ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is reportedly on the move after coalition forces set siege to Mosul, raising the question what the U.S. should do if it ever catches him. , is no longer camped in the besieged Mosul and is somewhere along the Syrian border “between al Hajinn in Syria and al Ba’aaj in Iraq.”
Category: Baghdad, Iraq
US troops seem poised to take a prominent role in attacking the ISIS capital
US military forces seem poised to take a prominent role in the long-awaited battle to take down Raqqa, Syria, the capital of the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Though the Pentagon has long downplayed the role of US ground troops in the fight against the ISIS terror group in Iraq and Syria, recent deployments of many more ” boots on the ground ” suggest they may be front-and-center in the coming months.
US troops seem poised to take a prominent role in attacking the ISIS capital
US military forces seem poised to take a prominent role in the long-awaited battle to take down Raqqa, Syria, the capital of the self-proclaimed Islamic State. Though the Pentagon has long downplayed the role of US ground troops in the fight against the ISIS terror group in Iraq and Syria, recent deployments of many more ” boots on the ground ” suggest they may be front-and-center in the coming months.
Rubble and ash in Mosul museum retaken from Islamic State
The antiquities museum in the Iraqi city of Mosul is in ruins, with exhibition halls housing piles of rubble and the basement filled with ankle-deep drifts of ash. Associated Press reporters were granted rare access to the museum on Wednesday after Iraqi forces retook it from the Islamic State group earlier this week.
BRIEF-Bahrain Flour Mills signs strategic partnership with MondelA”z International
BAGHDAD, March 5 Britain has agreed to arrange 10 billion pounds in loans to Iraq, to help the country to finance important infrastructure projects, an official from the Iraqi finance ministry told Reuters on Sunday. ABU DHABI, March 5 Abu Dhabi investment fund Mubadala Development Co sold nearly a third of its stake in Advanced Micro Devices, booking a tiny gain on its investments in the micro chip maker.
Iraq to receive 10 bln pounds in loans from UK for infrastructure – finance ministry
Britain has agreed to arrange 10 billion pounds in loans to Iraq, to help the country to finance important infrastructure projects, an official from the Iraqi finance ministry told Reuters on Sunday. A formal announcement will be made later on Sunday in Baghdad, he said.
Russia inadvertently strikes U.S.-backed Syrians
WASHINGTON>> A Russian airstrike in northern Syria hit U.S.-backed Syrian Arab forces who are part of the fight against the Islamic State group, a senior U.S. general said today. Army Lt.
Iraqi forces seize key Mosul bridge
Baghdad, Feb 27 – The Iraqi military on Monday said it has retaken a bridge across River Tigris in Mosul city, after driving back Islamic State militants in the city’s southwest. The security forces also took control of two neighbourhoods in the western half of the northern city of Mosul, still under the control of the IS, a senior security official told EFE news agency.
Iraq: Police Commandos recapture new neighborhood in Mosul
BAGHDAD >> Iraqi militarized police captured two neighborhoods on the western side of Mosul on Sunday amid fierce clashes with Islamic State militants, as thousands of people continued to flee the battle to government-controlled areas, security officials said. Iraqi forces, backed by aerial support by the U.S.-led international coalition, launched a new push last week to drive IS militants from Mosul’s west, capturing so far the city’s international airport and an adjacent military base.
Iraqi forces advance in Mosul, strike IS inside Syria
The advance comes as part of a major assault that started five days earlier to drive Islamic State militants from the western ha… . An Iraqi military helicopter prepare to attacks Islamic State group positions as Iraqi special forces advance towards the western side of Mosul, Iraq, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017.
Iraqi air force hits IslamicState inside Syria for first time
Iraqi warplanes have struck Islamic State targets inside Syria in retaliation for recent bomb attacks in Baghdad by the group, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Friday. It appeared to be the first time Iraqi jets have conducted such raids across the border.
US ‘not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil’: Mattis
The United States is not about to plunder Iraq’s petroleum reserves, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who arrived in Baghdad on Feb. 20, said as he sought to soothe partners rattled by U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump has repeatedly said both while campaigning and since his election that America, whose troops occupied Iraq for eight years, should have grabbed Iraqi oil to help fund its war effort and to deprive the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant of a vital revenue source.
Hundreds of migrants cross into Spain’s Ceuta in second wave in three days
More than 300 African migrants jumped the border fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Monday morning, the second mass push since Friday, the emergency services said. Eleven people were hospitalized after the jump over the 6-metre, barbed-wire fencing surrounding the North African enclave, the Red Cross said.
