Iraq

Turkish war planes hit 21 targets inside Iraq, in the Kurdish north, on Friday night. Meanwhile, bombings and attacks killed 24 and wounded 45 in the mixed district of Dora.

A female suicide bomber detonated her belt bomb on Wednesday near some Iraqi army humvees in front of a courthouse in Baquba, killing at least 11 persons and wounding 20. Five Iraqi soldiers were killed, including 2 Majors. Baquba, the capital of Diyala Province, is 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. It is riven by conflicts […]

A US raid on a suspected guerrilla safe house left 11 members of a family dead on Sunday, including three women and three children. The US military insists that the dead men were members of “al-Qaeda” and that the house was full of arms, and that, indeed, some of the destruction was caused by a […]

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic on the aftermath of the horrific bombings on Thursday at Shiite mosques in Baghdad that left 26 persons dead and dozens wounded. Wa’il Abd al-Latif, an independent member of parliament saw a relationship between the bombings and the sources of the recent political tension that have not been resolved. One of […]

In an interview with the Associated Press, PM Nuri al-Maliki warned that the future is dark if Iraq and the US do not agree on a security pact. And without a pact, he said, all the security progress made in the last year would be at risk. He points out that the alternative is to […]

A wave of deadly bombings and other attacks swept Baghdad on Sunday, killing nearly three dozen persons and wounding over 100. The attacks on Shiite neighborhoods were likely intended to remind the Iraqi public on the eve of Eid al-Fitr (the celebration of the end of the fasting month of Ramadan) that the Sunni guerrilla […]

One of the things that struck me about Friday night’s debate on the time line for troop withdrawal was that McCain appeared to believe that how long US troops remain in Iraq and at what strength is a unilateral matter dictated by Washington. The government of prime minister Nuri al-Maliki is already trying to negotiate […]

Aljazeera English on the Shell deal with Iraq to develop natural gas. Critics of the deal say there was no competitive bidding. Supporters say it will help the British, Dutch and Iraqi economies.

Reuters reports that “A U.S. soldier died after a small-arms fire attack on his patrol in Baghdad.” Near Baquba, Reuters says, “Police found three mass graves containing tens of bodies in two areas south of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, the government said in a statement. . . “ Iraqi auditor Salam […]