Folks
If anyone is planning on entering into Iraq/Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) then I would advise against it, I work in Iraq and at the moment there is a lot of uncertainty on how safe the region is.
IS (extreme Islamic group) are pushing toward Erbil and other areas, they do have control of certain areas in Kurdistan and Iraq.
The US are continuing with bombing areas to help the Iraqi Army and Peshmerga
Its not the best area to be in at the moment

Iraq - Al Jazeera - News

http://rt.com/news/179280-iraq-islamic-kil-yazidi/

Latest News : Aswat Al Iraq

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The Balkans
https://new.horizonsunlimited.com/poi_entity/8417

I really wished to visit Iraqi Kurdistan in June 2012 by motorcycle and I was ready to do it, but an earthquake hit the North of Italy just a few days before my departure, so I had to cancel the trip 'cause I felt I had to stay close to my girlfriend that temporarily lost her house.
I was sorry also because I knew that some parts of the world can be not safe anymore as years progress due to many events, and this is a clear case.


Anyway, my prayers are with the innocents that risk their lives due to integralism, let's hope that all of this horror will come to an end very soon.

Be safe, bro, and thanks for the update.

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Nick and his 2010 Yamaha XT1200Z Super Ténéré

Northern Iraq / Kurdistan's territory was never really under attack by ISIS and is as safe as ever. The road from Turkey / Zakho to Erbil is a highway. No reason to be overly worried as a traveller.

I think you will find that it is still under attack in certain places, there was a large bomb in Erbil about 3 to 4 days ago, so they managed to get a bomb in to the safest area of the safest area, the Peshmerga are still trying to rout ISIS from certain areas and are doing a good job. Also there are no Kurdistan/Iraq border because in the eyes of the Iraq government it is just one country. I work over in Iraq (well for another week anyway) and get int updates most days. That said it is not as bad as Northern Iraq. Yeah everything will probably be fine for travelers....right up until you put the orange jumpsuit on.

In the northern province of Ninevah, Kurdish forces were reported as repulsing an IS attack against defensive positions on the outskirts of Ba'shiqah, to the northeast, claiming to have killed and injured dozens of insurgents.
This puts them about 2 to 3 hours from the Turkey/Iran/Iraq borders

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The Balkans
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I wonder - or not - what motivation you have to pro-actively discourage travelers to visit your neighbouring country (Northern Iraq - Kurdish Autonomous Region), and then with standard mainstream newsclips.


In theory, this forum exists for accurate first-hand info by and for bonafide travellers.


Other HUBBers provided just that recently, for example eurasiaoverland in his valuable post http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...055#post482880 and myself with Along the ISIS front from Grozny via Erbil & Kobane to Kilis

There is no malis meant, I am just saying it as it is. No false pretense and by no means am I telling people not to go. The choice is there for people to make. But i am definitely not going to flower it up

As for first hand info, i am sat in Iraq now and work with Iraqis, can get no more first hand than that

What do you class a a bonifide traveler? I do travel, quite a bit actually, not all of it for pleasure as I would like.
I would also prefer not to get into tit for tat on this forum. But please PM me if you wish

Wayne

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The Balkans
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I would agree with Wayne: Working in Iraq and with Iraqis you get a lot more information than by just passing through. And even if: I remember one day in Baghdad we were walking and driving through the town, perceiving the situation to be relatively calm - just to learn later in a security briefing that there had been 47 "incidents" including several bombs that day.

That having said, I agree with Travelbug that the North of Iraq is still relatively safe (as is the South of Iraq, by the way). But the main word is "relatively" here, with the bomb attack on the provincial government's headquarters in Erbil (which had only been the second such attack in almost a decade) indicating the volatility of the area.

The events of Mossul and Sindjar in the summer have clearly shown that the situation can change within days, sometimes within hours. With the main highway from Dohuk through Zakho to the Turkish border basically being the only lifeline in this direction, a surprise attack of ISIS there could put unsuspecting travelers in limbo and in a life threatening situation in no time. In addition, the threat of a kidnapping is high for independent travelers riding or driving alone, not really knowing the place or locals or the situation in front of them.

Therefore, while it is not excluded that traveling through the beautiful landscapes of Northern Iraq can still be a great experience, overlanders should carefully consider whether it is the right time to travel to Kurdistan at this moment.

Safe travels!
Achim

No bun fights please & don't flame Members who provide local knowledge as this one of most useful sources of up-to-date information and one which makes the Hubb a precious place for travellers.