Why do so many Americans fear Muslims? Decades of denial about America’s role in the world.
“On February 13, 1991 during the first Gulf War, the U.S. dropped two laser-guided bombs on the Amiriyah public air raid shelter in Baghdad. More than 400 Iraqi civilians were incinerated or boiled alive.
Dozens of IS militants killed in bombardment, clashes in Iraq’s Mosul
Dozens of militants of Islamic State group were killed on Saturday in artillery shelling and airstrikes by U.S.-led coalition on IS positions in the western side of the city of Mosul, while paramilitary units of Hashd Shaabi repelled IS attack in west of the city, a security source and a statement said. The international artillery and aircraft bombarded IS positions and headquarters in Shifaa neighborhood and the city’s health department in the western bank of Tigris River, which bisects Mosul, leaving at least 24 IS militants killed and wounding dozens others, Mohammed Ibrahim al-Baiyati, head of provincial security committee told Xinhua.
Official: ISIS kills 8 Iraqi militants in city of Tikrit
The Islamic State group attacked a battalion of state-sponsored militia southeast of Tikrit on Friday, killing at least eight militia members, an intelligence official said. IS claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted by its Aamaq news agency.
UN prods Iraq on electoral reform
Supporters of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr shout slogans during a protest demanding an overhaul of the elections’ supervision commission ahead of provincial elections due in September, in Baghdad,Iraq February 11, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
Baghdad car bomb kills four: police
A view of a burned vehicle at at the site of a car bomb in the Ilam district of southern Baghdad, Iraq, February 11, 2017. REUTERS/Ali al-Mashhadani
Daesh leaders targeted in strike, Baghdadi fate unclear
Members of Iraqi security forces clean their weapons in the southern Mosul, Iraq February 13, 2017. REUTERS/Khalid al Mousily A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on February 14, 2017, on page 1.
Iraqi air force says surgical strike killed 13 militant leaders, 64 others
More than a dozen militant leaders of the Islamic State were killed in a coalition airstrike in Iraq, the country’s air force said Monday. Military officials said the strike , in Anbar on Saturday, killed dozens of terror operatives and 13 leaders.
Rockets Hit Baghdad’s Green Zone After Deadly Protests
From Pennsylvania to Tennessee to California, hundreds of protests of varying size against Planned Parenthood and counterprotests in support of the nonprofit hea… — North Korea fired off a ballistic missile into the East Sea from Banghyeon North Pyongan Province early Sunday, according to South Korean officials… Farmers in the Klamath Basin, located along the southern Oregon and northern California coasts, are challenging the federal government’s decision to cut off irrigation w… Lexington- 3rd Ranked Scottsbluff held off Lexington on Saturday afternoon 73-65 in the final day of the East/West Shootout.
Anti-government protests in Baghdad
An Iraqi policeman was killed during anti-government protests in Baghdad, according to police and hospital officials. Demonstrators loyal to Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets to protest government corruption.
Three rockets hit Baghdad Green Zone, hours after bloody protest
Three Katyusha rockets landed in Baghdad’s Green Zone on Saturday night, just hours after fierce clashes between demonstrators and the security forces that resulted in the killing of four protesters and one security members, an Interior Ministry source said. The rocket are believed to be launched from Baghdad eastern neighborhoods of Baladiyat and Palestine Street, which both are strongholds of followers the influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Police fire tear gas at protesters in Baghdad
The protests Saturday were called by influential Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is demanding that local elections be held on schedule this year. Some Iraqi politicians have called for a delay due to the ongoing fight against the Islamic State group.
Iraqi interpreter finally arrives in U.S.
Munther Alaskry first bonded with American Marines over a shared love of Metallica. He later cleared roads of bombs for U.S. troops and translated for them, helping the military navigate his war-torn country.
Iraqi interpreter to be reunited with daughter
An Iraqi immigrant family that arrived in Maine just days before citizens of Muslim-majority nations were banned from entering the country has been reunited with a daughter. Labed Alalhanfy, his wife, Soso, and their 13- and 19-year-old daughters arrived in the United States from Baghdad on Tuesday.
Iraqi interpreter says he’s ‘blessed’ to be in U.S. after ban
Hassan Alaskry, the son of Munther Alaskry, surveys the arrival area as his sister Dima, and mother Hiba Alaskry arrive at New York’s JFK International Airport. NEW YORK – Munther Alaskry and his family were just hours away from their dream as they boarded the final leg of a flight to the United States after waiting seven years for visas.
