Iraq
Iraq
Final results confirm Sadr’s victory in last month’s Iraqi vote
November 30th, 20210 BAGHDAD — Iraq released final results on Tuesday from last month's general election, confirming populist Shi'a cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement's victory as the biggest bloc, with 73 seats in the fractious 329-seat house. The Taqaddum Party, which draws support from minority Sunni Muslims, won 37 seats. Former Prime Minister...
Colin Powell, not a hero
October 22nd, 20210 — Iqbal Jassat is an acclaimed writer, analyst and commentator and one of the founding members of Media Review Network. This article, edited for style, also appears in the Palestine Chronicle Will Colin Powell be remembered as America’s hero or as a war criminal? Since his death a few days ago, there appears to be a rush to...
Cleric Sadr wins Iraq vote, former PM Maliki close behind
October 11th, 20210 Shi'a Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's party was the biggest winner in an Iraqi election on Monday, increasing the number of seats he holds in parliament, according to initial results, officials and a spokesperson for the Sadrist Movement. Former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki looked set to have the next largest win among Shi'a...
Farewell to Donald Rumsfeld, dreary war criminal
July 2nd, 20210 At 2:40 p.m. on September 11, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld issued orders to one of his underlings. Among Rumsfeld’s thoughts: Best info fast. Good enough judge whether good enough hit SH @ same time not only UBL And: Near term target needs – – go massive – sweep it all up – Things related &...
U.S. suspects 4,000 cases of fraud in Iraqi refugee program
June 25th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. authorities pursuing a sweeping fraud investigation suspect some 4,000 Iraqis of filing fraudulent applications for resettlement in the U.S. as refugees, and they are re-examining cases involving more than 104,000 others, according to State Department reports reviewed by Reuters. More than 500 Iraqis already...
Pope Francis departs Rome for risky, historic Iraq tour
March 5th, 20210 ROME – Pope Francis left Rome on Friday to start a four-day trip to Iraq, his most risky foreign trip since his election in 2012 and the first visit by a pontiff to the country. An Alitalia airplane carrying the 84-year-old pope, his entourage, a security detail and about 75 journalists left Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport for the...
Pentagon: U.S. carries out airstrikes against Iraqi militia facilities in eastern Syria
February 26th, 20210 WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, President Biden ordered U.S. military airstrikes in eastern Syria, on the border with Iraq, against facilities belonging to what the Pentagon described as "Iran-backed militia", in a calibrated response to recent rocket attacks against U.S. targets in Iraq. The strikes appeared to be limited in scope,...
First big suicide attack in Baghdad in three years kills at least 32
January 21st, 20210 BAGHDAD — ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack in a crowded Baghdad market on Thursday, killing at least 32 people in Iraq’s first big suicide bombing in three years, authorities said, describing it as a possible sign of the reactivation of ISIS. ISIS claimed early on Friday that two of its men blew themselves up in Tayaran...
International year in review: Palestinians betrayed, calamity in Beirut, crisis in Yemen
January 14th, 20210 The following is a year in review for the top international news that we covered in 2020. Palestinians betrayed, calamity in Beirut, crisis in Yemen. Protests in Lebanon over deepening economic crisis Authorities in some of the most populous areas of Lebanon cracked down on mass protest by Lebanese expressing their frustration...
Iraq issues arrest warrant for President Trump
January 7th, 20210 BAGHDAD — A judge in Baghdad has issued an arrest warrant for President Trump for the killing of an Iranian general and Iraqi militia leader last year. The Washington-directed drone strike had killed Gen. Qassim Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis outside of the capital’s airport last January. Al-Muhandis was the deputy...
Nowhere to go: Displaced Iraqis desperate as camps close
November 14th, 20200 MOSUL — Iraq has started closing camps housing tens of thousands of people, including many who fled their homes during the final battle against ISIS, but aid groups warn this could create a second wave of displacement with dire consequences. Among those having to leave are 50-year-old Umm Ahmed and her two sons, who have lived at...
