princedom four hundred years ago and the hidden aspects of the female revolution and the rule of the princedom.

The Kurdistan Region Security Agency (KRG) said today in a statement that close monitoring of a band, the Asaysh forces of Sulaimani’s Raperin Asaysh Department arrested a gang of three people who were selling counterfeit Iraqi currency before in the market.

The suspects are residents of the Kurdistan Region and have been detained under Article 281 of the Iraqi Penal Code, the Asaysh said.

According to the statement the group has tried to throw 2 million Iraqi Dinars into circulation, about $1,200 US, the security agency noted.

 

According to the Syrian news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Special Affairs Asghar Khaji to discuss coordination on the basis of the Astana quadrilateral meeting where they discussed the withdrawal of the Turkish army from Syria, fighting terrorism and other issues.

At the meeting, Bashar al-Assad called for a joint strategy for dialogue and upcoming negotiations on the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Syrian territory.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Sahaf said that Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Security Advisor, Missions and Humanitarian Organizations in Iraq have met to discuss the Iraqi government's views on Camp Hall in Syria and wants to bring back Iraqi citizens living in the Camp Hall.

The spokesperson also said they have called on countries that have citizens in Camp Hall should move them back to their countries and close the camp because it has become a dangerous place.

He said the Iraqi government has provided 10 loads of food for Iraqi families who have returned from Camp Hall. The Iraqi government has returned 1,393 families that are 5,569 people.

In a Twitter post Tuesday, the US military said it was investigating the cause of the crash and there was no indication the helicopter had been hit by a hostile attack.

The US military's Central Command said 10 service members were evacuated to higher-level care facilities outside the region.

Central Command, which oversees US troops in the Middle East, said no enemy fire was reported but added that the cause of the incident was under investigation.

There are about 900 U.S. personnel deployed to Syria, most of them in the east, as part of a mission fighting the remnants of Islamic State. American troops there have come under repeated attacks in recent years by Iran-backed militia.

A high-level delegation of US industry and agriculture is visiting the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG).

A senior source at the US Consulate in the Kurdistan Region told KurdSat that, the delegation's visit is organized by the US Chamber of Commerce and will be attended by 10 major US companies.

He said the delegation will hold several meetings in the Kurdistan Region to closely monitor industry and agriculture in the region and encourage US companies to invest in region.

The delegation will arrive in the Kurdistan Region on November 18 and will stay there for three days, the source added

Christian Ritscher told the U.N. Security Council that survivors of a March 2016 chemical attack against Taza Khurmatu, a mainly Shia Turkmen town south of Kirkuk in northeast Iraq, were still deeply impacted when he visited earlier this year.

He said he has prioritized the investigation of chemical weapons used by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

“ISIS weaponized several chemical agents and deployed these as chemical rockets and mortars, as well as improvised explosive devices, in the vicinity of Taza Khurmatu” which hit residential neighborhoods and agricultural fields, Ritscher said.

The attack against Taza Khurmatu was believed to be the first use of chemical weapons by ISIS, according to the U.N. investigators. They have said more than 6,000 residents were treated for injuries and two children died within days of exposure while many survivors continue to suffer chronic and ongoing effects.

Ritscher said his team’s investigation “has provided specialized insight and analysis on the munitions, remnants and materials that were recovered” in Taza Khurmatu.

“Significant volumes of battlefield evidence, including ISIS payroll records and correspondence, were discovered, allowing the team to identify persons of interest and establish links to potential senior ISIS members,” he said.

Islamic State fighters seized Iraqi cities and declared a self-styled caliphate in a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq in 2014. The group was formally declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following a three-year bloody battle that left tens of thousands dead and cities in ruins. However, its sleeper cells continue to stage attacks in different parts of Iraq.

The U.N. Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes committed by the Islamic State group, known as UNITAD, which Ritscher heads, was established by the Security Council in 2017 to collect evidence so perpetrators of crimes by the Islamic State can be held accountable at trials. It has worked closely with Iraqi judicial officials.

A UNITAD report in May 2021 said the Islamic State group “tested biological and chemical agents and conducted experiments on prisoners ... causing death,” and an initial investigation was launched.

Ritscher assured the Security Council that “there is no shortage of evidence on ISIS crimes in Iraq, as ISIS was a large-scale bureaucracy that documented and maintained a state-like administrative system.”

