Iraq

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Iraq Invites Refugees Home, but Home Is Gone

350K displaced in Iraq; US military begs Baghdad to build new housing

(Newser) - Baghdad shocked Washington and the UN last month by inviting home 1.4 million refugees from Syria, the Washington Post reports. The UN warned against it, saying exiles would face poverty, but Iraq started a bus line to transport them back. Many found their homes looted and neighborhoods redrawn along...

Turkish Air Strikes Target Kurdish Rebels

Attack inside northern Iraq the first since US invasion

(Newser) - Turkey launched its first air strike since 2003 on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq early this morning, targeting a mountainous region near the Turkish border where the government says the PKK has its leadership council and camps. About 50 warplanes were used in the offensive, the AP reports, which lasted...

After 5 Years, Brits Hand Over Basra to Iraqis

Strategic, unstable region to test strength of Baghdad government

(Newser) - Ending five years of British control in southern Iraq, the UK today handed over authority for the wealthy, populous Basra region to the Iraqi government. Residents greeted the handover with jubilation, but the responsibility for Basra—strategically located, an oil export hub and home of Iraq's only port—will prove...

Congress Approves War Funds
Congress Approves War Funds
Dec 14, 2007 5:41 PM CST

Congress Approves War Funds

Measure doesn't tie funds to Iraq withdrawals, making Bush veto less likely

(Newser) - The Senate today authorized a defense bill providing $506.9 billion for Pentagon programs and $189.4 billion in funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars—but no timetables on troop withdrawals, which brought vetoes on earlier efforts. The bill, approved 90-3 by the Senate, expands the army by 13,...

Iraq Watchdog Gets His Own Probe
Iraq Watchdog
Gets His
Own Probe
Dec 14, 2007 6:42 AM CST

Iraq Watchdog Gets His Own Probe

Charges of inflated OT, email snooping and hexes by wiccan deputy

(Newser) - The tables have turned on the federal watchdog who has spent the past four years investigating waste and fraud in Iraq—he's now the target of an FBI probe of his own alleged overspending and mismanagement. Former employees claim that Inspector General Stuart Brown paid some employees inflated six-figure overtime,...

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Go!
Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Go!
Dec 14, 2007 5:08 AM CST

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Go!

Military's 'Will and Grace' generation more tolerant of gays

(Newser) - The US military, whose resources are stretched overseas, has become far more tolerant of gays. One Army sergeant turned over a video of a passionate kiss with his boyfriend to superior officers and was merely told to go back to work, according to a "60 Minutes" investigation to be...

Iraqis United in Mass Wedding
Iraqis United in Mass Wedding
Dec 13, 2007 12:53 PM CST

Iraqis United in Mass Wedding

Dozens of couples marry across sectarian divides

(Newser) - A Baghdad media magnate, determined to overcome the sectarian conflict tearing apart Iraq, organized a mass wedding for dozens of mixed Baghdad couples, reports the Christian Science Monitor. The newspaper owner scoured the city for 70 couples from different ethnicities or sects, and treated them to a wedding and party...

Army Deploys Anthropologists on Front Lines

Uncle Sam enlists social scientists; colleagues object

(Newser) - The US military has been employing anthropologists in Iraq and Afghanistan to help troops work more effectively with locals. The results have been so promising they've just launched a $40 million program to embed social scientists with all 26 combat brigades. But the response back home has been ugly, with...

Iraqis Vow to Take Charge Despite Bombings

Authorities lock down Amara with vehicle ban

(Newser) - Iraqi officials confirmed yesterday that they will take over security from exiting British troops in Basra, despite the triple car bomb explosions that claimed as many as 41 lives yesterday in nearby Amara. Local authorities had only recently taken over control of the city from the British military, and multiple...

Car Bombs Kill at Least 40 in Amara, Iraq

Shiite provincial capital site of factional violence

(Newser) - A series of near-simultaneous car bombs killed at least 40 and injured dozens this morning in Amara, a Shiite-dominated city in southeastern Iraq, CNN reports. The British military handed the area to Iraqi forces in August, 2006; it has been the scene of increasingly violent confrontations between Shiite factions.

