Category: Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Fierce clashes are underway in Iraq’s western Anbar province where residents say Islamic State militants captured three villages near the provincial capital of Ramadi. The residents say the Islamic State launched an offensive at dawn Wednesday east of the city, seizing the villages Sjariyah, Albu-Ghanim and Soufiya, which had been under government control. They say fighting is now taking place on the eastern edges of Ramadi about two kilometers (mile) away from local government building. In Soufiya, the militants bombed a police station and took over a power plant. The residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for their own safety, said airstrikes are trying to back up Iraqi troops. IS was dealt a major blow this month, when Iraqi troops pushed it out of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown.

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Interior Minister Mohammed Ghabban (center) looks on as the head of the Badr Organization, Hadi al-Amiri, explains the plan for the assault on Tikrit on March 6, 2015. (THAIER AL-SUDANI/Reuters) Recommend 57 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Minister of Interior Mohammed Ghabban is seeking to reassure foreign oil companies they will be kept safe as they lead Iraq to record oil production, even though the government is relying increasingly on Shia militias to provide security."The Interior Ministry is making all efforts to enhance security in the province of Basra because of its importance with foreign investment companies operating on its soil, which are betting on the restoration of safety there," Ghabban said during an April …

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LONDON (Reuters) – The Baghdad bureau chief for Reuters has left Iraq after he was threatened on Facebook and denounced by a Shi’ite paramilitary group’s satellite news channel in reaction to a Reuters report last week that detailed lynching and looting in the city of Tikrit. The threats against journalist Ned Parker began on an Iraqi Facebook page run by a group that calls itself "the Hammer" and is believed by an Iraqi security source to be linked to armed Shi’ite groups. The April 5 post and subsequent comments demanded he be expelled from Iraq. One commenter said that killing Parker was "the best way to silence him, not kick him out." Three days later, a news show on Al-Ahd, a television station owned by Iranian-backed armed group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, broadcast a segment on Parker that included a photo of him. The segment accused the reporter and Reuters […]

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Oil Minister Adil Abdulmahdi tours the besieged Baiji refinery on Sept. 11, 2014, a day after formally taking office. (Source: Office of Adil Abdulmahdi) Recommend 199 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. Pro-government forces are defending against persistent attacks on the Baiji refinery, highlighting the ongoing challenge of defending territory regained from the Islamic State (IS) militant group."The fighting has been ongoing for the last 48 hours between the Iraqi security fores and the terrorist Daesh inside Baiji refinery, when some of Daesh were able to get inside the refinery near the oil technical institute," said a senior Salahaddin Operations Command official, using an Arabic term …

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Jihadists attack Iraq’s largest oil refinery thumbnail Islamic State militants on Saturday launched suicide attacks against the Baiji oil refinery, Iraq’s largest, a senior army officer said. The jihadist group claimed it broke in but the Iraqi army said the site, which has been the scene of fierce battles since IS swept across the region last year, remained under its control. “Today Daesh (an Arab acronym for IS) launched an attack against the Baiji oil refinery,” said a major general from Salaheddin province, in which Baiji is located. He described the attack on the refinery, which lies around 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Baghdad, as “the fiercest since we broke the siege a few months ago.” The officer and other military sources said the attack was launched around 7:00 am (0400 GMT) and led to clashes. He said IS militants attacked the large complex from three fronts: Al-Bujwari […]

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Islamic State militants attacked the capital of Iraq’s vast Anbar province on multiple fronts on Friday, seizing two areas on the city outskirts in a setback for a government campaign to retake the desert terrain. The jihadists deployed vehicle and suicide bombs to tear through Iraqi government lines north of the city of Ramadi overnight before attacking on foot, said security officials and a hospital source. The head of Anbar’s provincial council, Sabah Karhout, called on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to send urgent military reinforcements and supplies to fighters, saying they were running low on ammunition. Abadi visited Anbar on Tuesday and declared the start of the operation to liberate the Sunni Muslim heartland, seeking to build on a victory over the extremist Islamic State last week in the city of Tikrit. But a police source in Ramadi said early on Friday the insurgents had taken […]

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Photo The site of a car bombing that killed five civilians on Friday in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad. Credit Karim Kadim/Associated Press BAGHDAD — Islamic State fighters launched a heavy attack on government-held territory in Anbar Province late on Thursday and on Friday, killing 25 Iraqi police officers and soldiers, and then executing 15 family members of local police officers, according to Iraqi officials. The attackers overran large parts of the town of Albu Faraj, just north of the provincial capital, Ramadi, less than two days after officials in the province declared that they had begun an offensive against the extremists to the east of the capital, police officials in Ramadi said. A convoy of police reinforcements sent to Albu Faraj was attacked by a suicide bomber, wounding Maj. Gen. Kadhim al-Duleimi, the Anbar Province police commander, the police sources said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity […]

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An Iraqi soldier shoots his weapon during clashes with Islamic State militants in the Karma district of Anbar province, March 22, 2015. (STRINGER/Reuters) Recommend 2 people recommend this. Sign Up to see what your friends recommend. The Islamic State (IS) militant group has launched a sustained offensive against pro-government forces in Ramadi, even as Iraqi leaders plan a major operation to reassert control over Anbar province.The five-pronged attack began Thursday evening, with IS fighters using a combination of suicide bombings, mortars, and small arms. Security forces repelled that first wave, but then on Friday morning, in the Albu Faraj area of northern Ramadi, they were overrun – and as of Friday evening, mili…

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Gazprom Neft takes possession of Iraqi oil shipped to Turkish sea port of Ceyhan.File Photo by nito/Shutterstock. MOSCOW, April 9 (UPI) — Russian energy company Gazprom Neft said Thursday it received its first batch of oil from the Badra field in Iraq as compensation for field development costs. The Russian oil company, which serves as the operator of the Badra oil field, said it received 500,000 barrels of oil from the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Co. at the Turkish port of Ceyhan. "Gazprom Neft’s buyer is a large Asian company" the company said in a statement. The company, the oil arm of Russian gas company Gazprom, brought Badra online in late 2013 and testing of new pipeline infrastructure to the export terminal at Basra began early last year. The Russian company said the terms of its Iraqi contract call for the eventual production of 170,000 barrels per day. Investors […]

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Gulf Keystone Petroleum boasts of production success in Iraq, but says potential sale of company is still a viable option. Photo courtesy: Gulf Keystone Petroleum LONDON, April 9 (UPI) — Iraqi oil player Gulf Keystone Petroleum said Thursday it’s still in talks about a sale of the company despite significant achievements in the country. The company, which has headquarters in London, said in its full-year 2014 announcement gross production was 6.4 million barrels of oil, up from the 496,921 barrels produced in 2013. Growth potential for this year is substantial, the company said. The company in March resumed production from the Shaikan reserve area in the Kurdish north of Iraq after receiving payments for future crude oil sales. Production is now expected to increase to levels consistent with the installed capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil per day. Chairman Andrew Simon said 2014 was pivotal , adding his company […]

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