Iraq

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Iraq Pullout on Target: Obama, Maliki

Obama plays down Iraqi limits on US forces as 'differences in strategy'

(Newser) - President Obama met with Nouri al-Maliki today and vowed to keep to his timetable that has all US forces out of Iraq by 2011, the Washington Post reports. The Iraqi prime minister said that his country’s security forces are now “highly capable” of handling the threat posed by...

Maddow's Pitch Equips Iraqi Baseball Team

(Newser) - The Iraqi national baseball team will finally look the part thanks to Rachel Maddow, McClatchy Newspapers report. After seeing a story on the team, which had been making do with one borrowed softball bat, some second-hand gloves, and no uniforms, the MSNBC host vowed to help. After she ran a...

US Troop Deaths Pass 5K in Iraq, Afghanistan

Deadliest month so far in Afghanistan

(Newser) - The combined death toll among US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has passed 5,000, USA Today reports. The Pentagon says 4,332 have died in Iraq and 669 in Afghanistan. At least 30 American troops have died in Afghanistan in July, the deadliest month in the nearly 8-year-old war,...

US Commanders Chafe at Iraq's Tight New Restrictions

(Newser) - The Iraq government has tightly restricted the movements and activities of American troops remaining in cities, and some commanders blame the restrictions for a rise in attacks, the Washington Post. The day after Iraqis celebrated the pullback of US troops to outside cities, Iraq ordered the US military to cease...

Drying Euphrates Cripples Iraq

Turkish, Syrian dams, Iraqi practices blamed

(Newser) - Iraqis are suffering as the Euphrates river dwindles, a result of Turkish and Syrian dams upstream, a 2-year drought, and Iraqi’s own mismanagement of its water supply, the New York Times reports. Farmers and fishermen have been ruined and key grain-growing land desiccated. “The old men say it’...

Sadistic Brit Soldiers 'Made Iraqis Dance Like Jacko'

(Newser) - British troops called Iraqi detainees "apes," beat them so that their moans of pain sounded like an "orchestrated choir," and forced them to dance like Michael Jackson, a public inquiry into the death of one of the detainees heard yesterday. The inquiry panel was told...

Woodruff: I'm Going Back to Iraq
 Woodruff: I'm Going Back to Iraq 
OPINION

Woodruff: I'm Going Back to Iraq

(Newser) - Bob Woodruff returned to Iraq today, 3 years after he and his cameraman were seriously injured in a bombing there, he blogs for ABC. Still rehabbing from a serious brain injury, he says returning was a tough decision. “None of us could ever have imagined then that I would...

Iraq Bombers Kill 41
 Iraq Bombers Kill 41 

Iraq Bombers Kill 41

70 injured as violent surge continues

(Newser) - Two suicide bombers killed at least 34 people and injured 70 in an attack on the home of an anti-terrorism officer in northern Iraq today, while three roadside bombs in Baghdad killed seven others, authorities said. The attacks continue a surge of violence in Iraq's troubled north following the withdrawal...

Iraq Bans School Trips to Saddam's Grave

Group visits banned after schoolgirls filmed singing Saddam's praises

(Newser) - Iraq has banned school groups and all other organized visits to Saddam Hussein's grave after video emerged of a group of schoolgirls singing his praises, the BBC reports. The executed dictator is buried in his home village near Tikrit, and the site is still a place of pilgrimage for loyalists....

Biden: Obama Team 'Misread' the Economy

 Biden: Obama 
 Team 'Misread' 
  the Economy 
TALK SHOW ROUNDUP

Biden: Obama Team 'Misread' the Economy

Colin Powell 'concerned' by Obama's spending

(Newser) - Joe Biden conceded today that the Obama administration “misread” how bad the economy actually was and that now the unemployment rate is “much too high,” The Hill reports. In an interview taped in Iraq with This Week, the vice president also said the US doesn’t intend...

Biden: 'SOB' Saddam 'Rolling Over in His Grave'

(Newser) - Joe Biden presided over a huge naturalization ceremony in Baghdad today, CNN reports, as 237 US service members became American citizens. “We did it in Saddam’s palace,” Biden said, “and I can think of nothing better. That SOB is rolling over in his grave right now....

Iraq Protesters Burn US Flag During Biden Visit

Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr mock veep's reconciliation tour

(Newser) - Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to promote reconciliation among Iraqis was met today with protests by supporters of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, Reuters reports. Demonstrators burned American flags and shouted anti-US slogans. Biden plans to meet with PM Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani to assess plans to heal the...

Biden Has Tricky Balancing Act on Iraq Visit

(Newser) - High-level officials of Joe Biden's caliber usually stay in places like Iraq for a few hours, max. Biden, however, is now gearing up for the second day of his surprise visit. No wonder: In his new role as a sort of unofficial envoy to the nation, Biden has no small...

Saddam's FBI Interviews Released
Saddam's FBI Interviews Released

Saddam's FBI Interviews Released

Says WMD fiction was aimed at Iran; he wanted pact with US

(Newser) - Transcripts of Saddam Hussein's two dozen interviews with the FBI before his execution were released yesterday, after details were published last week by the New York Daily News, which obtained them through the Freedom of Information Act. Some details are still redacted, but the FBI says no "enhanced" techniques...

In Televised Auction of Oil Contracts, Iraq Plays Hardball

Oil ministry plays hardball on prices

(Newser) - The Iraqi oil industry has been nationalized since 1972, but today the country is awarding the first contracts in decades to private petroleum companies—live on television. So far a joint bid by British Petroleum and a Chinese firm has won the first contract, for a 17 billion-barrel field in...

Parade, Jubilation Follow US Pullout of Iraqi Cities

Maliki warns media not to question his forces' abilities

(Newser) - Iraq held its first full military parade since the fall of Saddam today—now known as Sovereignty Day—to celebrate the official withdrawal of US troops from cities and towns. The proceedings took place inside the Green Zone and were screened on television, but several media outlets, including the New ...

4 US Troops Killed During Iraqi City Pullout

(Newser) - Four US soldiers were killed in combat shortly before the American military completed a withdrawal from Iraq's cities last night. But prime minister Nouri al-Maliki assured Iraqis in a televised address today that government forces are in control: "Those who think that Iraqis are not able to protect their...

Iraqis Celebrate 'Sovereignty Day' as US Pulls Back

Maliki declares June 30 'National Sovereignty Day'

(Newser) - Iraqi forces have assumed formal control of security in Baghdad and other cities after US combat troops withdrew from urban areas. A countdown clock broadcast on Iraqi TV ticked to zero as the midnight deadline passed for combat troops to pull back. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has declared a public...

Iraq's Upbeat Mood Angers US Officials

(Newser) - Baghdad's festive mood this weekend has left some Washington officials and military leaders simmering, the Guardian reports. While Iraqis prepare to celebrate US troops' withdrawal from city streets tomorrow, American officials say that local forces have gone untrained, forcing US troops to sustain casualties. Worse, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said...

Maliki Not Above Arresting Rivals as Iraq Election Looms

(Newser) - PM Nouri al-Maliki looks a lot like a strongman these days, using every lever at his disposal to influence Iraq’s January elections, the Washington Post reports. His men have arrested or threatened political rivals in Diyala province and Basra; last month they even arrested a councilman from the Iraqi...

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