Baghdad, At least 22 people were killed in a series of blasts in Iraqi cities on Tuesday, police and health sources said, the latest in a spate of violence ahead of next week's Arab League summit in Baghdad. The deadliest attack was in the southern Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, where two explosions killed at least nine people and wounded 40, the sources ...
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Baghdad, At least 13 people died in a robbery and grenade attack in and around Baghdad Monday, police said. Two jewellers died when gunmen stormed their store in al-Shaab district of the city. They also shot dead four policemen and two passers-by during their escape. Ten others were injured. One of the gang members was killed and another was captured, a police officer said. Their associates decamped with jewels and cash, Xinhua reported. Earlier, five other policemen were killed in a grenade and gunfire attack in the town of Tarmiyah, near Baghdad, an interior ministry source said. Two people were injured. ...
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Fallujah, Dozens of al-Qaida fighters, some wearing army uniforms, killed 26 policemen in a wave of attacks on checkpoints and officers' homes across Haditha in west Iraq on Monday, police said. The assault, launched at 2:00 am (2300 GMT on Sunday), saw insurgents dressed in military uniforms and riding in stolen army vehicles simultaneously attacking two checkpoints in the east and west of Haditha before storming other security posts and raiding the homes of two officers. "A total of 26 policemen were killed, including a colonel and a captain, and three others were wounded when several armed men wearing security uniforms and carrying forged arrest warrants attacked several checkpoints," said Haditha police spokesman Major Tareq Sayeh Hardan. "Al-Qaida is responsible for this," Hardan said, noting that investigators found al-Qaida literature in a vehicle that the attackers left behind. According to police Lieutenant Colonel Owaid Khalaf, who said he was involved in some of Monday's firefights, the gunmen first attacked checkpoints at the eastern and western edges of Haditha. "They then entered the town and were distributed throughout Haditha, where other gunmen were ...
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Baghdad, Simultaneous early morning attacks on mostly Shia targets across Iraq killed at least 60 people and wounded dozens on Thursday in one of the bloodiest days of violence since the US troops pulled out in mid-December. The attacks, which appeared to pitch al-Qaidalinked Sunni Muslim insurgents against Shias, raised fears of a return to sectarian carnage that tore Iraq apart and cost thousands of lives in 2006 and 2007. The violence breaks weeks of relative calm as Shia PM Nuri al-Maliki and Sunni leaders have sought to resolve a political crisis after US withdrawal. At least 32 people were killed in Baghdad blasts where 10 explosions tore through mainly Shia neighbourhoods during rush hour and other attacks targeted police patrols, commuters and crowds gathered in shopping areas. More than a dozen blasts and attacks hit other cities across Iraq from Mosul in the north to Hilla, south of ...
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Baghdad, A wave of bombings and shootings across Iraq killed at least 32 people and wounded dozens more on Thursday, security officials said. Most of the violence was centred in Baghdad, where attacks killed 22 people, an interior ministry official said. A car bomb in the Shiite shrine district of Kadhimiya in north Baghdad killed six people and wounded 15, the official said. In Adhamiyah, across the Tigris river, gunmen attacked a police checkpoint, killing six people and wounded three. A car bomb exploded in the Karrada district of central Baghdad near a police checkpoint, killing one person and wounding 11, while another car bomb exploded in the same area about 30 minutes later, killing another person and wounding six. And two roadside bombs and an attack by unknown gunmen against a police checkpoint killed two people and wounded nine in Umm al-Mualaf in southwest Baghdad. And in Dura in south Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed two people and wounded 10. Two roadside bombs exploded near a restaurant in Abu Shir, also in south Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 10. A car bomb in Mansur in west Baghdad killed two people and wounded five. And a ...
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Baghdad, At least 22 people were killed and 35 others injured in a suicide car bombing that rocked Baghdad Friday, Xinhua reported. An interior ministry official said the attack took place near a funeral site outside a hospital in the Iraqi capital's al-Zafraniya district. The toll could rise as many of the injured were in serious condition, the official said. No one has claimed responsibility for the ...
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Baghdad, Fourteen people, among them three policemen, were killed in a series of bombings and shooting in Iraq Tuesday. Four car bombs were exploded in Baghdad targeting Shias. Eleven died and over 50 others wounded. Dozens of cars were destroyed, Xinhua reported. Two policemen were killed in Al-Khaldiyah town, about 80 km from Baghdad, when they were attacked by gunmen. Another policeman died in a bomb attack on the outskirts of ...
