Sulaymaniyah

The question for many ordinary Iraqis today is what unforeseen consequences this latest U.S. departure may have on their lives, whether that is a jihadist resurgence or the state's imminent confrontation with Iran-backed militias.

I remember what happened after the withdrawal in 2011, said Sarkat Ahmad, a 26-year-old shopkeeper in northwestern Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Quote, Imagine what these pro-Iranian groups will do to us in the absence of the international coalition.

Unquote.

For nigh upon two years he dwelt in Turkish Kurdistan, generally in a place named Sargalu, situated in the mountains and far removed from human habitations.

Sometimes on rare occasions he used to frequent Sulaymaniyah.

Ere long had elapsed, the most eminent doctors of those regions got some inkling of his circumstances and conditions and conversed with him on the solution of certain difficult questions connected with the most abstruse points of theology.

Having witnessed on his part ample signs and satisfactory explanations, they observed towards him the utmost respectfulness and deference.

In consequence of this he acquired a great fame and wonderful reputation in those regions, and fragmentary accounts of him were circulated in all quarters and directions, to wit that a stranger, a Persian, had appeared in the district of Sulaymaniyah, which hath been from of old the place whence the most expert doctors of the Sunnites have arisen, and that the people of that country had loosed their tongues in praise of him.

From the rumor thus heard it was known that the person was none other than Baha'u'llah.

Several persons therefore hastened thither and began to entreat and implore, and the urgent entreaty of all brought about his return.

And then the story moved on to the killing.

and then a museum in Sulaimaniya, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, bought a tablet.

I'm going to be plain about that, because it matters.

It was not excavated.

2023, in Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, a dream came true for a man who dreamed of things that never were.

The thing that wasn't, not here nor anywhere in Iraq, was a stroke unit that would provide world-class care to the people living in and around the Sulaiman capital.

It had been an exceptionally long dream.

We still have a lot of, I think, good allies in the region who, who were there for that.

Uh, Bafel Talabani, who is the president of, uh, of like the Sulaymaniyah area of, of Kurdistan, of the Kurdistan Regional Government, he's currently over, um, in Tehran right now.

A- and Bafel's forces and the PUK and the KDP were key to us being able to fight against ISIS.

And so now he's over there talking to the Iranians and, you know, I- I've known, uh, Bafel, I've known a lot of the Iraqi Kurds for quite some time, and they're caught between a rock and a hard place as well.

An Israeli-Canadian man, Benjamin Hassan, has been released from prison in Iraq following 11 years of detention.

Hassan, who was sentenced to death after shooting a taxi driver he claimed threatened him in self-defense, was freed from Sulaimaniya prison after a coordinated international effort involving legal negotiations and fundraising.

He is now on his way to Israel and has been accepted into the Eish HaTorah Foundation program in Jerusalem.

President Isaac Herzog addressed the upcoming Israeli elections, urging calm and stating that the process is not a civil war, despite harsh rhetoric and deep societal divisions.

And

part of the south of Sulaymaniyah province.

So during the first operation unfollow one, because there was a lot of snow, it was a very, very tough situation.

And the Iraqi army was invading the headquarters from five sites.