Category: Iraq

Violence rocked Iraq on Wednesday as at least 54 people died in car bombings, suicide attacks and assassinations around the country. The bloodshed hit mostly Shi’ite sections of Baghdad and the troubled northern city of Mosul, where an al Qaeda breakaway faction, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), holds sway. The bombings and killings were a reminder in the month since national elections were held that the pace of bloodshed has shown no signs of diminishing In one attack in Baghdad’s Sadr City, a minivan pulled into a line of taxis and the driver abandoned the vehicle minutes before it exploded, police said. Four people were killed and 14 were wounded, police and medical sources said. “People started shouting, ‘Where is the driver?’,” a witness said, describing the minutes before the blast. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity. Another 22 people died […]

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Kurdish spokesman Sifin Muhsen Di’za’i announced today that the Kurdish region will continue exporting oil and will benefit from the revenues to provide the salaries of the Kurdish officials. He confirmed in a statement today, copy received by Aswat al-Iraq, that the Kurdish region will not yield to Baghdad. Di’za’i re-iterated that the Kurdish region is continuing peaceful dialogue to find a solution to this problem with Baghdad. He added that the Kurdish region needs to export 400-500 thousand b/d to meet its necessary needs, but confirmed that it will not be easy. Di’za’i disclosed that the last visit of Kurdish Premier Njirvan Barzani to European counties was to get some loans to pay governmental salaries. The selling of the Kurdish oil stirred again the differences between Baghdad and Arbil. Number of Reads: 990

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Kurdish spokesman Sifin Muhsen Di’za’i announced today that the Kurdish region will continue exporting oil and will benefit from the revenues to provide the salaries of the Kurdish officials. He confirmed in a statement today, copy received by Aswat al-Iraq, that the Kurdish region will not yield to Baghdad. Di’za’i re-iterated that the Kurdish region is continuing peaceful dialogue to find a solution to this problem with Baghdad. He added that the Kurdish region needs to export 400-500 thousand b/d to meet its necessary needs, but confirmed that it will not be easy. Di’za’i disclosed that the last visit of Kurdish Premier Njirvan Barzani to European counties was to get some loans to pay governmental salaries. The selling of the Kurdish oil stirred again the differences between Baghdad and Arbil. Number of Reads: 990

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Iraqi security forces clashed with members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the province of Babil on Sunday, as part of an effort to reassert control of the nearby city of Fallujah. A police spokesman said army and police units were searching for members of ISIS in the province area when the fighting erupted. In a statement, the spokesman said: “A unit from Babil police, in cooperation with the army, launched an extensive operation in Al-Abed, Yas and Bahbahan areas, in search of members of the armed groups who booby-trapped houses and planted a number of explosive devices on the roadside to target the army.” He added: “The operation involved violent clashes where all types of arms were used.” Meanwhile, the head of the security committee for the central and southern areas at Babil’s provincial council, Falah Al-Khafaji, said: “A unit from […]

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THE GLOBE Nineveh Governor, Ethel al-Nujaifi, announced that Nineveh Provincial Council has submitted a request letter to the Iraqi central government asking for making the Province an autonomous region. Nineveh Governor, Ethel al-Nujaifi, announced that Nineveh Provincial Council has submitted a request letter to the Iraqi central government asking for making the Province an autonomous region. Al-Nujaifi pointed out: ?Nineveh administrative body has lost its trust in the central government because the Province?s requests and demands have been neglected and ignored in many respects.? Al-Nujaifi found it essential to request the central government to approve the law of the Province Council, especially the one that is related to the security case of the Province, although the Governor does not expect the central government to answer affirmatively. ?The government has no intention to solve the issues the Province is suffering from. Many key issues regarding security, energy and the public […]

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Turkey is flexing diplomatic muscle and showing it’s ready to position itself as a key energy hub with the export of Kurdish oil, an international analyst said. The semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government confirmed in a statement Friday a tanker loaded with more than 1 million barrels of crude oil left a Turkish port, the first of what it said would be "many such sales of oil" from northern Iraq. The central government in Baghdad filed a case at an international court of arbitration in Paris to challenge the export. The central government says any unilateral deals in the energy sector from KRG are illegal , though the Kurdish side said it’s operating according to the rule of law. Soli Ozel, an international relations analyst at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, told Voice of America the oil issue spills over into Turkish ambitions for the […]

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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is profoundly disturbed by the ongoing fighting in Anbar province, particularly in Fallujah, between the Iraqi security forces and armed groups. The fighting has severely disrupted the flow of food, water, fuel, medical and other supplies to civilians in the city. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are estimated to have fled their homes in Anbar province since hostilities erupted in December 2013. Ramadi, Anbar province, Iraq. Boys stand on debris from the roof of a mosque that collapsed following fighting. @Reuters / A.a "In the past few days alone, more than 35,000 people have been reportedly displaced. A large number of civilians are still trapped inside the city by fighting," said Patrick Youssef, head of the ICRC delegation in Iraq, who recently went to the area to assess the humanitarian situation. "Supplies of water, food, and other basic […]

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Up to 35 people were killed and 70 others wounded in separate bomb attacks across Iraq on Tuesday, police and medical sources said. The deadliest attack occurred at noon in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad when a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest among a crowd of Shiite worshippers inside Abu al-Timan mosque, leaving 19 people killed and 34 others wounded, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Insurgent groups frequently attacked Shiite pilgrims who perform communal rituals in the Iraqi cities, killing and wounding hundreds of them in attempt to provoke sectarian strife. In a separate incident, a roadside bomb went off at a popular marketplace at the predominantly Shiite district of Sadr City in the eastern part of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding nine others, along with damaging several nearby shops and stalls, the source said. Also in […]

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The revival in Iraqi oil output has stalled. Again. Production forecasts for 2014 are getting less optimistic. The Oil Ministry’s official target is 4 million barrels a day by the end of the year. More likely it will be 3.75 million, Thamir Ghadhban , an adviser to the prime minister, said in an interview May 14. Or perhaps 3.4 million, about the same as last month, according to the average of six analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg News . Violence and conflict are pinching growth for OPEC’s second-biggest member. While Iraq added about 2 million barrels to daily production since 2003, the year of Saddam Hussein ’s ouster, attacks on pipelines and an oil-revenue dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region are diminishing the country’s dependability as a supplier. They’re also contributing to making oil more expensive, VTB Capital said. “Iraq always seems to be the producer of the future,” […]

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