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On Tuesday, May 24, the Bureau of Democratic Organizations of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) received a Swedish Social Democratic Party (SDP) delegation in Sulaimani. The social democrats announced working on environmental issues and promoting organizational work in several fields.
A workshop was held between the bureau and a delegation of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and Olof Palme International Center, and civil society organizations in Sulaimani. With PUK youth, activists and party cadre, various issues were tackled.
The workshop discussed closer cooperation between civil society organizations in Kurdistan and Sweden. PUK is pleased to learn from the Swedish party experience and organization.
The PUK was founded in 1975, adopted socialism in 1992 and has since promoted democracy, human rights and self-determination. The party collaborates with various socialist parties around the world. It is a member of Socialist International, with Jalal Talabani, PUK’s first general secretary, serving as the deputy general secretary of the organization until 2017.
Two Iranian pilots died after their F7 fighter jet crashed on Tuesday near Anarak, 200 km (124 miles) east of the city of Isfahan, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported.
Isfahan Governor's Deputy for Security, Political and Social Affairs Mohammad Reza Jan Nasari confirmed the crash early Tuesday morning.
The F7 fighter aircraft was practising how to shoot at its targets when it crashed at 8:30 am Tehran time. The deputy governor added that it is not yet clear what caused the crash.
The Isfahan provincial official said it is not yet clear what caused the crash, adding that a team was investigating the incident.
Two people were killed in the accident, one the pilot and the other co-pilot, Qasim Zamani and Mohammad Javad Bai, both of senior military ranks.
Iranian aircraft, both tourist and fighter, are outdated and crash every year due to various accidents. Moreover, Iran has not been able to replenish its new aircraft due to international sanctions.
The necessary services and health agencies will be open while the holiday applies to the rest of civilian institutions, the administration added.
"We ask the citizens of Garmian to stay in their homes until the end of dust waves, to protect their health," a statement issued by adminstration said.
Since 2022, Iraq has been experiencing frequent severe dust storms that impede normal life and fill hospitals with pneumonia-related diseases.
Yesterday, most Iraqi institutions declared a holiday as it forecasted a severe dust storm. Still, the Kurdistan region maintained normal work as dust storms partially sweep across the region.
Garmian is one of the regions in Iraq most vulnerable to climate change. Garmian shares a long border with Iraqi deserts to the west and the south, where most sandstorms are formed. Earlier the administration declared draught, and demanded an urgent fund to fight the draught.
He added that more than 2 million registered vehicles in the region, with 100,000 vehicles being registered annually. There is one vehicle owner for every six people, which is less than the global standard.
Approximately more than 16 percent of the region owns a vehicle or more.
The spokesperson noted, "In 2021, 4,119 traffic accidents were recorded in the Kurdistan Region, with a death toll of 622 people."
The Kurdistan region’s primary and usually only way of transport is a private vehicle. The region lacks a railway or a subway system with poorly organized taxis.
Yesterday Nechirvan Barzani, Kurdistan region president and deputy general secretary of the KDP, arrived in Sulaimani after months of tensions and a lack of direct communications between the two ruling parties of the region.
He added that there are many problems between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. The parties should go to Baghdad with a united demand.
He noted, “the sooner the PUK and KDP meet, the better for the Kurdistan Region.
The Kurdistan region’s peshmerga forces are 100 thousand strong and are commanded separately by the PUK and the KDP. The PUK peshmerga is colloquially known as the 70 forces, while the KDP’s as 80 forces. Since 2005 numerous domestic and international attempts to merge the forces to unite the region’s peshmerga forces have remained futile.
According to the Iraqi Ministry of Commerce, if the wheat received this year reaches 1.5 million tons, they would still need three more million tons of imported wheat.
Earlier, the Iraqi Ministry of Commerce requested the necessary budget to import wheat. It needs three months to reach the silos.
The war in Ukraine has increased the price of wheat globally. Recently, Iraq has come to depend on foreign grain, especially from Ukraine, Russia, and Canada.
Many Iraq regions have faced consecutive draught for the past four years, making a poor and little grain harvest.
"Defeating IS and protecting the security of Iraqi citizens will remain a priority for the international coalition for a foreseeable future, and the recent defeats of IS does not mean that the group will not return," Parker said.