As with everything in this world, it is up to each individual to check themselves the accuracy of any pieces of information provided then decide whether (or not) to take note.
The word 'safe' just as the word 'nice' are meaningless- Our planet is a dangerous place albeit a beautiful one.

I don't want to pretend to be an expert, but I drove through northern Iraq in October 2014 and will share my experience.

I'm driving a Toyota Hilux pickup with UK plates. I entered from Iran at Beshmaq and exited to Turkey at Ibrahim Khalil, spending 11 days in the region.

My route was Halabja - Sulaymaniyah - Kirkuk - Erbil - Soran - Amadiyah - Lalish - Alqosh - Ibrahim Khalil.

Compared with driving through say NW Pakistan or Afghanistan (2008-10) I found the KRG more secure, with more competent law enforcement, and far less ambiguity regarding where is safe and where is not. Places like Sulaymaniyah or Soran felt as safe as anywhere in Iran or Turkey. For sure there are sympathisers / sleeper cells of insurgents there, but I never felt any bad vibes. Erbil is obviously a slightly higher profile target, and while I was saddened to hear of the bombing, it does not surprise me considering how close ISIS are, and it also does not make the place (in my mind) 'no go'.

Kirkuk was quite different. It's an interesting place (which, frankly Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, Soran etc etc are not) with more of an atmosphere of what I imagine the rest of Iraq is like. The population is mixed and the vibe very different, though it is friendly and worth seeing if you judge the risk worth taking. Kirkuk has had a pretty bad spate of bombings in the recent past, though from people I met (and stayed with) there, security has improved considerably since the Peshmerga took full control this summer. It's a city of several hundred thousand people who are getting on with their lives normally. It's not under curfew and ISIS are around 40 km to the south at present.





The northern mountains close to Turkey are surely too sleepy to see any kind of insurgency in the current climate, and I think a drive / ride using the northern road (avoiding Kirkuk and Erbil) would be as safe as anything you can do on a car / bike. It's quite picturesque too.





Having felt perfectly safe in Kurdistan, I decided I would visit the northern parts of Mosul Governorate, to see some sites linked with the Yezidi and Assyrian minorities, who have been so persecuted recently. I was a little nervous proceeding this far, but was cautious to ask the Peshmerga at every checkpoint what the status was down the road. On the one hand, these areas are getting quite close to ISIS (maybe 20 km), on the other, they are small settlements with strong communities who are absolutely anti-ISIS and it would be hard to imagine there being any insurgents lurking there. Obviously it is close enough for a fairly rapid attack, but the roads were busy with Turkish and Iranian trucks, so I felt OK and went ahead. I camped somewhere between Dohuk and Lalish, and could hear the distant thud of artillery fire.

Lalish was a fascinating experience, the most important shrine in the Yezidi religion. The village was swamped with refugees from Sinjar, but the keepers at the shrine were very welcoming and took the time to give me a thorough tour of the site.





Alqosh is further down towards Mosul, and was a little tense. Some people had left, while others felt comfortable to stay. ISIS had been pretty close a few weeks earlier, but had since retreated. The sound of artillery fire was audible again, and I did feel a little vulnerable. That said, it's a nice place to visit with some charming backstreets and an impressive cliff monastery. Who knows what the future holds for Iraq's ancient Assyrian population...





From Alqosh, I drove west and joined the Mosul - Zakho Highway just south of the Mosul Dam Lake, and made the uneventful drive to Turkey.

Summing up, I believe the overall security situation in northern Iraq is good; it's certainly not like Afghanistan where one never can be sure who is who and where sympathies lie.

That said, clearly there is major trouble nearby, and the situation needs to be monitored very carefully. As a short-stay visitor I don't believe one is likely to become a target for pre-meditated violence or kidnap. Attacks are rare and there are still lots of expats living in Kurdistan without security.

With the greatest respect to Wayne and his profession, I think it is easy to be put off by a security professional. I'm pretty sure if you spent a few days with the Iraqi Police looking at road accident fatalities you wouldn't go near a car in Iraq! My favourite source of information is to ask a good spread of informed local people, i.e. people who have been to the place you are asking about.

But it is necessary to make an informed decision based your research and your own risk-aversion. I felt very safe in Kurdistan and enjoyed it all.

