Category: Iraq

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched his post-election bid to hold on to power for a third term on Thursday, saying Iraq had "paid the price in blood" for disunity and calling on rivals to back his bloc to lead the country. Iraq held a democratic national vote in the absence of foreign troops for the first time ever on Wednesday, despite levels of violence unseen since the darkest days of its 2005-08 civil war and a revived al Qaeda-inspired Sunni insurgency. Maliki, a member of the Shi’ite majority, addressed reporters with a confident winner’s air and praised high reported turnout figures as a victory over insurgents who had vowed to kill anyone who voted. The final result will not be clear for weeks. As in past Iraqi elections, parties with sectarian and ethnic agendas are expected to lead the field, with no group coming close to […]

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Iraqis headed to the polls on Wednesday in their first national election since U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011, with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki seeking a third term amid rising violence. Iraq’s western province of Anbar is torn by fighting as Sunni Muslim militants battle the Iraqi military. Its economy is struggling and Maliki faces criticism that he is aggravating sectarian splits and trying to consolidate power. Polls opened at 7 a.m. (12.00 a.m. EDT), with a vehicle curfew imposed on the streets of Baghdad. Voters will choose from among 9,012 candidates and the parliamentary election will effectively serve as a referendum on Maliki, a Shi’ite Muslim who has governed for eight years. Maliki was among the first to cast a vote at a hotel next to the heavily fortified Green Zone enclave where the government is based. He urged people to follow suit despite […]

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Millions of Iraqis voted for a new Parliament on Wednesday, defying threats from Islamist extremists, in an election that was carried out, by Iraq’s brutal standards, in remarkable peace. After a surge in violence leading up to the vote, and threats by a Sunni extremist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, to strike polling sites, no attacks were reported in Baghdad, and none with any large numbers of casualties were reported elsewhere in the country. The election, the first nationwide vote since the departure of American troops more than two years ago, was seen as a referendum on Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ’s eight years as prime minister as he seeks a third term amid a growing Sunni insurgency that has brought the country to the edge of a new civil war. But with results pending, the story on Wednesday was simply that the […]

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Following Iraq’s elections, leaders are gearing up for the process of coalition-building that will reshape the political landscape, including key energy posts and oil policy. Iraqis braved sectarian polarization and insurgent violence to vote on Wednesday, and as the counting of ballots begins, much is at stake for both average citizens and the oil sector.The vote itself will not decide the next leader of the country, because nobody is likely to win an absolute majority. But the results of the election will help determine the relative strength of various political blocs and set the stage for a complicated process of backroom negotiating and political horse-tradi… This content is for registered users. Please login to continue.If you are not a registered user, you may purchase a subscription or sign up for a free trial .

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Violence in Iraq’s Anbar Province has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, many of whom are suffering from severe wounds or burns and psychological distress and are now living in dire conditions and facing a lack of access to necessary medical care, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today. At least 380,000 people have fled their homes in Anbar. In the last month, more than 18,000 have sought refuge in Tikrit, the capital of neighboring Salah al-Din Province, where MSF is assisting them. “People are arriving with very few belongings,” said Fabio Forgione, MSF head of mission in Iraq. “Most are staying in abandoned schools and mosques. The fact that they will probably be displaced for some time is likely to worsen their already harsh living conditions.” Amid a very volatile security environment in Tikrit, MSF is […]

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The semiautonomous Kurdish government of Iraq is expected to start selling exported oil within the next few weeks, Turkey’s energy minister said Tuesday. A pipeline from the Kurdish north is sending oil to storage tanks in Ceyhan, a Turkish sea port. Exports of Kurdish oil, however, have been on hold because of the lingering stalemate between the Kurdish and central governments over who controls what in the Iraqi energy sector. "This oil belongs to Iraq [and] they may begin its export in May," he said . Oil from northern Iraq has been flowing north at around 100,000 barrels per day since the start of the week, he said. He gave no indication of the export destination, noting it was up to private sellers to determine who gets Kurdish oil deliveries. "[Turkey’s oil refiner] Tupras has its own contracts as a private company," he said. "I always say, they can […]

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Back-to-back bombs ripped through an outdoor market northeast of Baghdad on Tuesday, the deadliest in separate attacks that officials said killed 24 people on the eve of the first nationwide elections since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. forces. The attacks are an apparent effort by the militants to discourage Iraqi voters from going to the polls on Wednesday in the first nationwide balloting since the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. forces. Tuesday’s attack took place in the town of Sadiyah, 140 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Baghdad, a police officer said. One of the bombs was placed in the middle of the town’s main vegetable and meat market, he said, while the second was put near one of the exits — presumably trying to strike people fleeing from the first blast, a tactic widely used by insurgents in order to inflict as many casualties as possible. Officials said […]

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When a well-known journalist was shot dead at a checkpoint here last month, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki rushed to the scene. Speaking to a television camera, he promised “blood for blood.” In a city where hundreds die every month from explosions and gunshots, it was unusual for the prime minister to focus on a single murder. That scene, though, coming as it did just before elections, was a vivid demonstration of what diplomats and analysts say is Mr. Maliki’s best and last hope for securing a third term as prime minister: playing the strongman, a role Iraqis, for better or worse, are accustomed to seeing in their leaders. “Maliki is a man of power,” said Salah al-Robaei, 46, a university professor in Baghdad, who also called him “wise,” “tough” and a “great leader.” A strategy of showing toughness may win votes among Mr. Maliki’s Shiite constituency, […]

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With the country collapsing around him, Nouri al-Maliki’s strongman image is a sham. And that’s exactly why he’s so dangerous. There is something truly paradoxical about Iraq’s April 30 parliamentary elections. Although there is near unanimity among observers that the past four years have been disastrous for the country, many are still willing to defend Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s tenure — even going so far as to suggest that there is no one else who is capable of governing the country. However, the sad reality is that — given all the developments of his eight years in office — very few Iraqis are less suitable to be prime minister today than Maliki. Indeed, Maliki’s third term would likely be even more disastrous than his second, leading to a deterioration in security and causing the country to relapse into a new authoritarian era. Maliki’s defenders usually argue that the prime […]

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With the country collapsing around him, Nouri al-Maliki’s strongman image is a sham. And that’s exactly why he’s so dangerous. There is something truly paradoxical about Iraq’s April 30 parliamentary elections. Although there is near unanimity among observers that the past four years have been disastrous for the country, many are still willing to defend Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s tenure — even going so far as to suggest that there is no one else who is capable of governing the country. However, the sad reality is that — given all the developments of his eight years in office — very few Iraqis are less suitable to be prime minister today than Maliki. Indeed, Maliki’s third term would likely be even more disastrous than his second, leading to a deterioration in security and causing the country to relapse into a new authoritarian era. Maliki’s defenders usually argue that the prime […]

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