Category Archives: Iraq

EU court rules three member states broke law over refugee quotas

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Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland failed to comply with 2015 programme, ECJ says

Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic broke European law when they failed to give refuge to asylum seekers arriving in southern Europe, often having fled war in Syria and Iraq, the EU’s top court has ruled.

The three central European countries now face possible fines for refusing to take a share of refugees, after EU leaders forced through mandatory quotas to relocate up to 160,000 asylum seekers at the height of the 2015 migration crisis.

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Bill sets five-year limit to prosecute UK armed forces who served abroad

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Legislation to stop ‘vexatious’ claims excludes alleged crimes by military personnel in Northern Ireland

A five-year time limit on bringing prosecutions against soldiers and veterans who have served abroad – except in “exceptional circumstances” – is to be imposed under legislation introduced by the government.

Clauses in the overseas operations (service personnel and veterans) bill would protect serving and former military personnel from what the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, claimed was a “vexatious” cycle of claims and re-investigations.

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UK’s air war against Isis ends after five years

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RAF has launched no attacks in Syria or Iraq since September, but controversy continues over civilian casuality numbers

Britain’s five-year air war against Isis has quietly come to an end, with official figures revealing no bombs have been dropped since September – yet the MoD still acknowledges only one civilian casualty in the entire conflict.

The data shows that over a period longer than the first world war, 4,215 bombs and missiles were launched from Reaper drones or RAF jets in Syria and Iraq, and a wide discrepancy has emerged between UK and US estimates of the number of civilians killed.

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US launches airstrikes in Iraq in retaliation for rocket attack that killed three

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Pentagon says attacks targeted Iran-backed militia, which it blames for Wednesday’s killing of two US soldiers and UK servicewoman

US forces have carried out air strikes in Iraq against what the Pentagon described as five weapons storage sites run by an Iranian-back militia, in retaliation for a rocket attack which killed two American and one British soldier near Baghdad.

The tit-for-tat attacks come just two months after a similar escalation brought the US and Iran to the brink of direct conflict. This time the two sides are facing off in Iraq while struggling to contain coronavirus outbreaks at home.

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Rocket attack on Iraq base leaves two Americans and one UK soldier dead

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  • 11 others injured by fusillade of Katyusha rockets
  • Trump responded to previous attack by killing Iranian general

Two Americans and a British soldier are reported to have been killed and 11 others injured, by a rocket attack on a coalition base in Iraq, according to US defence officials.

Within hours air strikes were reported on an area of the Iraqi-Syrian border used as a base by an Iran-backed militia, raising fears of a fresh round of US-Iranian escalation that brought both countries close to war in January.

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‘We are power’: the world marks International Women’s Day – video report

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People around the world marked International Women's Day on Sunday with rallies, marches and protests. In London, topless protesters formed a human chain on Waterloo bridge to highlight the vulnerability of women in the face of the climate crisis. In Kyrgyzstan, dozens of protesters were arrested after masked men attacked them at a rally for gender equality. On the Greek-Turkish border, asylum seekers marched to demand entry into the EU

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Veterans criticize Trump’s downplaying of US troops’ brain injuries

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Several US veterans’ organizations call for president to apologize for remarks about injuries suffered by service members in Iraq

Veterans of Foreign Wars, a prominent organization advocating for US military veterans, has called for Donald Trump to apologize for remarks downplaying brain injuries recently suffered by nearly three dozen American service members in Iraq.

Related: Trump downplays brain injuries suffered by US troops in Iran missile strike

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Pentagon says 34 US soldiers suffered traumatic brain injury in Iran strike

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  • Trump downplayed injuries: ‘I heard they had headaches’
  • Expert calls president’s comment ‘insulting and disrespectful’

Thirty-four US soldiers have been diagnosed with concussion or traumatic brain injury from an 8 January Iranian missile attack on their base in Iraq, the Pentagon has revealed.

The Pentagon spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman, said on Friday that eight service members who had been previously transported to Germany had been moved to the United States.

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Isis founding member confirmed by spies as group’s new leader

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Officials piece together profile of Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi

The new leader of Islamic State has been confirmed as Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi, according to officials from two intelligence services. He is one of the terror group’s founding members and has led the enslavement of Iraq’s Yazidi minority and has overseen operations around the globe.

The Guardian has learned that Salbi was named leader hours after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October. The name that the group gave for Baghdadi’s replacement at the time, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, was a nom de guerre not recognised by other senior leaders or intelligence agencies.

