Iranian militia leader Hadi al-Amiri, one of several identified as leading an attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, reportedly visited the White House in 2011 during the presidency of Barack Obama.
Residents of a disputed district of Kirkuk, a region claimed by Baghdad and northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), are accusing federal police-backed Arab settlers of confiscating Kurdish lands, Rudaw reported Monday.
The Trump White House warned Iran on Tuesday that attacks against American personnel and facilities in Iraq by Tehran’s allies and proxies will not be tolerated.
The Iraqi parliament met on Monday for the first time since the elections in May, but it remains unclear which bloc of allied political interests will form the new government.
The Islamic State has begun exacerbating concerns about the availability of electricity in Iraq by targeting power plants and other key infrastructure for destruction. Baghdad announced on Sunday that unspecified “terrorist groups,” which observing media identify as the Islamic State, blew up a power plant in Kirkuk.
Several Iraqi officials who suffered losses during last month’s legislative elections, including the prime minister, are claiming the fire that engulfed the country’s most massive ballot warehouse this weekend was a deliberate act intended to sabotage a vote recount prompted by allegations.
Iraq’s parliament, on Wednesday, passed a law mandating a manual recount of votes cast in the May 12 parliamentary elections.
Despite years of discord and distance between them, Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad Iraj Masjedi said this week Iraq’s Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr is a “dear and influential friend and brother” of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iraq’s Election Commission released the final results of last week’s Parliamentary Elections early Saturday local time and declared Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sayirun (“On the Move”) coalition the winner of the majority of seats in Parliament.
Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, expected to be named the victor when Friday’s final Iraqi election results are published, is reportedly seeking to ally his Sairoon coalition (On the move) with several allied blocs in Iraq to form a government.
Final numbers for Iraq’s parliamentary election, which took place on Saturday, will not be available until this Friday, although estimates appear to show Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s coalition leading.
An Iraqi legislative female candidate withdrew her candidacy this week after an alleged sex tape of her appeared online.
The parliamentary election campaign season began over the weekend in Iraq with assassination attempts against two candidates by unknown armed groups.
The government of Iraq confronted Cuban non-resident ambassador to Baghdad, Alexis Bandrich Vega, this week about the island nation’s significant debt to the country, urging Havana to cooperate with finding a way for Iraq to regain its funds.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu confirmed on Thursday that Ankara is preparing for a new military operation in Iraq, backed by the government in Baghdad, against the Marxist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group.
The Iran-backed, mostly Shiite militias he legalized last year revoked their electoral support for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Wednesday, two days after officially endorsing him.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced a bid for re-election on Sunday with the support of anti-American, Iran-backed Shiite militias that have turned their guns on the pro-U.S. Iraqi Kurds following the demise of the Islamic State in Mosul.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Tuesday that the United States does not deem it “necessary” to appoint a new envoy to help resolve tensions between Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The U.S. State Department reiterated that it supports “more voices, not fewer” in international media in response to a string of legal actions against journalists and a particularly gruesome murder in Iraq, where Baghdad appears to be attempting to shut down all Kurdish voices.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has once again demanded that the Kurdish armed forces, the Peshmerga, allow him to take over as their commander-in-chief or significantly diminish in size, apparently taking advantage of Kurdish President Masoud Barzani’s announcement that he would step down from his role on November 1.
Iraqi Kurdish President Masoud Barzani announced this weekend that he would not seek an extension of his term after November, stepping down amid an invasion of his territory by the Iraqi army and the Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
Iraqi troops and Iran-backed Shiite militia forces launched a new offensive against Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq on Thursday. The Kurds reported taking artillery fire from the advancing forces.
Mohamadi Gulpaigani, chief of staff to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Tuesday that by attacking the Kurds in Iraq, Shiite militia guided by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) thwarted a joint Israeli-Kurdish-American plot to create a “second Israel.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Tehran on Thursday. According to Iranian media accounts of the meeting, Khamenei warned Abadi against “U.S. plots” and told him never to trust the United States.
The government of Iraq has rejected an offer from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to “freeze” the results of Septembers referendum, in which over 90 percent of KRG residents said they would support secession from Iraq.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq announced on Wednesday that it would be open to “freezing” the results of the September referendum asking Kurds whether they would support the creation of a sovereign KRG state.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson continued his tour through the Middle East and South Asia, joining Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday.
Kurdish authorities estimate that 100,000 people have fled Kirkuk, Iraq this week – formerly under control of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) but now lost to the Baghdad government and its Iran-backed Shiite militia allies.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq announced it had signed a deal with the Russian state-owned oil corporation Rosneft that would allow the company to begin developing oil blocks worth a potential $400 million to the Kurds.
Contents: Kurds flee Kirkuk after Iraq army defeats them in complete rout; Devastating defeat to Iraq in Kirkuk exposes major splits between Kurdish factions
President Donald Trump has yet to personally weigh in – either through official White House outlets or on Twitter – on the burgeoning civil war in Kirkuk, Iraq following the invasion of the Kurdish-held province by Iraqi soldiers and Iran-backed Shiite militias.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which voted to secede from Iraq last month, warned on Twitter Wednesday that Erbil had intelligence that the government in Baghdad was planning a “major attack” on its military, the Peshmerga, in the disputed region of Kirkuk.
Contents: Hundreds of ISIS fighters surrender as Iraqi town of Hawija falls; Tensions grow between Turkmens and Kurds in Kirkuk
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi appeared to extend an olive branch to the breakaway Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in remarks in Paris on Thursday, urging Kurdish Peshmerga military forces to “work together” with Baghdad’s army.
Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has rejected calls from Baghdad to “cancel” the results of the September referendum on independence, asserting that the government cannot annul the will of its people.
Contents: Kirkuk becomes the flash point after the Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum; Significant differences in the three recent independence movements
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Twitter this week that Baghdad would seek full control of all airports, land crossings, and oil revenues under the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) by Friday, threatening to seize them if Erbil does not comply with the order.
Contents: Iraqi Kurds’ independence referendum appears headed for big approval; Israel may be the only country recognizing the Iraq Kurdistan referendum
Contents: Done with Mosul, Iraqi forces begin operation to eject ISIS from Tal Afar; Turkey warns of sectarian war following battle of Tal Afar; President Trump to announce US strategy in Afghanistan
In a report published on Tuesday, Amnesty International accused Iraqi government forces and the U.S.-led coalition of “relentless and unlawful attacks” against civilians in the battle to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State. Amnesty declared the battle a “civilian catastrophe.”
