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In this feature, InformNapalm volunteer intelligence community publishes unique intelligence information about 300 + 1 “Spartans” from among mercenaries of the Russian intelligence unit, known as PMC Wagner. In February 2018, this group made an attempt to advance on an oilfield near Deir-Ez-Zor held by Kurdish and American forces and was hit by a massive airstrike. All the data has been collected and analyzed by IHTAMNET M-2090 team, it was handed over to InformNapalm for publication on exclusive basis. According to the project activists, 301 mercenaries, whose data are indicated in this investigation, took part in the attack in the...

A Turkish court has ruled to ban a book titled “Kurdistan Tarihi” (The History of Kurdistan), whose first edition was confiscated by the State Security Court (DGM) in 2001 and pulled off the shelves. “The History of Kurdistan,” a Soviet academic volume published in Turkish by Avesta Publishing, was initially banned by the Ayvalık Penal Court of Peace and subsequently banned in 2001 by the İstanbul DGM. The publishing house was also given a fine and sentence by the same court. However, thanks to legal challenges, the ban was overturned. Edited by M.S. Lazarev and Ş.X. Mıhoyan and translated from...

ERBIL — Turkish border police on Thursday arrested a Kurdish member of the Swedish parliament after he arrived at Ataturk International Airport as part of a parliamentary group to observe the upcoming Turkish elections. MP Jabbar Amin was denied entry at the airport, Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed. Swedish news agency TT quoted Amin as confirming his arrest at his arrival. His passport was also taken away before being deported to Sweden. “We have just recently been informed that Jabar Amin has been denied entry into Turkey. We have raised the issue with the Turkish representatives and demand an explanation,” said...

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The United Nations asked the Turkish government on Tuesday to end the state of emergency in place since July 2016 and grant its human rights office access to the country’s Kurdish-populated region where “massive and serious” human rights violations occurred. A report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said the violations committed by security forces “included killings, torture, violence against women, the excessive use of force, destruction of housing and cultural heritage, prevention of access to emergency medical care, safe water and livelihoods, and severe restrictions of the...

Erdogan said the operation against the Afrin enclave aims to “purge terror” from his country’s southern border. Afrin is controlled by a Syrian Kurdish militia known as the YPG. Turkey considers the YPG to be a terrorist group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has waged a bloody insurgency within its borders. A YPG spokesman in Afrin said clashes erupted after midnight between his unit and Turkish troops near the border with Turkey. Rojhat Roj said the shelling of areas in Afrin district, in Aleppo province, killed one YPG fighter and injured a couple of civilians on...

The Tabqa operation launched by the Democratic Syrian Forces has entered day 32. SDF is tightening the siege step by step, and the gangs are trapped inside. They attacked again to break the siege, but they were pushed back and 72 gang members were killed. At 05.00 yesterday, ISIS gangs carried out simultaneous attacks in Ayid Kebîr and Cub al-Abû Cabir villages to the south of Tabqa, the Military Airport and the surroundings of Icêl village to the southwest and SDF positions in Îbad, Safsafah and Sahil El Xesheb villages to the east with heavy weapons and suicide bombers. ISIS...

A letter written in Kurdish by a prisoner in Turkey’s southeastern Elazig prison has been censored by prison authorities for being in an “unknown language.”The letter, written by political prisoner Murat Akkurt to his brother, who is being held in Bitlis prison, was censored and prevented from being sent by prison authorities for being in the Kurdish language, reported Dihaber.The incident is the latest in a string of similar acts of censorship by the government. Signs in the Kurdish language were removed by state appointed trustees following the dismissal of Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) mayors following Turkey’s coup attempt.The Kurdish...

BASHIQA, Iraq (Reuters) - The bells have rung out after two years of silence in the Mar Korkeis church in the town of Bashiqa, some 15 km (10 miles) north of Mosul, Islamic State's last major city stronghold in Iraq. Kurdish Peshmerga fighters retook the town on Nov. 7, ending two years of rule by the hardline Sunni group which persecuted Christians and other minorities in the Nineveh plains, one of the world's oldest centres of Christianity. Women trilled to celebrate the moment when a new crucifix was erected on the church, replacing one that was broken by the Islamic...

There has been a recent surge in conversions to Zoroastrianism among Kurds at home and abroad. Andaz Hawezi, chief of the Zoroastrian Temple in Sweden says thousands have joined the faith. In 2011 he was elected to lead the temple. Zoroastrianism is one of the world’s oldest religions to which most Kurds trace their ancestral faith. Hawezi says not all the new converts or followers are Kurds. There are Arabs, Turks, Persian, Swedish, Polish, British and other nationalities. “We hope to come back to Kurdistan. That’s why we named the Temple Kurdish Zoroastrian.” Hawezi says. The Temple in Sweden is...

She was, according to Western media, a poster-girl for her people, admired as much for her striking good looks as her military prowess. The 19-year-old, from the Syrian Kurdish city of Qamishli, was killed by Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Syria last month.