One last thing - don't come expecting Damascus or the Himalayas... Kurdistan is not an overwhelming travel experience

More photos here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...5775409&type=3

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

As I have said I am not telling people not to come in to Kurdistan (Iraq), as I agree it is a nice place, and yes it is relatively safe, but so is everywhere right up to the time it isn't!
All I am doing is giving people some details to make an informed choice on whether or not they feel safe doing so.
Facts are facts and I see them every day (but not for too much longer, time for home ) As you say local info is great, which is what we get most of the time, NOT the stuff from CNN, BBC etc
With the ever fast changing lines of conflict in that area things can/have/will change on a daily basis
Even some of the places you have visited are still on some occasions scenes of conflict.

I am glad you enjoyed your time as it is a nice area up there and the people are good, having been to Erbil and Kirkuk myself i know what you mean.

Enjoy the rest of the trip

Wayne

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The Balkans
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Iraq and North Iraq (Kurdistan) are two completely separate countries, as most people here are aware.

Therefore, info about Erbil, coming from Bagdad is about as "local" as judging Somaliland from Mogadishu or Pyongyang from Seoul or Khartoum from Juba or Sebastopol from Kiev.

Part of this thread, including the title was misleading (it almost misled me not to go, until I saw eurasiaoverland's post), because it creates the impression that in North Iraq, there would be a high threat because of ISIS. Such as attacks on Erbil or raids onto the highway. Which is simply not true.

Even if Western governments and mainstream media reports want to make us believe it.

Erbil is oil-rich, booming, super-modern, plenty of fully booked hotels, lots of expats. The rest of North Iraq also has been and remains a well-developed, stable country.

Mossul, Rakka and Kobane are NOT in North Iraq.

Kirkuk has only recently (June 2014) been taken over by North Iraq (talking about territorial gains/losses here !), and therefore may be slightly volatile.

North Iraqi border police will NOT allow foreigners to cross into the volatile areas (= exiting North Iraq), however it is possible to sneak over with local guides (illegal entry into Iraq - prior visa required !).

The transit from Iran via North Iraq to Turkey is easy. Visa at the border. The road is mostly a new highway, far away from the conflict areas in Syria and Iraq - and not the "Mossul" route you get on google maps:

transit road north iraq Photos taken by LuxuryRogue - Travellerspoint Travel Photography

I have asked for the thread to be deleted as I can not be doing the bickering going on on the thread

Travelbug I bow down to your 4 days experience (based on your blog) and clearly its far better than my 3 years of living and working in the country. Saying that I have spent more time stood queueing for my food longer than you were here. As I said previous, PM would have been better

Sorry to the rest of you who were taking the thread for the purpose it was intended. As Advice

Wayne

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The Balkans
https://new.horizonsunlimited.com/poi_entity/8417

I think this thread should stay. Internet forums attract all sorts of people, some who might become great friends and others you wouldn't want to spend any time with. Why not just ignore the later category?

There's a feature in the forum software where you can put users on your ignore list = you won't even be aware they ever existed.

(Sadly, as a mod, I'm unable zone out certain hubbers as I have to read everything )

If I were planning on visiting the region I would find your contributions very useful.

FWIW: There's a "report post" button on the top right of every post. Click that if you don't like something. It also allows the mods to read what was written before it was edited by the user and act as appropriate.

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CURRENT RR WITH REGULAR UPDATES: The Wife Takes on Chlamydia: A South American Retrospective

I think you are over-estimating the extent to which Kuridstan is decentralised from Baghdad. It is still one country, de jure and de facto. The salaries of public servants are months in arrears since Baghdad stopped contributing to the budget of the KRG, and it is clear that it is not at present a viable state. The security of Iraq as a whole is also very relevant to the KRG; the bomb attack in Arbil is proof of this.

I am sure Wayne knows of many smaller, less publicised incidents on the roads in Kurdistan. I was not implying that these do not exist, I was meaning that I am willing to take the small risk of something happening on the road, just as I take the risk of driving in Iraq traffic in the first place. There is not an impenetrable barrier between Kurdish areas and the rest of Iraq, and as we all know this frontier has been changing alarmingly often this year. I hate to say it, but I feel that we will see more incidents in the KRG.

I would not recommend against travelling to the KRG, but I would be very sure to get local, up to date information before making each move.

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

Nice post

I've often wondered what it would be like to travel in a Cayenne instead of my 79PS Pickup truck..

Are CD plates really useful at borders?

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.