Iraq Disarms Female Cops
Iraq Disarms Female Cops
Dec 11, 2007 12:15 PM CST

Iraq Disarms Female Cops

Rising conservatism undoes US push for more women in law enforcement

(Newser) - The female officers the US worked so hard to bring into the Iraqi police force are being undercut by the Interior Ministry, the Los Angeles Times reports. Policewomen have been ordered to turn in their guns or go without pay, a move a US liaison says will undermine pat-down searches...

Iraq Splinters as Surge Quells Violence

Government holds no sway over 'highly decentralized situation'

(Newser) - The US troop surge has stemmed the bloodshed of Iraq's civil war but has failed in its other key objective of rebuilding the fragmented country into a cohesive nation. Ten months into the surge, Iraq has further splintered into sectarian strongholds run by warlords and militias, while the government's bickering...

UN Stepping Up Work in Iraq
UN Stepping Up Work in Iraq
Dec 10, 2007 5:18 AM CST

UN Stepping Up Work in Iraq

Four years after bombing killed 22, UN re-engaged

(Newser) - The United Nations is stepping up its work in Iraq in a bid to land a final peace—four years after a terrorist bomb in the UN compound in Baghdad killed 22 officials. "Three years of horror have led nowhere. It only produced tit-for-tat destruction and the displacement of...

British PM Gives Troops Surprise Visit

Vows Basra pullout in 2 weeks; mum on link to kidnappings

(Newser) - UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown surprised his troops with a visit in Iraq today and declared that Britain will cede control of Basra within two weeks, the Times of London reports. He told 300 soldiers that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki had advised the quick pull-out "so Iraq can...

Key Iraqi Police Chief Killed
Key Iraqi Police Chief Killed
Dec 9, 2007 2:17 PM CST

Key Iraqi Police Chief Killed

American ally assassinated in precise string of roadside bombs

(Newser) - Qais al-Mamouri, a major US ally respected for his non-sectarian work as police chief in violent Babil province, was killed today by a roadside bomb, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Five successive explosions ripped through al-Mamouri’s US-issued SUV, killing him and two others. Less than an hour earlier a...

Transient Iraqi Band Hits Turkey
Transient Iraqi Band Hits Turkey
Dec 7, 2007 6:23 PM CST

Transient Iraqi Band Hits Turkey

Musicians forced to flee mirror plight of many Iraqis

(Newser) - Four young Iraqis formed Acrassicauda—Baghdad’s only heavy-metal band—in 2001, and since the 2003 invasion have struggled to keep their music (and themselves) alive to prove culture could still exist in their homeland. But playing a Western style of music made them a target, and like many Iraqis,...

Female Suicide Bomber Strikes in Central Iraq

16 die in second attack by a woman in 2 weeks; another blast kills 10

(Newser) - A woman detonated a bomb today in the offices of a group fighting Al-Qaeda in central Iraq, killing 16 and injuring 27. The suicide bombing, at the Muqdadiyah office of an anti-al-Qaeda group, was the second by a woman in 2 weeks, AFP reports. Elsewhere in restive Diyala province, a...

Iraqi Officers Going AWOL in America

About a dozen have skipped out while here for military training

(Newser) - Nearly a dozen Iraqi military and law-enforcement officials have fled specialized training programs in the US, the Washington Times reports. The men are either seeking asylum in this country or are still missing—leading a high-ranking congressman to warn of the national-security implications. An Army spokesman says none of the...

Drop in Iraq Violence Gives Petraeus Breathing Room

But general won't yet talk of a turning point

(Newser) - US Gen. David Petraeus said today that declining violence in Iraq has given him greater flexibility with troop deployment, the AP reports. But while Petraeus remains quietly optimistic about American prospects in Iraq, he played down any talk of a turning point. "There's nobody in uniform who is doing...

Gates Nixes Marine Shift to Afghanistan

Defense secretary says troops needed in still-volatile Iraq

(Newser) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected a proposal to shift Marine Corps soldiers from Iraq to Afghanistan, saying the situation is still too volatile in Iraq, reports the New York Times. The top general of the Marines met with Gates in Washington last week and presented a formal proposal to...

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