Author: Kwestan Rezan

A fire broke out at an asphalt factory near Arbat town in the east of Sulaimani, killing one worker and injuring three others.  The fire started on Wednesday morning after a tanker carrying bitumen caught fire while trying to discharge its load in one of the storage units inside Zillion Oil Company’s industrial plant, according to Arbat mayor Daban Mohammed. Saman Nadir, head of Sulaimani Emergency Center (122), the city’s ambulance hotline, told Rudaw English that one person was killed in the fire and three others were severely injured. The fire has been burning for over 9 hours, mainly due…

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Sunday said that his government is serious about eradicating the threat of drugs, and called on the Kurdish and international community to cooperate with Erbil to eliminate the source of what he described as an “endemic” issue. “The Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG] is seriously and widely working to eradicate and combat this dangerous threat [drug trafficking], as well as mobilizing all its efforts to prevent its spread,” said Barzani at the conference for combating drugs and psychotropic substances in Erbil. Barzani said that drugs are a dangerous tool used to oppose and weaken…

The Kurdistan Region is greatly capable of increasing its gas production to a level that allows it to compete on global markets, said its deputy natural resources minister, urging for a clear model to invest into the gas sector.  “The Kurdistan Region has great capabilities to increase gas production and in turn increase the production of electricity,” Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Ahmed Mufti said during the the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) 2023 forum in Erbil, adding that 85 to 90 percent of the Region’s electricity comes from gas. MERI is holding a two-day forum…

Brussels (27/10 – 50) Just in September this year, ten “distinguished” people in Tajikistan have been awarded general ranks. The decree on conferring general ranks was signed by the country’s president, Emomali Rahmon, on September 7th. According to this decree, there are now three more generals in the Agency for State Financial Control and Anti-Corruption. The rank of Major General of Justice was awarded to the head of the Finance and Economic Department, Fazliddin Khodjazoda, the head of the Special Operations Department, Abdurakhmon Davlatzoda, and the head of the Agency for GBAO, Zoir Gafurzoda. The rank of Major General of…

Turkish air forces on Tuesday bombarded a mountain in Duhok province. Locals said the bombardment could be clearly seen from nearby villages.  Locals from the area told Rudaw’s Ayub Nasri that Turkish forces bombed the mountain for nearly half an hour. Fayaq Balavayi, a villager, said “There are no civilians in the targeted area but the bombardment could be heard and seen in nearby villages.” Majd Barchi, another local, said this is the third successive night that Ankara bombed the mountain, adding that there are no civilians on the mountain because it is a prohibited area. Turkey has recently upped…

Toronto, Frankfurt (16/9 – 30) Derna is a second-tier city of roughly 100,000 people, situated in northeast Libya. Early dawn on Monday, September 11, two aging dams gave way, bursting and sending a seven-meter-high tsunami towards the city. Entire neighborhoods were washed into the sea. The dams failed after heavy rainfall hit the region, as Storm Daniel passed through. Before passing over Libya, a Storm Daniel landfall in Greece resulted in 15 fatalities, on September 4. The same storm also wreaked havoc in Turkey and even up in Bulgaria. At least five people were killed after a flash flood swept…

US State Department on Thursday said that Washington is “concerned” that the tensions between Kurdistan Region’s ruling parties have had impact on the process of Peshmerga reforms, adding that they have informed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of this. “We continue to have concerns [about] the impact of the internal Kurdish divisions on the pace of Peshmerga reform… and we have communicated these concerns to senior KRG leaders as well,” US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda during a press briefing on Thursday. Peshmerga Minister Shoresh Ismail, from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), was unhappy with…

Berlin (25/7 – 16.67) The table is set for the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast to remain a geopolitical hotspot. Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), eastern Tajikistan, is the home to the Pamir Mountains, also called “the roof of the world”, whose sharp mountain ranges and deep valleys resemble a lunar landscape. A far-flung frontier, situated in a troubled neighborhood, next to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, GBAO is a geopolitical treasure tethered to exterior interests: the authoritarian central Tajik government in Dushanbe, Chinese economic and military interests, and Russia, which historically frames the Pamirs as a part of its…

Frankfurt, Brussels (21/7 – 37) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has once again reversed course, approving Sweden’s bid to join the legacy European military bloc, having been promised a brace of classic F-16 fighter jets. This new deal was hammered out at the recent NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, and included a vow by Türkiye to avoid quarrels with ancient enemy Greece also a NATO member. During a 12 July press conference on in Vilnius, Erdogan touched on several issues important for Türkiye, including ratifying Sweden’s NATO bid, its F-16 jet deal with the US, and a “balancing act” between…

The Peace in Kurdistan Campaign issued a statement in solidarity with all political prisoners and in support of those fighting for their release. In a statement released to express its solidarity with all political prisoners and its support for all those fighting for their release, the Peace in Kurdistan Campaign said: “To the courageous men and women of Iran and to those detained for their political beliefs, we send our greetings of solidarity. We stand with you and salute your struggles and we demand justice for all political detainees in Iran, across Kurdistan and, in fact, in countries around the world wherever…