He said his team has led efforts that have so far digitized 8 million pages of ISIS documents held by Iraqi authorities, including Kurdish officials, and as a next step UNITAD is establishing a central archive “that will be the unified repository of all digitized evidence against ISIS.”

Ritscher said UNITAD is also prioritizing “persons of interest” living in other countries and is currently supporting criminal proceedings against alleged members and supporters of ISIS in 17 countries.

The process was also hampered by infighting between different Kurdish parties. The budget — approved six months into the fiscal year and after four chaotic late-night voting sessions — allocates 12.6% of the revenue to the Kurdistan region and is seen as strengthening Baghdad’s hand on the oil revenues.

The central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government have been locked in a dispute over oil revenue for years, while competing Kurdish parties are also at loggerheads over their shares.

In the absence of a binding law detailing the sharing of funds from oil and gas exports, the Kurdistan region has moved ahead with exports on its own, while Baghdad has maintained that all exports should be run through the state-owned oil marketing company, SOMO, with Erbil receiving a share of the profits.

Under the new budget, the Kurdish region can market its own oil but must deposit the revenue in a bank account that officials from the central government can monitor. Baghdad will then deduct that amount from its monthly allocation to the Kurdish regional government and transfer any surplus money to Kurdistan region.

The budget vote was dragged out over several days, in part due to objections by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, to the provisions on the revenue sharing process and a related dispute resolution mechanism.

The Shiite majority coalition holds the most seats in the 329-seat Iraqi parliament, with 220 seats. The Kurds, who are the second-largest ethnic group in Iraq, have about 60 seats.

The finalization of the budget on Monday was a victory for Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s government, which was formed last year following a lengthy political vacuum in the wake of the 2021 elections.

Al-Sudani came to power with the support of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of pro-Iranian parties, after the influential Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr — whose party had won the largest share of seats but not enough to form a government — withdrew from politics.

Paralyzed by the political stalemate, the parliament did not pass a budget last year. With a budget now in place for 2023, al-Sudani’s government is hoping to combat poverty and bring much-needed economic stability.

However, some analysts say the budget is predicated on an overly rosy outlook and warned of a ballooning deficit.

The budget projects 2023 revenue at about $103.3 billion, based on a projected price of $70 per barrel for oil exports, the main source of income for Iraq, with exports estimated at 3.5 million barrels a day, including 400,000 thousand barrels from the Kurdistan region. The budget estimates a deficit of about $48 billion.

“The new budget is a cause for concern, as it relies heavily on oil revenue,” said Mudhar Mohammed Salih, al-Sudani’s adviser for financial affairs. “If oil prices drop, the deficit will increase, forcing the government to borrow money. This is a risky proposition, as it could lead to debt problems.“

A report last month by the International Monetary Fund on Iraq’s finances warned that the “fiscal loosening” proposed in the budget plan could lead to inflation and exchange rate volatility in the the short run, while in the medium term, oil price fluctuations could lead to “critical macroeconomic stability risks.”

“Barring a large increase in oil prices, the current fiscal stance could lead to mounting deficits and intensifying financing pressures in the coming years,” the report said.

Monday’s vote also approved the same budgets of $152 billion for 2024 and 2025 — apparently to avoid haggling over the issue for the next two years.

The Iraqi Security Media Cell said militants belonging to the extremist group late Saturday targeted the military position in the district of Dibis with light and medium weapons but did not provide further details.

The statement said that Iraqi authorities held a meeting to investigate the attack.

ISIS, in a late Saturday statement, claimed responsibility for the attack on their website.

This comes as the Iraqi military has cracked down on ISIS sleeper cells near the country’s borders over the past month. Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service launched airstrikes targeting the group’s positions in the western desert of the Anbar province and in the Hamrin mountains near Kirkuk, killing 27 militants.

The militant group in recent years has targeted Iraqi army positions in the governorate of Kirkuk. In November 2022, ISIS militants killed four Iraqi soldiers in the governorate’s district of Dibis , and took their weapons and communications gear.

Kirkuk’s governor, Rakan Saeed al-Jiboury, told The Associated Press at the time that the attack happened in an area divided between the Iraqi army and Kurdish peshmerga forces who don’t coordinate their actions “and (IS) takes advantage of this.”

ISIS’s territorial control in Iraq and Syria was crushed by a years-long U.S.-backed campaign, but its fighters continued with sleeper cells that have killed scores of Iraqis and Syrians.