Iraq

In the coming years, there will probably be a Harvard Business Review article entitled: “A Case study: ISIL [Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant] on the Iraqi front, a best case in social media management by a terrorist organization.”

On June 20, that is tomorrow, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the social democratic main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), will be in the pre-dominantly Kurdish-populated city of Diyarbakır, in Turkey’s southeast, where he will attend an interesting meeting.

Turkey has updated its travel warning for Iraq, increasing the number of Iraqi provinces where Turkish citizens may face security problems, from seven to 15.

Anbar, Baghdad, Basra, Diyala, Mosul, Kirkuk and Salahaddin were already listed by the Foreign Ministry as provinces that Turkish citizens should avoid travelling through.

Iraq's premier vowed June 18 to "face terrorism" and insisted security forces had suffered a "setback" rather than defeat, as militants pressing a major offensive attacked the country's largest oil refinery.

Islamist insurgents invaded the Baiji oil refinery, the biggest such facility in Iraq, as they are pushing toward the capital Baghdad after having seized a number of cities.

Some 75 percent of Baiji, located 210 km north of Bagdad, is now under the control of militants led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), as the BBC reports citing officials.

The Turkish government has updated its official terrorist organization list, removing the al-Nusra Front from the group listed under the title “al-Qaeda in Iraq.” However, the changes published in the Official Gazette on June 18 kept al-Nusra listed as a “terrorist organization.” 

Russia said on June 17 it has gained Syrian approval to open four border crossings from Iraq, Jordan and Turkey to deliver aid to millions of people under a "far-reaching formula" proposed to U.N. Security Council members.

Iraqi Kurdistan has built a link connecting Kirkuk to its newly-built pipeline to Turkey, its minister of natural resources said, potentially cementing Kurdish control over the northern oil hub and reducing its reliance on Baghdad.

Some 60 foreign workers, including 15 Turkish citizens, have been kidnapped by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq on June 17, an eyewitness told Doğan News Agency.

We are proceeding in a very warm agenda, such as Turkish diplomats and drivers being taken hostage, the spreading of clashes in Iraq and the nomination of Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu as the joint presidential candidate of Turkey’s two major opposition parties.