Latest in Tag: Iraq Highlight
Latest in Tag: Iraq
As Syria war enters fourth year, regime eyes victory
For now, neither side seems to have the means to win decisively a conflict that has cost more than 140,000 lives and displaced nearly half Syria’s population, many of them now refugees.
Iraq forces battle militants, other violence kills 10
Violence has surged to a level not seen since 2008, when Iraq was just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings in which tens of thousands died.
Six members of security forces killed in Iraq
Sunday’s violence mostly targeting security forces in Sunni-majority areas killed six people, security and medical officials said.
Total looking at building big petrochemical unit in Iraq
Total wants to boost its refinery and chemicals activities in the Middle East and Asia, where it sees better long-term prospects than in Europe, where competition is pressuring margins.
Under US pressure, Iraq denies Iran arms deals
AFP – Iraq, facing heavy pressure from the United States, has denied signing deals for weapons and ammunition with Iran in apparent violation of international sanctions. The defence ministry said a variety of international firms had sought to supply Iraq with ammunition and night vision equipment, including one company from Iran. But contrary to media …
Attacks kill seven Iraq security personnel
AFP – Attacks in Iraq, including a suicide bombing near the Anbar provincial council headquarters, killed seven soldiers and police on Tuesday, officials said. In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near the provincial council headquarters, killing three soldiers and wounding at least four. Anti-government fighters have occupied …
Powerful Iraqi Shi’a cleric Sadr quits politics
AFP – Powerful Shi’a cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, leader of a major political movement and a key figure in post-Saddam Iraq, has announced his exit from politics two months before elections. The decision, if confirmed as permanent, brings to a close a political career that began with his fierce opposition to the US military presence in …
Azerbaijan offers Iraq access to Europe gas pipelines
Gas pumped from the immense new Shah Deniz II field will travel across Azerbaijan and Georgia and across Turkey through a new Trans-Anatolian Pipeline, which is set to be a key part of the Southern Gas Corridor from the Caspian Sea to Turkey and the EU.
Kuwait-Airbus deal on track despite probe
Reuters – A parliamentary investigation into a Kuwait Airways plan to buy and lease aircraft from Airbus will not affect the deal, the state carrier’s chairwoman told a local newspaper in comments published on Sunday. Kuwait’s parliament voted on Wednesday to investigate all contracts signed by state-owned Kuwait Airways, which is attempting its biggest overhaul …
Baghdad bombs, one near foreign ministry, kill 24
The attacks, which wounded dozens more, come as security forces battle militants in the western Anbar province, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a powerful jihadist group that has exploited the chaos in neighbouring Syria.
Al-Qaeda disavows ISIL in Syria
Rebels have accused ISIL of seeking to consolidate power rather than fighting the regime, and even suggested the group was serving the regime’s interests.
Iraq criticises Kurds over oil ‘grey area’
Baghdad argues that all oil sales must be overseen by the central government, and regards any independent exports as tantamount to smuggling.
Iraq executes 11 more ‘terrorism’ convicts: ministry
The total of those executed this week is 37, adding to 169 people executed last year
Iraq executes 26 men, including anti-Qaeda leader
Among those executed was Adel Mashhadani, who was arrested in March 2009 and sentenced to death in November of that year for killing a young girl in a revenge attack.
Iraq executes 26 men on terrorism charges: ministry
AFP – Iraq has executed 26 men convicted of “terrorism”, the justice ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, despite widespread international condemnation of Iraq’s extensive use of the death penalty. “The justice ministry carried out the executions of 26 (men) convicted of crimes related to terrorism on Sunday,” the statement said, adding that all …
16 killed in Baghdad car bombs: officials
AFP – Five car bombs struck across several neighbourhoods in Baghdad on Monday killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 40 others, security and medical officials said. Two explosions went off in the predominantly Sunni south Baghdad neighbourhood of Dura, while at least three vehicles rigged with explosives were detonated in the mostly-Shiite …
Iraqi forces assault gunmen in crisis-hit city
Iraqi forces backed by tribesmen moved into five Ramadi neighbourhoods Sunday, with helicopters providing cover and firing on the sprawling district of Malaab at the centre of fighting between anti-government fighters and security forces and their tribal allies.
Iraq would face huge challenge in Fallujah assault: experts
Gunmen seized Fallujah and parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi last week, the first time militants have exercised such open control in major cities since the insurgency that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.
Iraq suffers worst year of violence since 2008
Death tolls vary widely, but all point to a sharp rise in violence.
Syria, Iraq, and Egypt most dangerous countries for journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists released a report naming the three Middle East countries as having the most journalist deaths
The monster that won’t die
Al-Qaeda is making yet another appalling comeback
Iraq journalists killed in suicide assault on TV: police
Some journalists managed to escape the building, while others were still trapped inside.
Iraq general among 15 soldiers killed in raid on Qaeda
Violence elsewhere killed five policemen, including the police chief of Al-Sharqat district northwest of Baghdad, and wounded five others, police and a doctor said.
Baghdad area bombings kill 28
At least 10 bombs exploded from around mid-day onwards across Baghdad, targeting mostly Shiite neighbourhoods.
Turkey says ball in Iraq’s court over oil dispute
Iraq’s federal government in Baghdad and Kurdistan have long been at odds over how to share the region’s vast energy wealth, a dispute which is seen as impeding the development of new energy projects.
Iraq funeral bomb kills 12 after deadly month
Officials have adopted an array of measures aimed at halting the attacks, focusing their efforts on resurgent Al-Qaeda front groups emboldened by the war raging in neighbouring Syria.
Iraq militia says fires mortar bombs at Saudi as warning
Reuters – Six mortar bombs landed near a border post in northern Saudi Arabia in an attack claimed by an Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi’a militia, which said on Thursday it was warning the kingdom to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs. The mortar rounds hit desert on the far northwestern fringes of the kingdom’s oil-producing region on Wednesday, several …
Six shells fall near Saudi Arabia border post close to Iraq, Kuwait
Saudi Arabia says six mortar shells fell in an uninhabited area near the new al-Auja border guard centre of Hafr al-Batin, but caused no damage
Six killed in Iraq violence
The attacks come as Iraq witnesses its worst violence since 2008, a surge in bloodshed that has killed more than 5,400 people this year
Spate of attacks kills 47 in Iraq
One of the worst-hit neighbourhoods was Shaab in north Baghdad, where two car bombs exploded in a commercial area, killing five people and wounding at least 17.