Since its territorial defeat, IS has shifted to a guerrilla warfare strategy, and it has started orchestrating attacks on prisons. On January 20, 2021, groups affiliated with ISIS attacked Al-Sina Prison in the southern part of the city of al-Hasakah, in Syria's far northeast. The attack lasted for nearly nine days and ended with killing dozens of IS terrorists and detainees inside the prison and approximately 140 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and its prison guards.
Prisons in Eastern and northern Syria, controlled by the SDF, house thousands of IS terrorists, which IS sees as possible recruiting to refill its emptied ranks. Grain silo and ships in Port of Basrah printed on Iraq's 50 Dinar banknote.
Every year, dozens of Kurdish peasants and traders are killed on the borders between the Kurdistan Region and Iran or Iranian Kurdistan. Last year, 54 peasants were killed, and about 170 others were injured.
Kurdistan region's deputy prime minister visited the headquarters of the Zanyari agency in Sulaimani's Qalachwalan area. He visited the agency's different departments and confirmed his support for the agency.
DPM meeting the new director of the Zanyari agency, Jalal Sheikh Naji, mentioned the importance of the organization's works in securing the Kurdistan region and the reforms needed to secure the region better.
Zanyari agency, officially known as Protection and Zanyari/ Zanyari agency, is one of the two intelligence agencies officially operating under the security council of the Kurdistan region.
IS terrorists assaulted the Iraqi army in the Bastamli region of Khurmatu district. The Iraqi army forces responded to an IS attack and pushed back the terrorist, leaving one Iraqi army soldier wounded, KurdSat News field correspondent reported.
Today a thick layer of dust blanketed Iraqi cities forcing the government to declare holidays and reducing visibility to only meters.
Iraqi army commanders say IS has taken advantage of the dust to move closer to Khurmatu district due to low visibility, killing several people.
Kirkuk’s Khurmato region has been a hot spot for IS terrorist activities in the past two years. The group covered by the dust could increase attacks and claim more lives with severe dust storms.
Khodayari was a senior aide to Qassem Soleimani, a former IRGC leader killed in Baghdad in January 2020. The Israeli media claimed that Khodari had plotted to kill Israelis. Israeli intelligence agencies were involved in the killing, and Iran has threatened retaliation.
A prominent Revolutionary Guards commander, Hassan Sayed Khodayari, was assassinated steps from his home in Tehran’s Mohahedin-e Eslam Street, on Sunday evening by gunmen riding on two motorcycles, killing him with five bullets.
Iranian Radio Farda quoted Israeli Wi-Net, saying that the Israeli intelligence agency was closely aware of the commander's plots and had already foiled them. Several terrorist acts against Israelis were planned in Cyprus, Latin America, Africa, and Turkey.
Meanwhile, Israeli Channel 13 reported that Sayad Khodayari had ordered Mansour Rassoul to assassinate an employee of the Israeli consulate in Istanbul. The channel said the aim was to assassinate the Israeli consul general in Turkey.
The incident appears to be related to an incident in recent weeks. Several Israeli intelligence officers in Urmia, East Kurdistan, obtained a confession from a man who intended to carry out several terrorist acts in Turkey and Europe.
After releasing Rasouli, he released a video of himself saying that several masked people had arrested him. He doesn't care about those things and is a farmer who is busy with his own life. However, the incident proved Rasouli's links to Iran's intelligence services, working as a mercenary of Iran's intelligence agency.
Most of the Israeli media covered the news last night after the killing of the commander, most indicated that the dead commander was a senior aide to former Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani.
Israeli television channel Kani quoted a security source saying that Tehran was chosen as the center of the attack to ensure that no target could escape Israeli hands.
Iranian media reported that the opponents of the revolution were involved in the killing. They said the commander was a guard of the sanctuary, referring to Shiite religious sites in Syria, and appeared to have worked with the Quds Force.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Monday he knew who was involved in the killing and would take revenge soon. The threat of retaliation comes as Iran has yet to take revenge on Qassem Soleimani and has hampered the nuclear deal.
This is not the first time Israeli intelligence agencies have hit targets inside Iran. They have previously killed several nuclear scientists, carried out several bombings in Iran's sensitive military and security facilities, and accessed Iran's most critical nuclear documents.
Today, at 5:15 am, two Turkish drones hovered over the skies in Khalkhalan in Suleimani's Aghjalar region, the Aghjalar county magistrate told KurdSat News.
At 9 am, the village headman, Aram HamadKhan, and his son-in-law, Ismael Mamand, drive down a road, and find three PKK fighters dead or injured. Hamadkhan put the three guerrillas in his Toyota Hilux pickup to a health center in Aghjalar, but at 9:35 am, Turkish drones bombed his pickup, killing all passengers on broad, a cousin of HamadKhan and Mamand said.
