Iraq

03 July 2007 -- A car bombing in a Shi'ite district of the Iraqi capital has killed at least 18 people and wounded 35 more.

The blast tore through a market in Baghdad's Shaab neighborhood Tuesday.

Earlier today, Iraq's cabinet unanimously approved a new draft of a law that would distribute potentially huge oil revenues among the country's Kurdish, Shi'ite and Sunni groups. Iraq's parliament is to debate it on Wednesday.    » read more »

03 July 2007 -- U.S. prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty for a former U.S. soldier if he is found guilty of taking part in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family.

Prosecutors filed the notice Tuesday against the former army soldier, Private Steven Green, in federal court in the midwestern U.S. state of Kentucky. The notice cited the charges against him, including premeditated murder.

Green has been identified as the ringleader of the March 2006 rape and murders in the southern Iraqi town of Mahmudiyah.    » read more »

30 June 2007 -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called on a group of Sunni ministers boycotting his Cabinet to return to the government.

Mr. Maliki issued a statement Saturday urging six members of the Sunni Accordance Front to give up the boycott they began to protest legal proceedings against another Sunni cabinet member, Culture Minister Asaad Kamal Hashimi.

Hashimi is accused of masterminding an assassination attempt against a lawmaker two years ago. The politician survived, but his two sons died in the attack.    » read more »

June 28, 2007 -- Washington D.C.-Today Senators Kennedy, Smith, Biden, Hagel, Leahy, Levin and Lieberman sent the following letter Secretary Chertroff and Secretary Rice calling for immediate action to expand our government’s ability to process refugee applications for Iraqis and special immigrant visas for Iraqi and Afghan translators and interpreters:

June 28, 2007

Secretary Michael Chertoff
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20580

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Department of State
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Chertoff and Secretary Rice,    » read more »

28 June 2007 -- There is growing concern in Turkey and in northern Iraq about a Turkish military buildup for a possible incursion against Kurdish rebel bases in Iraqi territory. Turks are divided about whether a cross-border operation would do much to stop rebel attacks in Turkey. And in villages along Iraqi Kurdistan's border with Turkey, residents say artillery strikes are coming across the border, making life difficult.    » read more »

28 June 2007 -- Iraqi officials say a car bomb has killed at least 21 people at a crowded bus station in Baghdad.

They say 40 others were wounded in Thursday's explosion during morning rush hour in the capital's mostly-Shi'ite district of Bayaa. At least 40 vehicles were destroyed by the bomb.

Elsewhere in the capital, mortars hit the central Shorja commercial district, killing at least two people.

In another development, the British military said a roadside bomb killed three British soldiers in the southern city of Basra.    » read more »

27 June 2007 -- The head of Turkey's armed forces has again stressed the need for a cross-border operation against Kurdish guerrillas based in Iraq.

But General Yasar Buyukanit said Wednesday that the Turkish government would have to set guidelines for such an incursion.

He called for a cross-border operation in April to attack Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, fighters who Turkey says are launching attacks on Turkey from Iraq.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. wants Kurdish guerrillas to stop operating out of northern Iraq.    » read more »

26 June 2007 -- The deployment of 28,000 additional U.S. troops to secure Baghdad is now complete. The troops began arriving in February, and have been focusing their mission on clearing troubled neighborhoods of al-Qaida and illegal militias. From Baghdad, VOA's Margaret Besheer reports on one area where U.S. and Iraqi forces are working to bring security and return basic services to residents.    » read more »

21 June 2007 -- Senior U.S. Defense Department officials said Thursday there will be more violence and more casualties in Iraq as the higher number of U.S. troops pursue their new offensive. They also endorsed moves by American commanders to work with, and even provide weapons to former insurgent groups that now say they want to support the government. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the top U.S. military officer, General Peter Pace, spoke at a news conference at the Pentagon.    » read more »

June 19, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C— Because of the war in Iraq, more than two million Iraqis have been internally displaced in their own country, and two million other Iraqis are in neighboring countries throughout the region, primarily Jordan and Syria. The United States has allowed less than 500 Iraqi refugees into the country since the conflict began – only 63 have been admitted this year.    » read more »

June 18, 2007 -- According to a new survey, “Iraq has emerged as the world’s second most unstable country, behind Sudan, more than four years after President George W. Bush ordered the U.S. invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.” In fact, Iraq, which ranked fourth last year, “suffered a third straight year of deterioration in 2006 with diminished results across a range of social, economic, political and military indicators.”

Iraq now ranked second among world’s failed states
Reuters
David Morgan    » read more »

03 June 2007 -- Iraqi authorities say a suicide car bomber killed 10 people and wounded more than two dozen others in an attack on a police convoy north of Baghdad. Meanwhile, U.S. military says at least 14 American soldiers were killed in Iraq in the first three days of June. The bloodletting comes as an ongoing build-up of U.S. troops in Iraq nears completion. VOA's Michael Bowman reports from Washington, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad is urging patience in assessing the surge.    » read more »

30 May 2007 -- A new study has ranked Norway as the most peaceful country in the world, while placing the United States near the bottom.

A division of the group that publishes the Economist news magazine issued the Global Peace Index Wednesday ranking the U.S. at 96 out of 121 countries - one spot ahead of Iran. Iraq was ranked lowest.    » read more »

May 29, 2007 -- The Department of Homeland Security has developed enhanced security screening procedures for Iraqi refugees applying for resettlement in the U.S. As a first step in fulfilling the Administration's commitment to accept up to 7,000 referrals of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees – such as persons whose lives may be in jeopardy because they worked for coalition forces – the department is poised to approve the applications of nearly 60 Iraqis.    » read more »

13 May 2007 -- Iran says it will hold talks with the United States next week on security in Iraq.

Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini Sunday as saying Tehran agreed to the talks in order to lessen the pain of the Iraqi people, support the Iraqi government and establish security and peace in Iraq.

The report said Iran received a request for the talks through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which often acts as an intermediary for the U.S. in the country.    » read more »