أرشيف الوسم : Baghdad

The Iraqi army raided several insurgent targets on Monday in the town of Jurf al-Sakhr, some 60 kilometers to the southwest of Baghdad, on Monday, killing 17 people, including 3 civilians, during the raids. According to local tribal sources, the raid targeted that Fadhiyya district at 01:00 a.m. local time, and a child and two women were among those killed …

Iraqi security forces, supported by aircraft, repelled militant attack on the northern Shi’ite Turkmen town of Amirli, killing 15 extremists, local officials said on Thursday. The attack of Islamic State (IS) militants and allied Sunni extremists on Amirli took place on Wedesday,Talib al-Bayati, an official from Suleiman Bek, said. “Iraqi forces, with the help of military aircraft, repelled an attack …

On Tuesday, the sharply-divided Iraqi parliament elected its speaker and moved that much closer to forming a new government, which has already been delayed for a while. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, and several world powers, had pressured Iraqi MPs to set their differences aside and work together as they face a militant offensive which has overrun …

On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq of harboring militants, further increasing tensions despite a call for unity against the extremist offensive that started a month ago, overrunning five provinces to the west and north of Baghdad and displacing thousands. The ongoing offensive continues to heap pressure on Maliki as he prepares for …

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff on Thursday said that Iraqi forces were shored up around Baghdad but will need external help to regain some of the territory it lost to the militant offensive sweeping across the nation. He added that American military advisers were evaluating the Iraqi army’s condition, and suggested that US military …

The US government on Tuesday pressed for the formation of a new Iraqi government as soon as possible and warned that “time is not on Iraq’s side”. “It was important that Iraq’s new parliament convened today, as they pledged to do. That was a good thing. But we do hope that Iraq’s leaders will move forward with the extreme urgency …

Iraq’s Prime Minister on Wednesday vowed to “face terrorism” on Wednesday, and insisted that his security forces suffered a “setback” and not a defeat, as militants continue to press on in their major offensive in which they most recently attacked the largest oil refinery in the country. They also seized 3 villages in northern Iraq, an Iraqi official said. In …

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said that his government will do everything in its power to protect revered Shi’ite Muslim shrines in Iraq from Sunni militant fighters combating the Baghdad government. “Dear Karbala, Dear Najaf, Dear Kadhimiyah and Dear Samarra, we warn the great powers and their lackeys and the terrorists, the great Iranian people will do everything to …

Security forces battled against militants for control over a strategic location in northern Iraq on Monday, thereby forcing half the region’s population to abandon their homes. Meanwhile, the United States of America have mulled over the thought of using drone strikes against the militant forces leading the charge. John Kerry, US Secretary of State, said that he was also willing …

How it happened and why? The sudden collapse of military units defending Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, the late Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit and the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk is reminiscent of the swift disintegration of Saddam’s army at the gates of Baghdad in 2003. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s sectarian policies backfired dramatically last week when his army quickly …