Iraq

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Obama's Big Foreign Policy Regret? Gadhafi

Not the ousting of him, but its aftermath, he tells Thomas Friedman

(Newser) - In a wide-ranging interview with Thomas Friedman of the New York Times , the president reveals what might be his biggest regret in foreign policy: Libya. Obama says the US made the right move in joining the coalition to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi, but it didn't do enough to manage the...

US Launches 2nd Round of Airstrikes on ISIS

Attacks strike mortar and convoy near Irbil, officials say

(Newser) - American officials say the US launched a second round of airstrikes against Islamic State targets near Irbil today, using drones and fighter jets. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the strikes by name, say unmanned aircraft struck a mortar near Irbil and...

US Launches Airstrikes on Iraq Militants

American jets hit Islamic State artillery near Irbil

(Newser) - The US launched airstrikes against Iraq's Islamic State militants this morning. "US military aircraft conduct strike on ISIL artillery," tweeted Rear Adm. John Kirby. "Artillery was used against Kurdish forces defending (Irbil), near US personnel." He confirms that F/A-18 jets dropped a pair of laser-guided...

Why Obama Approved Airstrikes in Iraq

Extremists' rapid push north forced his hand, say analysts

(Newser) - President Obama gave the green light last night for the US military to launch airstrikes in Iraq, but why now? Some explanations:
  • Twofold mission: The US has already dropped food and supplies to Iraqis trapped on Mount Sinjar by extremist fighters from the Islamic State, or ISIS, and it may
...

Obama Authorizes Airstrikes in Iraq

US also begins humanitarian aid drops to trapped Iraqis

(Newser) - President Obama said tonight he has authorized the US military to carry out airstrikes in Iraq against Islamic militants if necessary to protect American personnel in northern Iraq. He emphasized, however, that no ground troops would be sent back to Iraq. Obama also said the US has begun humanitarian aid...

6.5K-Year-Old 'Noah' Found in Museum Basement

It had been uncatalogued since 1930 expedition in modern-day Iraq

(Newser) - An ancient skeleton gathering dust in the basement of the Penn Museum in Philadelphia for 85 years finally has an ID: It's a 6,500-year-old man newly nicknamed Noah, reports Philly.com . Historians didn't figure it out until a project to digitize the museum’s collection revealed that...

Obama Mulls Airstrikes, Aid to Help Trapped Iraqis

Decision on Yazidi surrounded by Islamic State expected 'imminently'

(Newser) - Both passive and active options are on the table as President Obama decides how to handle the humanitarian catastrophe developing at Iraq's Mount Sinjar , says a senior administration official who spoke to the New York Times . The passive alternative: Airdrops of food and much-needed medicine to the 40,000...

Saddam Hussein's Body Moved in Secret

It's in a 'safer place,' says Sunni tribal leader

(Newser) - After being hanged in 2006, Saddam Hussein was buried some 95 miles north of Baghdad, in his birthplace of Awja. His body is no longer there: A member of his Sunni tribe tells Reuters they whisked his remains out of the family plot eight months ago, amid concerns that Shiite...

ISIS Seizes Major Dam, Could Now Flood Baghdad

200K civilians flee after Kurdish forces defeated

(Newser) - ISIS militants have made major gains after a fresh push in northern Iraq, seizing three towns after defeating Kurdish forces and taking control of the country's biggest and most important dam. The militants have been destroying Shiite shrines and executing resisters in the captured towns and up to 200,...

ISIS Blows Up Jonah&#39;s Tomb
 ISIS Blows Up Jonah's Tomb 
Jul 25, 2014 12:27 AM CDT

ISIS Blows Up Jonah's Tomb

Mosul shrine destroyed as new president elected

(Newser) - Jonah, the prophet who ends up in a whale's belly, is as big a figure in the Koran as he is in the Bible, but that didn't stop ISIS militants yesterday from blowing up a shrine devoted to him in Mosul. Officials tell CNN that the shrine—one...

UN Official: ISIS Demanding Female Genital Mutilation

Militant Sunni group issues fatwa, official says

(Newser) - A UN official in Iraq shared disturbing news with reporters today: ISIS militants have issued a religious edict declaring that all women in or around Mosul must undergo female genital mutilation, reports Reuters . The fatwa from the Sunni insurgents, who overtook the northern Iraqi city in June, applies to females...

60 Die in Iraq Prisoner Convoy Ambush

Militants attacked convoy after jail evacuated

(Newser) - Gunmen attacked a prisoner convoy north of Baghdad today, setting off a gun battle with troops in which 52 prisoners and eight soldiers were killed, officials say. The attack came as Iraq's parliament was set to elect a president, part of a troubled political transition that has seen repeated...

It's 'Rougher in Iraq' for Sex Workers

WaPo takes a look at their situation in wake of massacre of alleged prostitutes

(Newser) - "This is the fate of any prostitution" read a sign plastered on the front of a building in Baghdad late Saturday—a building where up to 29 alleged prostitutes were killed in a raid by gunmen that same day, reports the Washington Post . At least six men were also...

Rand Paul, Rick Perry Squabble Over Iraq

Senator targets governor's 'new glasses'

(Newser) - We've got a few years yet before 2016, but two potential GOP candidates are already taking shots at each other in dueling foreign policy pieces. Texas Gov. Rick Perry got the party started with a Washington Post op-ed, in which he attacked Sen. Rand Paul for being "curiously...

Iraq War Overwhelming World's Largest Graveyard

Rogue gravediggers sneaking bodies into other people's plots: Wall Street Journal

(Newser) - Just how bad is the violence in Iraq? So bad that the world's largest cemetery, a 1,500-acre area that contains 5 million graves, is running out of space, the Wall Street Journal reports. The war has doubled the rate of new arrivals to 200 a day, and some...

ISIS Leader Video Is a Fake: Iraq

New Islamic State leader seen flashing fancy watch

(Newser) - Iraq is knocking down claims that a video purporting to show Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is even the elusive ISIS leader at all. "We have analyzed the footage ... and found it is a farce," an Interior Ministry spokesman tells Reuters . He claims al-Baghdadi—who has declared himself Caliph Ibrahim...

'Islamic State' Leader: Next We Take Rome

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi calls on Muslims worldwide to join the fight

(Newser) - A self-proclaimed "caliph" of the Middle East is urging Muslims worldwide to join the fight in Iraq and one day conquer the world, "if Allah wills." Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the newly named Islamic State (formerly ISIS) that has grabbed swaths of northern Iraq, issued his...

Iraq Breaking Apart: Kurds Plan Independence Vote

90 walk out of parliament meeting

(Newser) - With Iraq divided by violence , its Kurdish region is ready to consider forging a nation of its own. Massoud Barzani, the president of the autonomous Kurdistan Region, says he's planning a referendum on independence that could occur in "a matter of months," the BBC reports. Kurdistan has...

Obama to Send 200 More US Troops to Iraq

That brings total US forces there to nearly 800

(Newser) - President Barack Obama says he's sending about 200 more US troops to Iraq to protect Americans and the US Embassy in Baghdad. The announcement will bring to nearly 800 the total number of US forces in and around Iraq to train local forces, secure the embassy, and protect American...

ISIS Crucifies 8 'Moderate' Militants

Meanwhile, Russia sends jets to Iraq

(Newser) - The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria—or as the group now apparently prefers to be called, just the Islamic State —sent a grisly message to other Islamist militants this weekend in Syria by crucifying eight rebel fighters it deemed too moderate, according to a report from the Syrian...

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