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Pompeo has sealed his spot as ‘Trump’s whisperer’ with his mission to beat Iran

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The strike on Suleimani represented a significant victory for Pompeo, his outsize influence on Trump and his Iran fixation

When the US embassy in Baghdad was mobbed on the last day of 2019, a rattled Donald Trump turned to his most hawkish aide, Mike Pompeo, and finally agreed to the extreme measure the secretary of state had long advocated: the assassination of Qassem Suleimani.

The drone strike on the Iranian general a week ago may well turn out to be one of the most consequential decisions of the Trump presidency. It represented a significant victory for Pompeo, reflecting his ascendancy in foreign policy and national security spheres.

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US is not willing to withdraw troops from Iraq, says Pompeo

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Secretary of state says US is only willing to discuss future structure of forces in country

Washington is not willing to bow to Iraqi demands to withdraw its troops and any future discussions with Baghdad will be purely confined to the future structure of its forces in the country, the US state department has said.

The recommitment to US troops in Iraq defies an Iraqi parliament vote last week demanding all US forces leave in the wake of the killing of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani by a drone strike in Baghdad. The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said the US was only willing to discuss force reconfiguration with the Iraqis, and a greater contribution by Nato forces.

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Why did Trump order the killing of Iran’s Qassem Suleimani? – video explainer

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Qassem Suleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad, was widely considered to be the most powerful man in Iran after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – and Iran's leading military figure. 

Suleimani’s assassination has plunged the Middle East into a crisis that seems likely to lead to further escalation between Washington and Tehran. The Guardian's Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov examines what motivated Donald Trump to order the assassination

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Trump backs away from further military confrontation with Iran

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‘Iran appears to be standing down,’ Trump said, in an uncharacteristically sober speech following rising tensions between US and Iran

Donald Trump backed away from further military confrontation with Iran on Wednesday after days of escalating tensions, saying Tehran appeared to be standing down following missile attacks on two Iraqi bases hosting US and coalition troops.

Flanked by the vice-president, Mike Pence, the defense secretary, Mark Esper, and other high ranking military officials in uniform, Trump delivered remarks in the Grand Foyer of the White House, hours after Iran declared the attack to be retaliation for the US drone strike last week that killed the senior Iranian Gen Qassem Suleimani.

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Dialled down: Iran’s phoned-in attack just enough to ease tensions

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Despite first direct military action against US in 40 years, Iran’s action results in toned down rhetoric on both sides

The call had been expected any time since Friday. And when it finally came, the acting Iraqi prime minister knew what to expect. Just before 2am in Baghdad, Adel Abdul Mahdi listened to a message from Tehran informing him that Iranian rockets were airborne and heading his country’s way.

Related: Trump backs away from further military confrontation with Iran

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‘We eliminated the world’s top terrorist,’ Trump says as he imposes fresh sanctions on Iran – video

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Donald Trump described the missile assassination of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani as 'decisive action to stop a ruthless terrorist', before adding: 'Last week we eliminated the world’s top terrorist.'

Additional economic sanctions on Iran were announced during the White House conference as Trump called for Europe to break away from the 'foolish' nuclear deal

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‘Wrong then, wrong now’: US clash with Iran echoes march to Iraq war

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As a new Republican president seeks re-election, senior figures in Washington warn history may be repeating itself

A Republican president facing a tough re-election campaign and widely viewed as hopelessly out of his depth. Bureaucrats itching to turn US military firepower on a Middle Eastern regime they claim without evidence is plotting an imminent attack. Compliant sections of the media that put flag-waving jingoism ahead of skeptical scrutiny.

So it was in late 2002, when President George W Bush’s administration built unstoppable momentum towards invading Iraq, promising to destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that never existed. Nearly two decades later the potential target is not Iraq but Iran, with many of the same concerns over false pretexts and official lies.

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Scott Morrison tells defence chief to ‘protect and defend’ Australians amid Iran’s bombing campaign

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Australia appears set to remain in Iraq, even as other US allies such as Germany and Canada pull their troops out

Scott Morrison has told the chief of the Australian defence force “to take whatever actions are necessary” to protect Australian troops and diplomats in Iraq after Iran began bombing allied military bases. All defence and diplomatic staff in the country were now safe, Morrison said.

Australia’s military appears set to remain in Iraq as long as the US does, even as other allies such as Germany and Canada pull their troops out of the country.

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Iran’s assault on US bases in Iraq might satisfy both sides

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Tehran can show it has retaliated over the assassination of Qassem Suleimani, while US may shrug off limited nature of strike

The “severe revenge” Iran promised for the death of Qassem Suleimani was heralded on Wednesday morning by at least two waves of short-range missile attacks on bases in Iraq hosting US and coalition personnel.

The attacks will provide an opportunity for hawks inside the Donald Trump administration to ratchet up the conflict with Iran – but also potentially a pathway out of the crisis.

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