An Israeli Orthodox Jew protesting in front of the US Embassy, in Tel Aviv, for Kurdish independence. Photo: Twitter / Screenshot.Why has the West been so supportive of Palestinian nationalism, yet so reluctant to support the Kurds, the largest nation in the world without a state?The Kurds have been instrumental in fighting the Islamic State (ISIS); have generously accepted millions of refugees fleeing ISIS to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG); and embrace Western values such as gender equality, religious freedom and human rights. They are also an ancient people with an ethnic and linguistic identity stretching back millennia and have faced decades...

Speaking on the 100th anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Agreement last week, President of the Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, declared that the old Middle East created by European imperialism was dead – and that an independent Kurdish state must be part of the emerging new order. Referring to the secret arrangement by the Allied Powers in World War I to divide the Middle East into “spheres of influence”, Barzani blasted the Sykes-Picot Agreement, saying that it denied the rights of the inhabitants and carved up populations with arbitrary lines. The agreement served as the basis for the establishment of the modern...

Ever wonder why the federal government would be sending hundreds of foreign refugees to a relatively small town in Idaho? Wonder no more. They’re sent there, many of them, to work in the world’s largest yogurt factory. As WND previously reported, Twin Falls is in line to receive about 300 refugees this year, many of them Muslims from Syria. And the state of Idaho, despite its reputation as a mostly white, conservative farm state, has been a popular destination for refugees in recent years. Boise Mayor David Bieter has gone on record as a huge supporter of President Obama’s welcoming...

Syrian rebels have brought at least 2,000 reinforcements through Turkey in the past week to bolster the fight against Kurdish-led militias north of Aleppo, rebel sources said on Thursday. ...Turkish forces facilitated the transfer from one front to another over several nights ..."We have been allowed to move everything from light weapons to heavy equipment, mortars and missiles and our tanks," Abu Issa, a commander in the Levant Front, told Reuters ..."We are getting fresh supplies of everything from missiles to mortars to armoured vehicles. Almost everything is now being delivered to us," said the rebel source.

Syrian Kurds open Moscow representation MOSCOW - Agence France-Presse Participants pose for a picture during a ceremony opening a representative office of Kurdish groups in Syria, in Moscow, Russia, February 10, 2016. REUTERS Photo Kurdish groups in Syria on Feb. 10 opened a representation in Moscow amid a push by the Kremlin to have them included in Syria peace talks despite Turkey’s objections. “This is a historical moment for the Kurdish people,” Merab Shamoyev, chairman of the International Union of Kurdish Public Associations, said at the opening ceremony for the office in an industrial neighborhood in southeast Moscow. “Russia is...

ANKARA, Turkey – Two bomb explosions targeting a peace rally in Turkey's capital Ankara on Saturday killed at least 30 people and injured 126 others, Turkey's Interior Ministry said. The explosions occurred minutes apart near Ankara's main train station as people were gathering for the rally, organized by the country's public sector workers' trade union and other civic society groups. The rally aimed to call for an end to the renewed violence between Kurdish rebels and Turkish security forces. ·

The Two Deaths of Crazy Fakhir Former Iraqi commander cleared booby-traps—until it finally killed him Many Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have died fighting Islamic State militants this year. But the news of Col. Fakhir Barwary’s death on Nov. 11 held special significance.That’s because Barwary’s death has been reported on two separate occasions. The media wrongly declared him dead in 2008 following a bomb blast outside Mosul.In fact, he’d only lost a leg—and even that didn’t end his soldiering days. After the fall of Ba’athist regime in 2003, many Peshmerga joined the Iraqi army in order to help protect civilians. Fakhir...

A woman known as "Rehana" has become a hero across the internet as news spread that the Kobani soldier has reportedly killed more than 100 Islamic State terrorists single-handedly. Rehana became famous in Kurdish Twitter circles after a photo of her giving a peace sign began to circulate on the social network. Rehana has killed more than a hundred #ISIS terrorists in #Kobane . RT and make her famous for her bravery pic.twitter.com/YvmfXMpuu1— Pawan Durani (@PawanDurani) October 13, 2014 According to the International Business Times, Rehana is a YPJ (Kurdish female Peshmerga) soldier under the command of famed female soldier Mayssa Abdo, who herself has become famous...

MALIKIYA, Syria (AP) — In a dusty camp here, Iraqi refugees have new heroes: Syrian Kurdish fighters who battled militants to carve out an escape route for tens of thousands trapped on a mountaintop. While the U.S. and Iraqi militaries struggle to aid the starving members of Iraq's Yazidi minority with supply drops from the air, the Syrian Kurds took it on themselves to rescue them. ... For the past few days, fighters have been rescuing Yazidis from the mountain, transporting them into Syrian territory to give them first aid, food and water, and returning some to Iraq via a...

The Kurdish forces went on the offensive on Sunday after Islamic militants captured Shangal 200 kilometers west of Erbil. SHANGAL—Kurdish Peshmerga forces have entered Shangal, said military officials, and they have cornered militants of the Islamic State in parts of the town. Rudaw reporter in the area said that units from the 10,000-strong Peshmarga force who had encircled the town earlier in the day are now in the town center and try to rout the Islamic militants. The Peshmerga were able to enter Shangal following a heavy bombardment of the Rahman and Nasir sectors where the militants had taken position....