Blackwater Guard Facing Life for Baghdad Shooting Wins New Trial

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on Friday ruled that Judge Royce Lamberth shouldn't have barred a statement during the 2014 trial from Nicholas Slatten's co-defendant, who claimed it was he, not Slatten, who fired the first shots on the day of the massacre. Lamberth also should have allowed Slatten to be tried separately from three other former guards, the appeals panel said.

ISIS Attacks the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul

Afghan official say they killed three militants who attacked the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul Monday, an operation that highlights the precarious security situation in the Afghan capital 16 years after the U.S.-led invasion. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in which a suicide bomber detonated a device outside the entrance to the embassy.

Trump slams NY Times for ‘foiling’ bid to capture IS chief

President Donald Trump on Saturday attacked The New York Times and its "sick agenda," alleging that one of the paper's reports thwarted a US bid to take out Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. "The failing New York Times foiled US attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, Al-Baghdadi.

Empire of Destruction: Mosul reveals Myth of Precision Bombing

You remember. It was supposed to be twenty-first-century war, American-style: precise beyond imagining; smart bombs; drones capable of taking out a carefully identified and tracked human being just about anywhere on Earth; special operations raids so pinpoint-accurate that they would represent a triumph of modern military science.

Inherent Resolve Strikes Target ISIS in Syria, Iraq

U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 14 strikes consisting of 44 engagements, U.S. Central Command continues to work with partner nations to conduct targeted airstrikes in Iraq and Syria as part of the comprehensive strategy to degrade and defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. -- Near Raqqa, 12 strikes engaged 10 ISIS tactical units and destroyed six fighting positons, three vehicles, three tactical vehicles, two mortar teams, a command-and-control node and a mortar cache.

Iraq Deployed Shiite Volunteers to defeat ISIL, but now has a Militia Problem

The Iraqi government's next big problem is coming into view: The group of powerful Shiite Muslim militias loyal to Iran seem to want to keep the country enmeshed in regional turmoil. As the extremist group known as the Islamic State is driven out of the country, the Iraqi government is facing up to a new threat to its authority - this comes from the Shiite Muslim militias, once volunteers who came together to defend their towns against the Islamic State but who have since turned into a formidable, quasi-official fighting force.

Barzani: Iraqi Kurds to vote on independence in September

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has called a referendum on independence to be held on September 25, an official said on Wednesday, moving ahead with a plan for full statehood that is likely to be opposed by Baghdad. Wednesday's announcement comes just two months after Iraqi Kurdistan released a roadmap for a referendum, with Kurdish leaders stating at the time that a vote is a " natural right of the nation of Kurdistan to decide on its political and administrative path in a referendum and an entity of an independent state ".

It was ISIL, not Hackers, who Hijacked French Election

That hackers, most likely Russia-linked, were trying to throw the French election to Marine Le Pen this weekend by releasing thousands of emails from her opponent Emmanuel Macron, probably struck too late to achieve their goal. They were counting on the rule that candidates may not speak on election day, so Macron cannot defend himself from any controversies created by the emails.

Iraq Weapons Inspections Fast Facts

Facts: At the end of the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War, the United Nations passed Security Council Resolution 687 setting the terms for the cease-fire between Iraq and the US-led coalition. Section C of the resolution called for the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and some ballistic missiles and established the United Nations Special Commission .