HamadKhan and Mamand are survivors of the Anfal campaign. During this campaign, in 1988, the Baathist regime killed more than 182 thousand women, children, and the elderly. HamadKhan and Mamand have lost many family members.
Turkey has been using drones to assassinate individuals and groups within the Kurdistan Region for years, violating the region's airspace and territory. Many civilians have died of the Turkish strikes. According to Kamaran Osman, a member of Community Peacemaker Teams in the Kurdistan region, since 2015, 111 civilians in the region have been killed due to the Turkish strikes.
The member of the Integrity Committee said that there are many violations and waste of public funds and other corruption acts through contracts that have wasted Iraqi wealth. Hence, the committee intends to open all corruption cases in the coming day. All corruption cases of Kazemi's government will display in the House of Representatives.
Since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, successive Iraqi governments have been accused of grand corruption by siphoning off billions of dollars.
In 2021 Iraq was listed as the 20th most corrupt country in the world. Although, since assuming office in 2020, Mustafa Al- Khadimi promised to eradicate corruption and promote transparent governance, his government is frequently charged with corruption.
A hydropower plant in Derelok with the capacity to provide 38 MW of electricity, a plant in Tasluja with a capacity of 51 MW, and three plants in Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok, each with a capacity of 29 MW, will start producing electricity this summer, KRG Electricity Minister Kamal Mohammed Salih announced.
The 500 MW Bazian power plant will be operational in November this year. Still, the minister added that its operation depends on the amount of fuel supplied.
Regarding the electricity situation this summer, the electricity minister revealed that this summer's electricity supplies would be the same as the last summer's or better.
The Kurdistan region relies on hydrocarbon energy to light up its households. However, the region doesn't have access to 24/7 electricity and needs development in its energy infrastructure.
Bafel Jalal Talabani, co-president of the PUK, remembered Mustafa and said, 'Today we sadly remember the passing of a great leader of our nation.'
Kurdistan region deputy prime minister Qubad Talabani, remembering Mustafa praised him, saying, 'Nawshirwan Mustafa is unique in his path and method. He is one of the rare leaders that have become public property, and with time his value increases.'
He is known as the father of the poor as he championed a campaign for transparency and the rule of law for a decade until his death.
Many people posted their photographs with Mustafa on social media.
Nawshirwan Mustafa was born on 22 December 1944 in the old quarter of Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, the son of Mustafa Émin Khider. Sulaymaniyah has been home to the Mustafa Émin Khider family since the city was established in 1784. Unlike Kurdistan's other prominent political leaders, Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, Mustafa hails from a town, not a village, and is not a member of a tribe. Nawshirwan built his reputation as a republican who opposed family rule and hereditary political parties.
On May 16, in a show of solidarity with journalists in the Kurdistan region against malicious cyber-attacks, the center organized a meeting for prominent Kurdish journalists, critics, and dissidents in the Kurdistan region's Sulaimani.
Cyber-attacks have become an additional obstacle to freedom of the press and opinion, Metro center declared.
Director of the Metro Center, Raman Gharib, invited a group of editors-in-chief of prominent Kurdish media outlets to a discussion at the Draw Media Foundation office. They held a round table to discuss topics related to Internet freedom and cyber-attacks on some news websites.
The participants unanimously agreed to write a memorandum and direct it to international organizations and Meta (Facebook) to protect journalists from attacks and make the internet safer for freedom of press and opinion.
Kurdistan region's Sulaimani is home to a diverse number of papers, media outlets, and TV stations, both domestic and international, that operate in the free environment of Sulaimani.
Hackers recently targeted Kurdish news outlets such as the Diplomatic Magazine and Bwar Media after publishing corruption papers. The attack downed both media websites and halted their journalist operations.
'Several journalists submitted complaints and told us about targeting personal computers and mobile devices for their journalistic work.' Gharib said in the meeting.
The Metro Center had opposed a bill submitted by the Cultural Committee of the Parliament of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to 'regulate' electronic media and considered it a frightening trend to restrict freedom of expression. The bill's design might limit journalists' access to material and information.
Metro Center for Defending the Rights of Journalists was established in August 2009 by journalists and human rights defenders. It was founded in cooperation with the American Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). The center aims to monitor, defend, and protect the freedom of the press and journalists in the Kurdistan Region.