Baghdad - Page 5

According to reports from the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as related by the UK Daily Mail, the Islamic State went on a killing spree against its own commanders over the past three weeks, executing 21 of them for failure in Syria.

The Obama administration is contemplating providing an emergency aid package to the cash-strapped Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq because it has been unable to pay its Peshmerga force, which has received military assistance from Russia.

TEL AVIV – Internal messages obtained by Breitbart Jerusalem show Islamic State supporters celebrated the deadly suicide attacks carried out by the organization’s operatives in a Shi’ite part of Baghdad on Sunday, rejoicing in the death and injury of “more than 100 infidels.”

The three Americans kidnapped in Baghdad by Shiite militia last month have been released unharmed, following successful negotiations for their release by the Iraqi government.

Iraqi Kurdish leaders have announced an independence referendum in November, a day after President Masoud Barzani recommended holding one before the U.S. election.

There are still three American citizens missing in Iraq, and the most likely culprits are Iran-backed Shiite militia. They were snatched from a private residence in Baghdad by gunmen on January 16, and there has been little progress in finding them, beyond Iraqi intelligence guessing they ended up in the Shiite precincts of Sadr City, where numerous other kidnap victims have resurfaced.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi has defended Iran from having any responsibility over three Americans who disappeared from Baghdad last week.

Iraqi security forces and American officials are racing to find “several” Americans missing from Baghdad, according to the U.S. Embassy.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi security forces fanned out across the Baghdad neighborhood Monday morning where three Americans were reportedly kidnapped over the weekend, closing streets and conducting house-to-house searches. An Iraqi government intelligence official told The Associated Press the Americans

Three Americans have been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad by “militias,” according to Arab news channel Al Arabiya, citing its own sources.

The Saudi execution of insurrectionist Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr threatens to touch off a conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims across the Middle East and beyond. Massive Shiite protests have occurred across the region over the past few days and have spread into Asia.

Iraqi officials claimed gunmen kidnapped 26 Qatari falcon hunters, including members of the royal family, in southern Iraq.

While the world waits to see if the tension between Turkey and Russia escalates, Turkey has also become embroiled in a dispute with the Iraqi government that has the potential to become more serious: Turkish troops have been crossing the border into Iraq without permission.

A federal judge has denied a new trial request filed by four decorated U.S. veterans, who were convicted of allegedly shooting indiscriminately into a crowd of Iraqi civilians back in 2007 while working as Blackwater security contractors hired by the federal government.

The church of Saint George in Baghdad, which was closed down in 2007 after being firebombed by Islamic militants, was finally reopened Monday, but local clergy worry that there are no longer any Assyrian Christians left to worship there.

The Vicar of Baghdad has gone the extra mile to deal with Islamist terrorism in Iraq. He even invited ISIS terrorists to dinner, despite their putting a $157 million bounty on his head.

With astonishing speed, American influence—withered by years of Barack Obama’s indecisiveness—is fading, as Iraq realigns around Russia and Iran. Take it from the Iraqis, who are celebrating the arrival of “Putin the Shiite” in Syria, hoping he’ll swing into Iraq to pick up the fight against ISIS.

Iraq’s central government is cutting off wage and pension payments to Mosul, and other parts of northern Iraq controlled by the Islamic State. The move is expected to be one more crushing blow for people caught in the living nightmare of the Islamic State.

The masked gunmen who kidnapped 16 Turkish construction workers from their job site in Baghdad at the beginning of September have released a video of their hostages, showing them alive and well, and they claimed that the captives will be released soon.

Patriarch Louis Sako, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad, is the latest Christian leader to ask Christians in the Middle East not to abandon their homelands despite threats from radical Islamic groups. He also slammed the countries who give preferential treatment to Christian refugees.

On Wednesday, masked gunmen wearing military uniforms kidnapped 18 Turkish nationals from a sports stadium they were building in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, according to their employer, Ankara-based Turkish conglomerate Nurol Holding.

Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government is striving to contain what has grown into a significant drug abuse problem among its population, pushing the limits of both law enforcement and medical care facilities in accommodating criminals and those who need help fighting their addictions.

The Baghdad National Library is working hard to digitalize their priceless papers and manuscripts before militant groups like the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) move in.

The Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, took to Twitter on Tuesday to condemn the Turkish government for participating in a “dangerous escalation” of violence against Kurdish targets in northern Iraq, after announcing they would limit their attacks to creating an “anti-ISIS” zone in the Syrian heartland.

An aging Russian warplane piloted by the Iraqi air force accidentally dropped a bomb on a Baghdad residential neighborhood on Monday, killing or injuring over a dozen people.

AAP reports that Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said her government would consider sending more troops to help battle ISIS in Iraq, but the Iraqis have been oddly slow to request assistance, even as the Islamic State overruns cities and begins lining up an attack on Baghdad.

Observers have known Islamic State terrorists have managed to get their hands on Iraqi equipment, but on Sunday, the Iraqi Prime Minister revealed the stunning numbers. “In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons… We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told Iraqi state television.

Contents: ISIS suicide bombers strike Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia and Baghdad; ISIS continues to gain supporters throughout the Mideast

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) released their first video from Palmyra, Syria, which shows the city’s ancient ruins untouched for now. Those buildings and temples earned Palmyra the title of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The group’s official media outlet uploaded the short video to YouTube.

REUTERS– Islamic State militants overran Iraqi government defences east of the city of Ramadi on Thursday, police and pro-government tribal fighters said. The defensive line was breached at Husaiba, about 10 km (six miles) from the city, on Thursday afternoon

The European Union on Monday approved a multi-phase military operation to defeat human smugglers who are trafficking migrants from Libya to Europe. Smugglers have been charging migrants thousands of dollars each to make the trip, and there’s no guarantee of reaching Europe or even of surviving.

This victory will permit ISIS to threaten Baiji, Iraq’s largest oil refinery, as well as the villages in the suburbs around Baghdad, and Baghdad itself. Furthermore, weapons stores and other assets in Ramadi were not destroyed and are available to ISIS.

The sectarian and factional chaos unleashed in Iraq by the ISIS invasion has neighboring tribes literally at each other’s throats, according to a report by the Associated Press. Some Sunni tribes initially welcomed the Sunni extremists of ISIS when they rolled across the border, thinking they might help change the balance of power in Shiite-dominated Baghdad. After watching ISIS turn northern Iraq into a torture chamber, some members of the al-Lehib tribe changed their minds, and ended up fighting alongside Iraqi military forces and the Kurds.

A federal judge on Monday sentenced one former Blackwater guard to life in prison and three others to nearly 30 years behind bars for their role in killing 14 unarmed civilians, including women and children, and injuring 18 others in Iraq.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari visited Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday in an event that appears intended to strengthen ties between Baghdad and Damascus in light of their mutually shared threat of Islamic State (ISIS) invasion. Iraq’s desire to forge stronger ties with Assad flies in the face of American diplomatic efforts to isolate the dictator after his alleged use of chemical weapons on civilians.

Chinese officials visited Baghdad this weekend to vow cooperation with the Iraqi government in eradicating the Islamic State and rebuilding the oil-rich Iraqi economy. Outlets differ on the sparse details, though the message of resolve to participate in the fight against ISIS appears throughout.