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BAGHDAD: Around 162,000 people, almost 80 per cent of them civilians, were killed in Iraq from the start of the 2003 US-led invasion up to last year's withdrawal of American forces, a British NGO said today. Iraq Body Count (IBC) warned that, contrary to apparent trends in figures released by the Iraqi government, the level of violence has changed little from mid-2009, though attacks are markedly down from when the country was in the throes of sectarian war in 2006 and 2007. In all, the non-governmental organisation said an estimated 162,000 people were killed in Iraq in the nearly nine years of conflict. It said around 79 per cent of the fatalities were civilians, while the remainder included US soldiers, Iraqi security forces, and insurgents. "The violence peaked in late 2006 but was sustained at high levels until the second half of 2008 -- nearly 90 per cent of the deaths occurred by 2009," IBC said in a statement. But it warned that "there has now been no noticeable downward trend (in civilian deaths) since mid-2009." "Recent trends indicate a persistent low-level conflict in Iraq that will continue to kill civilians at a similar rate for years to come. ...
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Washington, The US armed forces have begun thinning the ranks of generals and admirals with the aim of bringing the number of senior officers back down to the level of before the Sep 11, 2001, terror attacks, The Washington Post said. The move coincides with the US withdrawal from Iraq and the beginning of a planned drawdown in Afghanistan. Since March, according to the Post, the Pentagon has abolished 27 positions for generals and admirals in the first such "reduction since the aftermath of the Cold War, when the collapse of the Soviet Union prompted the military to downsize". The goal is to reduce the number of senior officers by 10 percent, "restoring them to their size when the country was last at peace", the newspaper said. Before stepping down earlier this year, then defense secretary Robert Gates approved reducing from 952 to 850 the number of positions reserved for generals and admirals. Forty-seven of the 102 jobs set for elimination are command positions in Iraq, Afghanistan and other operations abroad. "The changes are projected to save only a modest amount of money, but defense officials said they are symbolically important as the Pentagon adjusts to ...
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United Nations, Iraq will have a new opportunity to prove that it can put past troubles behind it with the full withdrawal of US forces from the country, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said. "The completion of the withdrawal of the US military forces marks a new moment in Iraq's recent history," Xinhua quoted a statement from the UN chief as saying. "This important development is an opportunity for Iraqi leaders to demonstrate to their people and to the world that they are fully capable of steering the country towards a better future," it said. The US signed a document Dec 18 officially ending the Iraq war, after the last American combat forces left the country. The US began fighting in Iraq in 2003 and has had a presence on the ground since. According to the statement, Ban said he was closely following the current political situation in Iraq. Ban urged Iraqi political leaders "to engage in inclusive and constructive dialogue to resolve their differences and build on the achievements that have been made so far in laying the ground for a democratic state". "Iraqi leaders owe it to the people of Iraq who elected them to work together in spirit of partnership ...
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Baghdad, At least two people were killed and 15 wounded in separate bomb attacks in central Iraq Monday, the police said. In Iraq's northern central province of Salahudin, one pilgrim was killed and two were injured when a roadside bomb was detonated near a bus carrying Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims near the city of Balad, some 80 km north of the capital of Baghdad, Xinhua reported citing a source. In Baghdad, a civilian was killed and two others wounded when a sticky bomb attached to their car went off in the western district of Amriyah, said an interior ministry source. In a separate incident, a roadside bomb was detonated near Al-Hamraa hotel in Baghdad's central district of Jadriyah, wounding three civilians, the source said. Also in Baghdad, three civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb ripped through the Eilam district, the source added. In another incident, gunmen planted two bombs in a policeman's house in Taji area, some 20 km north of Baghdad, wounding five of his family members and destroying part of the house. ...
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Baghdad, The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, which is country's highest judicial body, has issued an arrest warrant for Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, said an interior ministry official Monday. The warrant has been issued based on Article Four of the country's anti-terrorism law, without giving a timeframe for the implementation, Xinhua reported. "The judiciary panel (formed by the council) of five judges issued an arrest warrant for the vice president of the Republic," said Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Adel Daham in a press conference. The ministry, at the press conference, presented confessions of three detained suspects, including two of Hashimi's security guards, noting that they carried out several terror operations with the knowledge of Hashimi or under his command. Earlier Monday, the Supreme Judicial Council reportedly banned the vice president from travelling abroad. ...
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BAGHDAD: The United States military officially declared an end to its mission in Iraq on Thursday even as violence continues to plague the country and the Muslim world remains distrustful of American power. In a fortified concrete courtyard at the airport in Baghdad, defence secretary Leon E Panetta thanked the more than one million American service members who have served in Iraq for "the remarkable progress" made over the past nine years but acknowledged the severe challenges that face the struggling democracy. "Let me be clear: Iraq will be tested in the days ahead - by terrorism, and by those who would seek to divide, by economic and social issues, by the demands of democracy itself," Panetta said. "Challenges remain, but the US will be there to stand by the Iraqi people as they navigate those challenges to build a stronger and more prosperous nation," he said. ...
