Category: Iraq

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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On a good day, the drive from Falluja to Baghdad takes less than an hour. On Sunday morning, with his city under siege, its morgue filled with bodies and people running low on food, water and generator fuel, Osama al-Ani packed his family of seven into his car and set off for the capital. The trip, with its constant checkpoints and vehicle searches, took more than 12 hours, he said. Yet, even after being forced to flee for his family’s safety, Mr. Ani remains more sympathetic to the militants who have set up checkpoints across his city and are largely aligned with Al Qaeda than he is toward the central government. “We had no food, no electricity and no water, and mortar shells were falling all around us,” said Mr. Ani, who is staying with relatives in the Sunni neighborhood of Ameriya here. “But many of us […]

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The Obama administration is considering expanding its support to Iraqi forces as they fight off a renewed al Qaeda threat, but Washington’s ability to significantly increase security assistance to Baghdad will remain limited. U.S. officials say they are in discussions with the Iraqi government about training its elite forces in a third country, which would allow the United States to provide one modest measure of new assistance against militants in the absence of a troop deal that allows U.S. soldiers to operate within Iraq. No further details were immediately available about where that might take place or how many troops it might involve. Reluctance to further empower Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki or put American boots on the ground constrains U.S. support for Iraq as it battles militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al Qaeda affiliate, in Anbar province, and seeks to […]

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Success, but more tests, in Basra unrest turnaround In the final months of 2013, Basra’s security forces and oil industry faced a series of challenges unseen in their ferocity and succession since foreign oil companies returned to Iraq.Yet oil production is increasing and exports are on track to follow suit, as southern Iraq looks increasingly safe to operate multi-billion dollar oil development projects, in large part because Iraqi officials moved quickly to contain and quell incidents that could have derailed them.The arrest of police o…

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The Iraqi army, trained and equipped at great expense by the U.S. military before it pulled out of the country in 2011, is struggling to hold its own against what is at once a populist revolt and a militant insurgency. On Monday, Maliki urged the people of Fallujah to expel al-Qaeda-­affiliated militants to avert a full-on attack, echoing calls made by U.S. forces a decade ago when they warned residents to leave the city or suffer the consequences. “The prime minister appeals to the tribes and people of Fallujah to expel the terrorists from the city in order to spare themselves the risk of armed clashes,” Maliki said in a statement read on state television as convoys of military personnel, tanks and heavy equipment headed toward the city to reinforce troops who were surrounding it. Instead, most residents were trying to leave, packing their possessions into cars and fleeing […]

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Al-Qaeda and allied fighters in Iraq vowed to resist government forces trying to retake towns Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says are under the terrorist group’s sway. “They’ll only enter Fallujah over our dead bodies,” Khamis al-Issawi, who said he’s part of a 150-strong brigade in the city 40 miles (64 kilometers) west of Baghdad, said in a phone interview. “We are ready and prepared to fight Maliki forces if they decide to begin their offensive on the city.” Fighting in Fallujah and the surrounding Anbar province over the past few days is part of an escalating wave of sectarian violence in Iraq, where Maliki’s Shiite Muslim-led government is confronting Sunni Muslim militants. Some are affiliated with the al-Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has gained prominence through its role fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria. Sectarian tensions throughout the region have been […]

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