Suicide bomber kills in northern Iraq
At least three people were killed and 15 wounded on Thursday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a barber's shop popular with police in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police and hospital sources said. The attack is the latest and a wave of bombings across the country in recent weeks which have raised fears that Iraq could slip back into secta…
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Al Qaida fighters flow into Syria
Iraq's top diplomat on Thursday said he had "solid information" that al-Qaida militants were crossing from Iraq to Syria to carry out attacks, warning of a violent spillover that could shake the Middle East. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Baghdad had for years urged Damascus to clamp down on militant traffic as Sunni fighters headed f…
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Iraq backs off media outlets closure
Iraq has suspended orders to close 44 media operations in the country, including the BBC and Voice of America, after an outcry by press freedom advocates, an official said Tuesday. The Communications and Media Commission that regulates the news media in Iraq will give the targeted organizations more time to pay outstanding fees and renew lapsed lice…
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Iraqi-American woman slain buried
An Iraqi-American woman found bludgeoned to death in her California home last week with a threatening note left beside her body has been buried in her native Iraq. Family members wept uncontrollably by her graveside and her father asked God to exact revenge on those responsible for her death. A relative called on Iraq's government to take quick action …
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Iraq war over? Not where Qaeda rules
A spruced-up Baghdad is welcoming Arab leaders this week to declare that war is over and Iraq is open for business. To Um Qassim, carrying her shopping beside a rubbish-filled creek four hours drive from the capital, it is a cruel joke. In her home city of Mosul, out of view of visiting dignitaries, al Qaeda still controls the streets and people like her s…
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Iraq lets Iran fly arms to Syria
The Iraqi government has refused U.S. requests to stop Iranian cargo flights to Syria, despite being aware of credible intelligence that the planes are transporting up to 30 tons of weapons, according to a U.S. official. The U.S. has made several requests in recent months to the Iraqi government, including directly to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to eit…
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Iraqi Christians’ Slow Decline
Iraq’s dwindling Christians, driven from their homes by attacks and intimidation, are beginning to abandon the havens they had found in the country’s north, discouraged by unemployment and a creeping fear that the violence they had fled was catching up to them. Their quiet exodus to Turkey, Jordan, Europe and the United States is the latest chapter of a se…
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Defense blames PTSD for death
An Iraq war veteran facing a possible death sentence for the death of his 10-month-old stepdaughter was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and was self-medicating with alcohol and prescription painkillers when he beat her to death inside their Raleigh home nearly two years ago, his defense attorney told jurors Monday. Attorney Thomas Manning s…
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Senator slams DoD suicide prevention
It’s been a year since a blue-ribbon commission on military suicide prevention issued its final report and a list of recommendations for major changes at the Pentagon. But many of its key recommendations — including the creation of a Pentagon-level office to coordinate the roughly 900 suicide prevention programs across the force — have not been implemented.…
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Denied Help - The Iraq Vet
Fifteen months in combat left Army Sgt. Robert Anthony Quinones, 29, diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder.When all the help he could get from the Veterans Administration were 10-minute counseling sessions via video, he walked into a Ft. Stewart hospital ER, pointed his 9 mm at a medic and demanded to be admitted into the psychiatric unit.Acc…
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Protests followed by detentions, beatings
Iraqi security forces detained hundreds of people, including prominent journalists, artists and intellectuals, witnesses said Saturday, a day after nationwide demonstrations brought tens of thousands of Iraqis into the streets and ended with soldiers shooting into crowds. Four journalists who had been released described being rounded up well after they had …
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Lawyers protest Iraq government
Hundreds of lawyers took to the streets across Iraq on Thursday to protest against widespread corruption and unemployment in demonstrations inspired by anti-government uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. The demonstrations in Baghdad, Karbala, Kut, Ramadi and Amara came a day after Iraq's anti-corruption chief said ministers frequently covered up graft in t…
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Can Mubarak cling on?
The old lady in the red scarf was standing inches from the front of am American-made M1 Abrams tank of the Egyptian Third Army, right on the edge of Tahrir Square. Its soldiers were paratroops, some in red berets, others in helmets, gun barrels pointed across the square, heavy machine guns mounted on the turrets. "If they fire on the Egyptian people, M…
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Revolution is in the air
Events in the Middle East are moving too fast for the Obama administration to think it can get away with Plan A and Plan B reaction strategies according to the regimes or leaders it wants to keep in and out of power. Consider the response of the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to Hezbollah tightening its grip on power in Lebanon this week - Washingt…
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'unjustified homicide' in US run prisons in Iraq
New documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union show "unjustified homicide" of detainees and concerns about the condition of confinement in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, according to the ACLU. Thousands of documents detailing the deaths of 190 U.S. detainees were released by the ACLU on Friday. The U.S. mil…
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