Author: Al Bariliyah

In the whirlwind of Sri Lankan politics, last week’s visit by Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) to India carved a narrative that has both intrigued and polarised the political arena. This spectacle showcased the delicate art of political communication, underscoring the critical importance of reputation management and the nuanced dance of damage control in the face of adversity. For years, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), questioning authority and challenging the status quo, found itself in an unfamiliar position – defending rather than accusing. The controversial trip to India marked a turning point. Critics pounced, dissecting every word, every move, with relentless…

Austin was hospitalized Jan. 1 after complications from an elective procedure. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks has picked up his duties in the meantime, a senior defense official said. Amid tensions in the Middle East, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized, including spending four days in the intensive care unit, according to two senior administration officials. Austin was not able to perform his duties since New Year’s Day, a senior defense official said Friday. Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News that Austin “resumed his full duties” on Friday evening. He remained hospitalized on Saturday. Details about…

Under the guise of helping to search for hostages and preparing to evacuate their citizens, Western countries, led by the US and France, sent special military forces, considered among their elite, to Israel. There is a debate about whether these forces are participating in some of the Occupation army’s operations or not. Previous experiences, including in Libya during the Arab Spring, confirmed that these forces worked secretly at that time and contributed to the pursuit of Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. The Pentagon has announced, on many occasions, the deployment of various military forces, starting with warships, including aircraft carriers and…

Around 41% of eligible voters cast ballots in Iraq’s first local elections in a decade on Monday, state media said, in a vote where the ruling Shi’ite Muslim alliance is expected to extend its hold on power amid a boycott by their main political rival. The election is seen as an indicator of the balance of power in a country where groups close to Iran have steadily gained influence, as well as being a test of Iraq’s young democracy installed by the U.S. after the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003. It comes ahead of a 2025 general election. Around…

Fake travel agents have become a booming business in Punjab, with woman ‘touts’ now trying to lure financially weaker women into the trafficking net. Manpreet Kaur was one of the many young women who was trafficked to Iraq by a nexus of fake travel agents with roots in Punjab’s Kapurthala and Jalandhar districts. Manpreet, like many other women, had refused to work as a domestic worker without a salary and resisted the advances of the house owner and agents who used to come to ‘buy’ women. Thankfully, Manpreet along with 15 others managed to return home from Iraq, following the…

Kirkuk’s education directorate on Friday reversed a controversial decision to replace the use of the Kurdish alphabet in the official records of schools in the province, following pressure from the city’s Kurdish MPs. In a letter to the city’s primary schools, the education directorate ordered them to use the Arabic alphabet when writing students’ names instead of the Kurdish one. “This decision is illegal, because Kurdish is an official language, and we have education in Kurdish in Kirkuk,” Sabah Habib, a member of the education committee in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw’s Hardi Mohammed on Friday. Habib said the decision…

In front of a raucous crowd in Erbil, underdog Iraqi club Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya has soundly defeated visiting Saudi side Al-Ittihad. The Nov. 6 game, an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League clash, was held at Franso Hariri Stadium in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. “The game and the atmosphere are beautiful,” Ali Al-Amir, a 21-year-old from Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood, told Amwaj.media. Both Iraqi and Kurdish flags were in abundance around the crowd, along with Jawiya’s blue banners. Vendors worked the stands selling cups of pomegranate seeds and datil, Iraq’s version of the churro. For neutrals, the main draw was French…

Iraq’s government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi said that the proposal to close the US Embassy in Iraq is a decision that could “destroy Iraq”. In an interview with al-Ahed channel, which is affiliated with Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Awadi said that Iraq has international obligations, and any decision that targets the diplomatic missions would affect Iraq’s foreign ties. He said an earlier government decision to close the Swedish Embassy in Iraq in the wake of the burning of the Quran in Sweden has caused international concern. Such a proposal would not only affect the framework agreement (signed between Washington and Baghdad) but…

For years, members of Iraq’s Turkmen community have demanded that Tal Afar be elevated from its current status as a district in Nineveh to that of a full governorate. These calls have intensified as the Iraqi government is considering agreeing to Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan becoming the country’s 19th governorate. In response, Turkmen MPs earlier this year began collecting signatures to add a draft legislation about Tal Afar’s status to the parliamentary agenda. On Apr. 2, Badr Organization MP Gharib Turkmani announced that the effort had succeeded and that the matter would be discussed in future sessions. Months later, there…

A number of the election posters promoting the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) candidates have been torn down in Kirkuk as the election campaign for the provincial election recently began. The vandalism has mainly targeted the electoral campaigns of the Kurdish candidates, mainly including those from KDP, Kurdistan 24 has learned. Dr. Mohammed Khorsheed, a KDP candidate running for a provincial council seat, said “Most of our posters” have been torn down and destroyed. “This is a political insolvency for anyone behind this act,” he said, refusing to point the blame on any entity. The KDP’s headquarters have been shut in…