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Washington, US President Barack Obama Wednesday marked the end of the Iraq war with a visit to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Xinhua reported. He said the final work for the US military to leave Iraq has been done, and the last troops will begin a final march out of that country in the next few days. Addressing the members of the 82nd Airborne and Army Special Operations, Obama said although the country the US left behind is "not a perfect place", but is nevertheless "a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq". "We are building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home," said the president, noting the US has done "the best" it could in Iraq. Reflecting on the heavy cost of war, Obama noted nearly 4,500 US service members died in Iraq, including 202 troops from Fort Bragg. He acknowledged the eight-and-a-half-years of war "was a source of great controversy here at home, with patriots on both sides of the debate," saying "it is harder to end a war than to begin one". As a presidential candidate, Obama campaigned on the pledge to end the Iraq war, and according to an agreement ...
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Washington, US President Barack Obama Wednesday marked the end of the Iraq war with a visit to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Xinhua reported. He said the final work for the US military to leave Iraq has been done, and the last troops will begin a final march out of that country in the next few days. Addressing the members of the 82nd Airborne and Army Special Operations, Obama said although the country the US left behind is "not a perfect place", but is nevertheless "a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq". "We are building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home," said the president, noting the US has done "the best" it could in Iraq. Reflecting on the heavy cost of war, Obama noted nearly 4,500 US service members died in Iraq, including 202 troops from Fort Bragg. He acknowledged the eight-and-a-half-years of war "was a source of great controversy here at home, with patriots on both sides of the debate," saying "it is harder to end a war than to begin one". As a presidential candidate, Obama campaigned on the pledge to end the Iraq war, and according to an agreement ...
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Washington, US President Barack Obama Wednesday marked the end of the Iraq war with a visit to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Xinhua reported. He said the final work for the US military to leave Iraq has been done, and the last troops will begin a final march out of that country in the next few days. Addressing the members of the 82nd Airborne and Army Special Operations, Obama said although the country the US left behind is "not a perfect place", but is nevertheless "a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq". "We are building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home," said the president, noting the US has done "the best" it could in Iraq. Reflecting on the heavy cost of war, Obama noted nearly 4,500 US service members died in Iraq, including 202 troops from Fort Bragg. He acknowledged the eight-and-a-half-years of war "was a source of great controversy here at home, with patriots on both sides of the debate," saying "it is harder to end a war than to begin one". As a presidential candidate, Obama campaigned on the pledge to end the Iraq war, and according to an agreement ...
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Baghdad, The NATO’s training mission in Iraq is on the verge of being closed because the alliance failed to win assurance from the government that its forces would not be liable for persecution. Iraq officials said they had been informed that NATO troops would withdraw by the end of this month after failing to reach a consensus on the issue. A NATO official, however, said no decision has formally been made regarding the withdrawal of troops, The Telegraph reports. NATO’s military advisers were supposed to remain in Iraq until 2013 to train the country’s police and armed forces though the former played no role in combat missions. The United States would withdraw the remaining combat troops at the end of this month because Iraq failed to win parliamentary support for offering them legal immunity. Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is, however, trying to strike a deal with NATO to retain foreign troops in the country to train the country’s air and naval forces in defend against a potential attack. Both sides had earlier spoken about ‘protection privileges’ proposal but failed to finalize the details of the agreement. Analysts have predicted that ...
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Baghdad, The US is continuing to draw down its troops in Iraq as scheduled, as there are only 17,000 US troops remaining in Iraq besides seven military bases still being under their control, the Iraqi Defence Ministry said Thursday. "The number of the US forces remaining in Iraq till this moment (is) 17,000 troops. Their mission is to provide logistical support to forces withdrawing and leaving Iraq before the end of next month," said Iraqi Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari. Al-Askari said that the US troops have withdrawn from all military bases across the country except from the seven bases which they will depart in the coming days. Meanwhile, as per an Iraqi newspaper's report about 700 Americans, mostly civilian trainers, will remain in Iraq to help train Iraqi forces after the withdrawal of the US troops by the year-end. On Oct 21, US President Barack Obama announced that all the US troops stationed in Iraq would pull out of the country by the year-end and the Iraqi War would be over. Under a security agreement named Status of Forces Agreement between Baghdad and Washington in 2008, the US would pull out all its troops from that ...
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Baghdad, At least 10 people were killed and 45 others injured in three back-to-back bombings in the Iraqi port city of Basra, police said. A roadside bomb exploded at the crowded al-Haramiya market, and while local people and police rushed to the scene to help the injured, another roadside bomb and a motorcycle bomb exploded, causing more casualties, a police officer told Xinhua. A number of nearby vehicles and buildings were damaged in the explosions. Many of the casualties were police and army troopers who were at the scene of the first blast, he ...
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