U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear bid by Iraqis to avoid deportation
July 4th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a bid by a large group of Iraqis convicted of crimes in the United States to prevent imminent deportation to their home country, where they say they could face persecution and torture. The justices let stand a lower court’s 2018 ruling that the federal...
Metro Detroit Chaldeans make history with first museum in the world to preserve their heritage
January 26th, 20200 WEST BLOOMFIELD — While the Metro Detroit area is known nationally for its large Arab American population and its rich history, the region also is home to more than 160,000 Chaldeans according to the Chaldean Community Foundation. Chaldeans are an ethnic group from Iraq that traces their roots back more than 5,000 years to ancient...
Soleimani assassination adds new dangerous dimension to Iraq unrest
January 23rd, 20200 BAGHDAD — Iraqi Shi'a groups have exhorted Iraqis to turn out for a “million-strong” march on Friday aimed at whipping up anti-American sentiment as the United States’ struggle with Iran plays out on the streets of Baghdad. Those behind the rally have two goals in mind — to pressure Washington to pull its troops out of...
More U.S. troops leave Iraq over potential brain injuries as Trump downplays the damage
January 22nd, 20200 WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, President Trump said he did not consider the brain injuries suffered by 11 U.S. service members in Iran’s recent attack on a base in Iraq to be serious, as the American military moved more troops out of the region for potential injuries. In a statement on Wednesday, U.S. Central Command said that more......
Washington rebuffs Iraqi request to pull out troops
January 10th, 20200 BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has rebuffed an Iraqi request on Friday to prepare to pull out its troops, amid heightened U.S.-Iranian tensions following the U.S. killing of an Iranian commander in Baghdad. Iraq looks set to bear the brunt of any further violence between its neighbor Iran and the United States, its...
Iraqi PM quits after cleric’s call, but violence rages on
November 29th, 20190 BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi announced his resignation on Friday after the country’s senior Shi’a Muslim cleric urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for a government rocked by weeks of deadly anti-establishment unrest. Violence raged on in southern Iraq, however, killing at least 21 people, and protesters...
Iraqi forces kill 10 protesters in Baghdad and Basra
November 8th, 20191 BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces shot dead at least six anti-government protesters in Baghdad on Thursday and killed four others as they broke up a sit-in in the southern city of Basra, police and medical sources said. Scores more were wounded in the clashes as weeks of deadly violence in Iraq over protests against an entrenched...
Iraqis defying bloody crackdown, continue protesting against government corruption and dire living conditions
October 27th, 20190 BAGHDAD - Thousands of Iraqi protesters stood fast in Baghdad’s central Tahrir Square on Sunday, defying a bloody crackdown that killed scores over the weekend and an overnight raid by security forces seeking to disperse them. Young men had erected barricades on a bridge leading to the capital’s fortified Green Zone against......
How Biden’s secret 2002 meetings led to war in Iraq
August 3rd, 20190 Even though former Vice President Joe Biden’s favorability has declined following the first Democratic debate, he remains largely considered the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination by many mainstream media outlets and pundits. Early in the first debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders mentioned how Biden had supported the...
Iraq’s great rivers are dying as government struggles to fix failing infrastructure
July 4th, 20190 BAGHDAD — Iraq is in a fragile state and its great rivers including the iconic Euphrates and Tigris are dying, scientists say, as the country works to rebuild itself after thirty years of near constant war. Iraq is now in the process of running out of water, which is sourced from the two mighty, historical rivers. Both run the......
Jared Kushner’s ‘deal of the century’ fails in Bahrain
July 3rd, 20190 MANAMA - The so called "deal of the century" proposed by President Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, which sought to deal with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, was met with minimal interest from the attending crowd. With the Palestinians absent from the conference table, in addition to the refusal of many Arab...
U.S. soldier convicted of killing Iraqi soldier, pardoned by Trump
May 8th, 20190 Oklahoma – President Trump pardoned former U.S. Army Lieutenant Michael Behenna on Monday after he served five years in prison for killing an Iraqi soldier in 2008. Behenna was convicted of unpremeditated murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the killing of Ali Mansour Mohamed. Mansour had been suspected for his involvement......
