Iraq - Page 8

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi met with President Joe Biden in the White House on Monday to finalize an agreement that will end the U.S. combat mission in Iraq by the end of this year.

A German-Tunisian Islamic State widow has been sentenced to just four years in prison after being convicted of enslaving two Yazidi women while living in the former caliphate.

Pope Francis sent a telegram to the citizens of Iraq expressing his sorrow over the Islamic State’s deadly suicide bombing in Baghdad Tuesday that took the lives of dozens of people.

The government of Iraq has pledged to investigate an alleged “plan to smuggle Iraqis into Europe” as the EU border state of Lithuania experiences a mini migrant crisis along its frontier with Belarus.

Multiple rockets targeted a U.S. base near an oil field in Syria on Monday evening, a day after U.S. airstrikes hit facilities used by Iran-backed Shiite militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region.

The government of Iraq condemned President Joe Biden on Monday for bombing sites within the country, and within Syria, to allegedly combat the threat of Iran-backed militias in the area.

Linguist Mariam Taha Thompson, 62, was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Wednesday for passing the classified names of American intelligence sources in Iraq to her romantic interest, a man linked to the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Roughly 4,000 Iraqi nationals filed fraudulent refugee claims to enter the United States, including about 500 of which who have already been resettled in the U.S.,  thanks to a program initially created by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and former President George W. Bush.

Turkish military bombardments targeting sites near Yazidi refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan have displaced the camps’ inhabitants in recent weeks, the Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported on Wednesday.

ROME — Iraqi Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako has called for the rejection of every form of fundamentalism, insisting it is a “dangerous ideology.”

China’s state-run Global Times on Saturday compared demands for a more thorough investigation of the “lab leak hypothesis” – the theory that the Chinese coronavirus escaped from a Chinese virology lab in Wuhan – with the hunt for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.

A former Miss Iraq who was forced to flee her native country after posting a selfie with Miss Israel said at a pro-Israel rally that 25 percent of the global Muslim population are radical Islamists who want to eradicate the U.S. and Israel. 

A senior member of the Iran-backed militia coalition Iraq integrated into its armed forces claimed the group can attack U.S. combat troops and military installations with Iran-made drones, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported on Monday.

Iraqi security forces on Wednesday arrested Qassem Mahmoud Karim Musleh, a prominent leader of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), in connection to the deaths of multiple activists, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported.

Prominent Baghdad physician Dr. Hamid al-Lami was arrested on Tuesday morning for making “unscientific statements” about the Wuhan coronavirus that contributed to “spreading a dangerous disease.”

Islamic State terrorists in Iraq have regrouped and are “now a force” once again threatening to gain control of significant territories in the country, a commander of the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga warned on Wednesday.

Anti-government protesters in the central Iraqi city of Karbala set fire to the outer gates of the city’s Iranian consulate on Sunday after unidentified gunmen killed an Iraqi activist in Karbala earlier the same day.

Iraqi President Barham Salih claimed in an interview on Wednesday that Baghdad has “more than once” hosted secret talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Iraqi Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi resigned Tuesday, saying he had a “moral obligation” to do so — and a need to preserve “my career path, my family, and professional history” — after a fire at the Ibn al-Khatib Hospital in Baghdad on April 24 killed about 130 people.

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s vaccine roll-out had been faltering for weeks. Apathy, fear and rumors kept many from getting vaccinated despite a serious surge in coronavirus infections and calls by the government for people to register for shots.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the de facto chief executive of Saudi Arabia, said in a televised interview Tuesday that he wants to improve relations with regional rival Iran.

Protests broke out across Iraq on Sunday to denounce the Iraqi government’s alleged “mismanagement and corruption,” which many Iraqis say they blame for a hospital fire on Saturday in Baghdad that killed at least 82 people and injured an additional 112.

ROME — Iraqi Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako has reiterated his call for the creation of non-confessional states in the Middle East that give equal standing to all citizens, regardless of their religion.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in a series of tweets on Sunday, expressed his disagreement with former President Donald Trump’s statement applauding President Joe Biden’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan after almost 20 years of deployment there.

A Finnish court has sentenced an Iraqi migrant to four years in prison after being convicted of several crimes when he married a 13-year-old girl in Iraq and brought her to Finland in 2014.

Muslims around the world are beginning to celebrate the second Ramadan holy month of the pandemic era, once again seeking to navigate different lockdowns and social distancing requirements in various countries, plus economic travails and factional conflicts exacerbated by the coronavirus.

Kurdish Gen. Sirwan Barzani warned in an April 6 interview updated Monday that the Islamic State is “coming back with a vengeance” in Iraq, and while ISIS is currently focused on guerrilla fighting and terrorist attacks on civilians, it aspires to “make a powerful comeback” and once again control territory as a caliphate.

The Guardian alleges in a recent report that Facebook has continued to allow world leaders and politicians to use its platform to lie to the public and harass political opponents, especially in third-world countries, despite being alerted to evidence of the situation.

Iraqi Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako issued a bold proposal Monday for the establishment of a secular state in Iraq, separating religion from government “as the Christian West has done for a long time.”

An illegal alien who passed through Turkey, Greece, Germany, and France before reaching England in the back of a lorry has been convicted of murdering and dismembering Lorraine Cox in Exeter, Devon.

Britain’s Royal Air Force announced a five-day bombing campaign on Monday against Islamic State forces in Iraq, in support of Iraqi ground troops.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told the European Parliament on Monday he has “serious concerns” about the Turkish government’s behavior on various issues, “ranging from the eastern Mediterranean, the Turkish decision to buy the Russian air defense system S-400 or related to democratic rights in Turkey.”

Kurdish members of the Iraqi Parliament (MP) and another MP got into a physical brawl Monday night over the latter’s reported insults to the Kurdistan Regional Government and its leaders, Kurdish news outlet Rudaw reported.

Lawmakers in Iraq passed a bill Sunday exempting manufacturers of Chinese coronavirus vaccine candidates from liability for possible damages from them.

ROME — The Iraqi government prevented Jews from attending events during Pope Francis’s historic visit to the country, the Jerusalem Post contends.

ROME — Pope Francis said Wednesday the Iraqi people have been carrying a “huge cross” for years, suffering ongoing “violence, persecution, and exile.”