Month: January 2014

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military recruiting center in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 12 people – an attack that was likely retaliation for the Iraqi government’s campaign to retake two cities overrun by al-Qaida militants. The attacker detonated his explosives outside the recruiting center in the city’s central Allawi neighborhood as volunteers were waiting to register inside, according to a police official. At least 25 people were wounded in the blast, he said. A hospital official confirmed the casualty numbers. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suicide attacks are the hallmark of al-Qaida’s Iraq branch, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Its fighters last week overran parts of the key cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, both […]

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The authorities in Iraq’s self-ruled northern Kurdish region say they’ve unilaterally started exporting crude oil through Turkey despite objections by the central government in Baghdad. The Kurds’ regional Natural Resources Ministry said in a statement late Wednesday that pumping started in early January. The oil is being shipped north through a newly constructed pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, bypassing Baghdad. The Kurdish ministry has invited companies to participate in a January tender for the 2 million barrels already deposited in Ceyhan. It anticipates an increase in exports to 4 million barrels in February and 6 million barrels in March, with the goal of 10-12 million barrels in December. Kurds and Arab-led government in Baghdad have been in a long-running dispute over who is in charge of oil exports. © 2014 The Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, […]

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Iraq’s Shiite-led government paused on Wednesday on the brink of a military assault against al Qaeda-linked Sunni militants that posed the risk of exacting a high civilian toll and plunging the country deeper into sectarian conflict. Senior U.S. officials, including Vice President Joseph Biden, have urged Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to secure the support of local Sunni leaders before attacking to drive the extremists from Fallujah, which sits in the heartland of Iraq’s Sunni minority. Many Sunni tribal leaders, alienated and angered by Mr. Maliki, have refused. The standoff tests the U.S.’s remaining leverage in Iraq, which has declined since American forces fought alongside Iraqis to subdue Islamist fighters in Fallujah in two large battles during the nearly decadelong U.S.-led occupation. In the latest incursion, armed Sunni extremists seized control of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, more than a week ago. The fighting has […]

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For two years, President Obama has boasted that he accomplished what his predecessor had not. “I ended the war in Iraq,” he has told audience after audience. But a resurgence by Islamic militants in western Iraq has reminded the world that the war is anything but over. What Mr. Obama ended was the United States military presence in Iraq, but the fighting did not stop when the last troops left in 2011; it simply stopped being a daily concern for most Americans. While attention shifted elsewhere, the war raged on and has now escalated to its most violent phase since the depths of the occupation. The turn of events in a country that once dominated the American agenda underscores the approach of a president determined […]

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