As the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and central Iraqi government split hairs over oil shares, rapid modernisation across northern cities is quietly forgotten.​

Nowhere, perhaps, is this more visible than in the city of Erbil. Behind proudly erect buildings and ostentatious malls, is a little-known history of unregulated land use, corporate irresponsibility, foreign investment and export dependency, on which the KRG has consolidated power.

The city’s modern rebirth - described by some as ‘Iraq’s Dubai’ - while praised, has ushered in an age of deprivation and dejection.

An explosive interview with Egypt's former Vice President Mohammed ElBaradei has claimed that former French President Jacques Chirac told him US intelligence 'knew' that Iraq had no WMDs in 2003.

Washington had no intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, according to Egypt's former Vice President Mohammed ElBaradei, during the second-part of a highly-charged interview with al-Araby TV.

The exiled Egyptian former minister - who was head of the International Atomic Energy Agency at the time - said that former French President Jacques Chirac told him the US would be "breaching international law" if it went to war with Iraq.

ElBaradei opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq and wanted weapons experts to be given more time for inspections.

As the government of Finland accelerates its campaign of forced deportations, activists argue that asylum is no longer a right, but a privilege denied or granted. 

The asylum application of 20 year-old Yussef Khaled Al-Rawi, pictured to left, was recently turned down after immigration authorities reached the verdict that his case was undeserving of residency. 

Having fallen victim to a bomb blast outside his home in Al Amiriyah, west of Baghdad back in March 2014, Al Rawi fled in search of a safe and dignified life abroad. Al Rawi’s injuries - nerve damage and deafness - from which he continues to suffer, were not deemed serious enough for him to be granted a residency permit. ​

The rejection letter issued by the department of Finnish Immigration (MIGRI) came one year after he had arrived to the nordic country. The young Iraqi, as outlined in the letter, had been refused on the grounds that “he was able to remain in Iraq for several months after the blast occurred”.

Recent and unexplained arrests of Iraqi refugees by Finnish police, has been interpreted by many as an attempt to escalate a nationwide campaignn to roundup and deport refugees, FRB reports. 

Two Iraqi asylum seekers arrested last Thursday by Finnish police in Turku will be deported back to their country in two weeks time, a Finnish judge has decided. 

In late November last year the asylum applications of both men, from Baghdad and Nasiriyah, were rejected, with little explanation offered other than ‘return to Iraq is safe’.

​Appealing the decision of the Finnish Immigration Service (MIGRI) is a right granted in all but a few cases, within the period of 30 days. Appeals are processed by the administrative court that may overturn MIGRI’s decision, or deliver an identical verdict. If rejected for the second time, a petition of appeal can be submitted to the Supreme Administrative Court.

​​The men arrested, Haydar and Karrar, have yet to exercise this right, now eclipsed by their unexplained incarceration. ​

Signs are emerging that Islamic State group defences in Mosul are seriously waning following a three-month assault on the city by Iraqi forces, a US general has said.

​Increasingly desperate tactics are now being taken by IS commanders in their fight to keep hold of Mosul.

US Army Major General Joseph Martin believes this shows the group is beginning to lack the vital military resources to defend the city. 

​The militias fighting under the banner of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq have played a controversial role in the ongoing battle to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State. The PMF is widely seen inside Iraq and abroad as a sectarian Shiite force.

On social media and in popular discourse (largely from a Sunni perspective), the PMF is pejoratively referred to as “Safavids” or simply “Iranians.” PMF groups have been implicated in human rights abuses against Sunnis during liberation operations in cities such as Tikrit and Fallujah.

Yet the PMF has tried hard to portray itself as Iraqi nationalist. The call to arms that established the PMF is framed in nationalist terms, and there are groups in the PMF — such as the Abbas Combat Divisions — that have a genuinely nationalist and state-centered outlook and have been integrated into the Ministry of Defense.

​In fact, half of the PMF militias are closely integrated with the state, and a recent law calls for all to be integrated completely. Why have their efforts to shed their highly sectarian image failed?

​A series of Daesh car bombs targeting an Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) staging ground just outside of Mosul has resulted in the deaths of approximately 20 soldiers today, while separate mortar attacks have killed four aid workers and seven other civilians this week.

Daesh’s Amaq news agency said that three vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) targeting Iraqi soldiers in Gogjali, a satellite town just outside of east Mosul, had killed 20 soldiers. The Iraqi government gave no figures for their losses.

Gogjali was recaptured from Daesh approximately two months ago, and had been declared “secure” by the Iraqi authorities who use it as a staging ground, resupply station and they have also located their field hospital there.

The militant group’s ability to launch devastating attacks inside Gogjali suggest that the neighbourhoods claimed to have been “liberated” by the ISF and the US-led Coalition may not be as secure as previously thought.