Posts In Category Iraq
Iraq to seize security contractors’ heavy weapons
on February 18, 2010 by Purger in International News, Iraq, War, Comments (0)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq will seize heavy weapons from foreign security firms and expel within days ex-Blackwater contractors still in the country, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said on Wednesday.
Iraq Masses Security Forces Along Syria Border as Tensions Mount
on September 5, 2009 by Purger in International News, Iraq, War, Comments (0)
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered thousands of additional national police deployed to the border with Syria, saying it was needed to prevent insurgents from infiltrating into the nation. Tensions between Iraq and Syria have been rising in recent weeks as Iraq has sought to implicated Syria in last month’s major Baghdad suicide bombings.
The two nations withdrew their respective ambassadors in August, after Iraq demanded that Syria hand over top Ba’athists and Syria refused. The Ba’athist Party of Iraq was in power until the 2003 US invasion, and many of its Sunni followers fled to neighboring Syria, where their own Ba’athist Party is still in power.
Iraq burns its bridges with Syria
on August 27, 2009 by Purger in International News, Iraq, War, Comments (0)
DAMASCUS – Relations between Iraq and Syria plunged abruptly on Tuesday after Baghdad recalled its ambassador to Damascus over the recent bombings in the Iraqi capital in which 100 Iraqis were killed.
The attacks, which ripped through government buildings on August 19, were the worst in Iraq in over 12 months and came just a day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki wrapped up a state visit to Syria. While there he boosted political and economic relations with Syria and jump-started bilateral committees to see that security is strongly monitored on the Syrian-Iraqi border.
At Least 20 Dead in Two Iraqi Bus Bombings
on August 25, 2009 by Purger in International News, Iraq, Comments (0)
BAGHDAD — Insurgents exploded bombs on two buses traveling from Baghdad to the mainly Shiite city of Kut on Monday, killing at least 20 passengers and raising renewed concerns about the government’s ability to provide security following the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq’s cities.
At least 10 other people were wounded, according to an Iraqi security official, who said the attackers had used so-called sticky bombs, which adhere to the underside of a vehicle.
Iraqi al-Qaeda Claims Credit for Baghdad Bombings
on by Purger in Iraq, Comments (0)
Following last Wednesday’s string of bombings in Baghdad, which caused well over 1,000 casualties in a one-hour span and did major damage to several high profile government targets, speculation regarding the responsibility has come from several sources.
The US blamed al-Qaeda, the Iraqi government blamed Ba’athists, opposition figures in the government blamed infighting among the ruling elite. It seemed every group with an axe to grind had a convenient theory about who was actually to blame.
Inside job suspected in Baghdad bombings
on August 23, 2009 by Purger in International News, Iraq, Comments (0)
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said today that the bombers of Iraq’s foreign and finance ministries may have had inside help from members of Iraqi security forces.
“Those who executed the operation were helped by others. They had security and logistics assistance,” he said in a news conference at the Foreign Ministry, which was heavily damaged in one of the blasts. “I don’t rule out that there is collusion by the government security apparatus.”
Blackwater Still Armed in Iraq
on August 15, 2009 by Purger in Iraq, Politics, Comments (0)
Despite the Iraqi government’s announcement earlier this year that it had canceled Blackwater’s operating license, the US State Department continues to allow Blackwater operatives in Iraq to remain armed. A State Department official told The Nation that Blackwater (which recently renamed itself Xe Services) is now operating in Iraq under the name “US Training Center” and will continue its armed presence in the country until at least September 3. That means Blackwater will have been in Iraq nearly two years after its operatives killed seventeen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.
6 years after invasion, electricity still scarce in Baghdad
on by Purger in International News, Iraq, War, Comments (0)
BAGHDAD — Dark humor flips on when the lights go out in a city that still suffers from crippling power outages despite the billions of dollars that have been invested in its grid.
“Electricity is dead. Pray for its soul,” reads graffiti scrawled along a wall in central Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood.
“I miss electricity so much I want to feel an electric shock, just so I know we have it,” said Falah Hasan Ali, 23, a resident of Baghdad’s Sadr City district who sleeps on his roof to escape the nighttime heat.
At Least 48 Killed in Latest Iraq Bombings
on August 10, 2009 by Purger in Iraq, Comments (0)
At least 48 civilians have been killed and over 250 wounded in a series of bombings across Iraq which were eerily similar to bombings on Friday which killed 46. Once again, the seemingly coordinated strikes targeted Shi’ite neighborhoods, and included several smaller bombings in Baghdad and one major one near Mosul.
Iraqis speak of random killings committed by private Blackwater guards
on August 7, 2009 by Purger in Iraq, National News, Comments (0)
Guards employed by Blackwater, the US security company, shot Iraqis and killed victims in allegedly unprovoked and random attacks, it was claimed yesterday.
A Virginia court also received sworn statements from former Blackwater employees yesterday alleging that Erik Prince, the company’s founder, “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe”.
