US Embassy

(Newser) - The State Department won’t have to assign diplomats to open posts in Iraq because enough staff members have volunteered for the spots, the AP reports. The department planned to require foreign service officers to serve at the US embassy in Baghdad and in nearby provinces if there weren’t...

(Newser) - Private security contractors in Iraq will operate under tougher controls and tighter supervision, according to new State Department rules approved by Condoleezza Rice today, but they won't be supervised by the military, as Defense's Robert Gates had proposed. Measures include investigative "go teams"' that will respond quickly to...

(Newser) - Private security firm Blackwater USA has been involved in shooting incidents nearly every week since 2005, according to an investigation by the Democratic congressional staff. While Blackwater is contracted to use force only defensively, company guards used force at least 195 times, firing first 80% of the time, the report...

(Newser) - The Iraqi government is reacting angrily to a Senate resolution passed Thursday that the US push to divide the country into three autonomous regions—Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish—to reduce ethnic bloodshed. "No Iraqi is for dividing their country or for splitting it into three weak states, unable to...