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Iraq police find 18 bodies; bombings kill 4

Police found the corpses of 18 men shot near a Sunni town just north of Baghdad on Friday, Iraqi officials said, hours after they were abducted by gunmen wearing military uniforms. Elsewhere near the capital, two separate bomb attacks killed four. Such killings are reminiscent of Iraq’s worst days of sectarian warfare in 2006 and 2007, when both Shiite and Sunni Muslim death squads roamed the streets and took people from their homes. Police said the abducted men were killed with shots to the head. The bodies were found early Friday in farmland near the Sunni-dominated town of Mishahda, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Baghdad. Gunmen in four cars snatched the men, who included two army officers, from their houses late Thursday. Earlier this week, police found 13 bodies in areas around Baghdad. Later, in the afternoon, a bomb went off inside a sheep […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Exxon to Sell Stakes in Iraq Field to PetroChina, Pertamina

Exxon Mobil Corp. agreed to sell stakes in its West Qurna-1 oil project in Iraq to PetroChina Co. and PT Pertamina (Persero) of Indonesia. Exxon said Thursday that PetroChina would take a 25% stake in the project and Pertamina would take a 10% stake. The West Qurna-1 field is located near Basra in southern Iraq. It is one of several big fields that Western oil companies agreed in 2010 to help Iraq develop. After selling the stakes, Exxon will retain 25% of the field and continue as its operator. The rest of the field is owned by Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Iraq’s state-owned South Oil Co.Click here to view full article at online.wsj.com

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Execution-Style Killings in Iraq Raise Fears of Return to Sectarian Violence

A family of five killed in their home. A group of men shot dead in a field. Eight bodies, tied up in cable, discovered on a farm, each with a bullet in the head. More than 300 Iraqis have been killed this month in bombings and shootings in markets, along roadsides, near schools and mosques, and in bakeries. On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council condemned the recent spike in violence in Iraq and the deliberate targeting of places where civilians congregate. But on Wednesday, the daily tally of violence took on an air of pinpoint deliberation with the execution-style killings of several groups of civilians, a grim reminder of the worst days of sectarian warfare in the country. While major bombings have become common, the killings reintroduced the prospect of a resurgence in the type of violence that rattled Iraq in 2006 and 2007. The bodies […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq: 13 executed corpses found as attacks kill 5

Police around Iraq’s capital found the corpses of 13 men Wednesday apparently gunned down in executions, as other attacks in the country killed at least five, authorities said. Officers found eight corpses dumped in farmland in the Sunni-dominated Arab Jabour district, a police officer said. All of the dead, men believed to be between the ages of 25 to 35, suffered gunshot to their heads, he said. Arab Jabour, a former insurgent stronghold, is located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Baghdad. Authorities found another five corpses in a vacant lot in a residential area of the capital’s northwestern Shula neighborhood, the officer said. The slain men, all in their 30s, had their hands and legs tied and suffered gunshots in heads and chests, he said. Officers found no identification on the corpses. The discovery of executed corpses is a grim reminder of […]

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Besieged town in disputed territories turns to Kurds for security

Besieged town in disputed territories turns to Kurds for security Exhausted by relentless bombings and exasperated by the federal government’s inability to provide security, Tuz Khurmatu, one of the most fractious towns in Iraq’s disputed territories, has voted to come under the protection of Kurdish Peshmerga security forces.Key Kurdish leaders indicated their intention to honor the request, despite the risk of raising tensions with authorities in Baghdad and Salahaddin province, who oppose the move.”We will send Peshmerga forces to Tuz if the local c…

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq Signs $690M Barrier Contract With S.Korea's Daewoo

raq said on Tuesday it had signed a 511 million euro ($690 million) contract with South Korea’s Daewoo to build a sea barrier at its planned Grand Faw port in the south of the country. Under the contract, Daewoo will build the barrier, known as a “breakwater” within 30 months, Iraq’s Transport Ministry said in a statement on its website. It said Daewoo was one of four companies which had bid for the contract to build the barrier at Grand Faw, which is located in Basra, Iraq’s southern oil hub. Grand Faw is one of several projects which Iraqi authorities hope will create a transportation corridor between the Middle East and Europe that will bypass the Suez Canal. ($1 = 0.7404 euros) (Reporting by Raheem Salman; Editing by Louise Heavens)

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq Signs $690M Barrier Contract With S.Korea’s Daewoo

raq said on Tuesday it had signed a 511 million euro ($690 million) contract with South Korea’s Daewoo to build a sea barrier at its planned Grand Faw port in the south of the country. Under the contract, Daewoo will build the barrier, known as a “breakwater” within 30 months, Iraq’s Transport Ministry said in a statement on its website. It said Daewoo was one of four companies which had bid for the contract to build the barrier at Grand Faw, which is located in Basra, Iraq’s southern oil hub. Grand Faw is one of several projects which Iraqi authorities hope will create a transportation corridor between the Middle East and Europe that will bypass the Suez Canal. ($1 = 0.7404 euros) (Reporting by Raheem Salman; Editing by Louise Heavens)

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Suicide bombers kill 14 in attacks on army bases near Baghdad

Suicide bombers killed 14 members of Iraq’s security services and wounded 37 in attacks on army bases north of Baghdad on Tuesday, police and medical sources said. Iraq is suffering from its worst surge in violence in at least five years with insurgents stepping up bombing campaigns against security forces and civilians. In the first set of attacks, two bombers detonated in quick succession at an intersection between the towns of Taji and Tarmiya, around 25 km (15 miles) north of the Iraqi capital, killing eight Iraqi soldiers and wounding 26. Later on Tuesday two more suicide bombers targeting another army base in a village outside Taji killed six police and wounded 11, police and medics said. Thousands of Iraqis have been killed since the start of the year and the attacks, some claimed by al Qaeda, have been fuelled by the civil war in neighbouring […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Iraq: Attacks Kill at Least 23 People

A series of bombings and shootings on Monday left at least 23 people dead and more than 20 wounded, Iraqi security officials and medical workers said. Just after sunset, an explosion at a market in central Baghdad killed 12 people, the police said. Earlier, a suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint north of Baghdad, killing three police officers and two civilians. South of Baghdad, two militia members were killed by a roadside bomb. Another militia member was killed by a bomb attached to his car in Salahuddin Province, north of Baghdad, while a roadside bomb near a high school in the region killed a woman. In Baghdad, a bomb blew up a truck driver and gunmen killed a Ministry of Justice employee. More than 300 Iraqis have been killed this month in similar attacks.

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple