14 Beautiful Photos Of Erbil, The Capital Of Iraqi Kurdistan That ISIS Is Targeting
Erbil, Kurdistan at night.
The Islamic State, or ISIS, has been taking down swaths of territory in northern Iraq and Syria in recent weeks. Between taking the city of Mosul, targeting the Yazidis (an ethno-religious minority in Iraq), and battling the Kurdish peshmerga, ISIS has moved increasingly towards Kurdistan, the de facto state of northern Iraq's Kurds.Amid the chaos, U.S. officials and northern Iraqis have fled to Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan. President Obama authorized military strikes against ISIS should they threaten Erbil.
With a population of 1.5 million, Erbil is the largest city in Kurdistan. It is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with life in the city dating as far back 6000 BC.
Since the winding down of the Iraq War, Erbil has become a hub for development, leading some to question whether it could become the next Dubai.
We gathered some photos of the progressive city that ISIS has in its sights.
This is where Erbil is located on the map. It is far north of Baghdad, but just 55 miles from ISIS-controlled Mosul.
Mariwan Salihi/Flickr
Erbil is very liberal city, compared with the rest of the Middle East. As Kurdistan is both largely secular and religiously diverse, Erbil has a busy nightlife scene, with dozens of bars, liquor stores, clubs, and restaurants opening in the last 10 years. Many consider its busy nightlife scene to be rivaled only by Dubai and Beirut in the Middle East.
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