Iraq’s ‘Marsh Arabs’ look to restore once-lost culture with help from US scientists
Marsh Arab Abu Sabah paddles his boat at the Chebayesh marsh in Nassiriya, 300 km southeast of Baghdad. For more than 6,000 years, the marshlands of southern Iraq played a major role in sustaining the agriculture, economies and livelihoods of those residing in the Fertile Crescent.
Refugees anticipate family reunions, instead endure doubt
Rab… . Iraqi refugee Raed Rabban, 49, speaks by phone from his garage in El Cajon, Calif., with his brother Luey Rabban, 47, in Baghdad, on Monday, Jan. 30, 2017.
From doctor to US military cook, Trump ban upends many lives
Iraqi refugee Raed Rabban, left, meets with Mark Arabo, president of the Minority Humanitarian Foundation, which helps Iraqi Christians settle in the United States, in his garage in El Cajon, Calif., Monday, Jan. 30, 2017. Rabban’s younger brother, Luey, who works as cook in a Baghdad restaurant, received refugee status in the United States about eight months ago.
What is ExxonMobil doing in Iraq?
The country is one of seven covered by President Trump’s travel ban. And the company is the only American firm still operating under an oil license granted by the Iraqi government.
The Latest: Somali refugee won’t be reunited with girl, 4
Vahideh Rasekhi, an Iranian doctoral student at Stony Brook University, greets friends and family as she is released from detention at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017. . Demonstrators crowd the international terminal as people protest against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel to the U.S. by citizens of several countries at San Francisco International Airport, Sunday, Jan… .
Iraqi lawmakers call for ban on Americans after Trump order
Iraq’s lawmakers on Monday backed a “reciprocity measure” that would bar Americans from entering Iraq in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s banning of Iraqis and citizens of six other majority-Muslim countries from traveling to the United States. But though the deputy parliament speaker said the Iraqi vote is non-binding for the government, it will likely strain Baghdad’s relations with Washington amid joint efforts to quash the Islamic State group and retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the extremists.
The Latest: Iraq: We understand motives behind travel ban
The Latest on U.S. President Donald Trump and his ban on refugees from Muslim-majority countries : The Iraqi government says it understands the security motives behind President Donald Trump’s decision to ban seven predominantly Muslim nations, including Iraq, from entering the United States, but underlined that their “special relationship” should be taken into consideration. Government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi says Iraqis are hoping that the new orders “will not affect the efforts of strengthening and developing the bilateral relations between Iraq and the United States.”
Nation-Now 54 mins ago 9:13 p.m.Court grants emergency stay of Trump’s immigration ban
Protesters gather at JFK International Airport’s Terminal 4 on Jan. 28, 2017, to demonstrate against President Trump’s executive order to suspend refugee arrivals. President Trump’s ban on immigration by citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries ran into at least a temporary roadblock Saturday night, after a U.S. District judge in Brooklyn granted an emergency stay sought by immigrants’ rights lawyers.
Trumpa s ban dashes hope for many asylum-seekers
An Iraqi pleaded for his life to President Donald Trump. A former Iraqi translator for the U.S. military landed in his new home with words of praise for America still on his lips.
Members of Iraqi rapid response forces fire during a battle with IS militants at Tigris river frontline between east and west of Mosul , Iraq, January 25, 2017. Photo – Reuters Members of Iraqi rapid response forces fire during a battle with IS militants at Tigris river frontline between east and west of Mosul , Iraq, January 25, 2017.
Obama defends decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence
President Barack Obama firmly defended his decision to cut nearly three decades off convicted leaker Chelsea Manning’s prison term Wednesday, arguing in his final White House news conference that the former Army intelligence analyst had served a “tough prison sentence” already. Obama said he granted clemency to Manning because she had gone to trial, taken responsibility for her crime and received a sentence that was harsher than other leakers had received.
Iraqi Forces Retake Mosul University From ISIS, Military Spokesman Says
Iraqi forces have made a crucial step in the bloody quest to retake Mosul from the Islamic State, according to a spokesman for the country’s military. Iraqi Brig.
Iraqi forces battle on in Mosul university complex
Iraqi special forces drove back Islamic State militants in the Mosul University campus on Saturday, while elite police units took over large areas along the east bank of the Tigris river, military officials said. The head of Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service said security forces were close to seizing the entire east bank of the Tigris, which bisects Mosul north to south.