Iraq hostage to sectarian forces
Iraqi Sunni Muslims take part in an anti-government demonstration in Falluja, 50 km (31 miles) west of Baghdad, February 22, 2013. Thousands of Sunni Muslims protested after Friday prayers in huge rallies against Shi'ite Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, demanding that he step down. The Iraqi National Alliance is facing a series of crises. It se…
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Death threats for Iraq vote staff
Militants have issued death threats against employees of Iraq's election commission, raising concerns about security ahead of the upcoming provincial balloting, officials said. The April 20 vote is the first nationwide ballot since 2010 and an important test for embattled prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. Muqdad al-Shuraifi, a member of the e…
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Arab Spring-style protests take hold in Iraq
This restive Sunni town, the first to rebel against U.S. troops a decade ago, is rising up once again, this time against the government the Americans left behind. In an echo of the Arab Spring protests that have overturned regimes elsewhere in the region, angry residents have been staging weekly demonstrations against the Shiite-led government of Pr…
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Iraq Announces 21 Executions in a Day
Iraq has executed 21 people convicted of terror-related charges, including three women, on the same day, a spokesman said on Tuesday, bringing to 91 the number of people executed so far this year. The executions come despite a call from the UN's human rights chief for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Iraq, amid concerns over the l…
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Women ordered virginity tests
Iraqi women face court-ordered virginity tests that often show they were virgins until marriage but shame them nonetheless, doctors at an institute that carries out the tests and a lawyer said. Remaining a virgin until marriage can be an issue of life or death for women in the Middle East, where those who are seen as having dishonoured the family by hav…
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Iraq tightens noose on media
Iraq's Communications and Media Commission has decided to place restrictions on 39 media outlets including the BBC and Voice of America over alleged licence problems, a CMC official said on Monday. But the Journalism Freedoms Observatory (JFO), an Iraqi media rights organisation, said that the CMC had in fact recommended banning 44 news outlets,…
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Iraq moves to identify buyers
The Iraqi central bank has enacted measures to identify those who buy dollars, as some are believed to be front men at a time when Iran and Syria are facing foreign currency shortages due to sanctions. Both Iran and Syria have been hit by sanctions from the United States and Europe, the former over its controversial nuclear programme and the latter due to …
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Iraq bans Saddam visits
The Iraqi government has banned visits to the grave of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in Salahudin province, who was executed in 2006 after a local court sentenced him to death for crime against humanity. Saddam Hussein was ousted as the president following a US-led invasion in 2003. The Iraqi government prevented visits to the tombs either from the…
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Iraq tries to silence whistleblowers
The Iraqi government is seeking to silence critics who accuse it of rampant corruption by removing officials who try to prosecute racketeers and intimidating politicians and journalists who support them. This month alone it has forced the head of its anti-corruption watchdog to resign. And a prominent Iraqi journalist, who had been threatened for leading an…
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Iraqis send Valentine to leaders
Young Iraqis are to hold a Valentine's Day rally on Monday to call on their leaders to love the war-battered country rather than rob its resources, an organiser told AFP. "We do not want Valentine's Day to be only one day of love but a celebration for reform, democracy, citizenship and freedom," said Karnas Ali, a young engineer. Three gro…
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Iraqis protest lack of services
Hundreds of Iraqis took to the streets Friday to demonstrate against a lack of basic services, the latest in a series of protests that have swept the country as turmoil rocks other parts of the Arab world. Iraq has been slow to get back on its feet almost eight years after the U.S.-led invasion and is trying to tackle severe water shortages and a sporadic e…
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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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Iraqis watch Egypt with irony
Iraqis who have long suffered from high unemployment, poverty and endemic corruption — the catalysts of unrest spreading in the Arab world — called on their own government to take notice. Many watched footage of riots and looting on the streets of Egypt, the region's traditional powerhouse, with a sense of irony. The scenes brought back disturbing memor…
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Iraqi government purchase $75 million limousines
The Iraqi government has decided to spend nearly $75 million from the country’s oil revenues to purchase armored limousines, one for each of the 325 members of parliament. The government says the vehicles are needed because the parliamentarians are targets of attack by insurgents and 'terrorists.’The high salaries and perks senior Iraqi officials get ar…
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Electoral ruling riles Maliki's rivals
A ruling by the Iraqi high court calling for the country's electoral commission to come under the supervision of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Cabinet prompted rival parties Saturday to proclaim the move "a coup against democracy." The decision by the Supreme Court was posted Friday on its website. The ruling called for the Independent Hig…
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Carnage in Iraq
In the most brutal attack in a new surge of violence across Iraq, a suicide bomber detonated himself Tuesday, Jan. 18, in a crowd of some 300 police applicants in the northern city of Tikrit, killing at least 50 and wounding as many as 150 others, according to local media. Reports from the scene describe pickups piled high with bodies, blood running down th…
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Christian Club raided by Iraqi police
Eight men carrying handguns and steel pipes raided a Christian nongovernmental organization here on Thursday night, grabbing computers, cellphones and documents, and threatening the people inside, according to members of the group. "They came in and said, 'You are criminals. This is not your country. Leave immediately,’ " said Sharif Aso, a bo…
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Iraq blames Iran for pollution
The Iraqi guards patrolling the frontier with Iran are supposed to be on the lookout for smugglers, drug traders and weapons traffickers. For the past six months, however, the border guards in southern Iraq have spent much of their time trying to keep out another unwanted visitor - polluted water. According to officials and residents living along the border…
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‘Look what they’ve done to us!’
The US is pumping billions of dollars into regenerating Iraq. But with thousands there still living below the poverty line, many have yet to see any improvement in living standards. As RT’s Sebastian Myer reports, some are forced to live in dumping grounds, scavenging through waste just to earn a few dollars.
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Gate crashing the British Illusion
While many non-Iraqi’s have welcomed the return of Muqtada Al-Sadr back from his self imposed "exile" in Iran, for those who can see beyond his phrases of "peace" and "resistance", it’s a shame that I have to gatecrash the cheerleaders party, by being the bearer of real news. I can understand that some in Britain do like to che…
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