Iraq

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Obama Calls for New Iraqi Government

President says he and Joe Biden called al-Maliki's replacement

(Newser) - President Obama welcomed new leadership in Iraq as "a promising step forward" today amid a political and security crisis in Baghdad, saying the only lasting solution is the formation of an inclusive government. Obama did not mention Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki but clearly was addressing the embattled incumbent as...

Islamic State Stones 2 Women to Death for Adultery

Locals refuse to throw rocks

(Newser) - Two women were stoned to death by Islamic State militants within a 24-hour period last month, the AP reports. Their alleged crime: adultery. "People were shocked and couldn't understand what was going on," says an activist witness to one of the stonings in northern Syria. Militants called...

Maliki Out? In Snub, Iraq President Names New PM

Whether Maliki will go along remains unclear

(Newser) - The big question in Iraq today: Will Nouri al-Maliki go quietly? As expected, President Fouad Massoum snubbed the two-term prime minister and said he must step down to make way for someone new. Massoum picked deputy parliament speaker Haider al-Ibadi to be the next PM and gave him 30 days...

Iraq's Newest Mess: A Possible 'Coup'

Prime Minister Maliki wants a third term, but president is balking

(Newser) - Tense times in Baghdad: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki deployed troops at strategic locations in the Iraqi capital amid a power struggle with newly elected President Fouad Massoum. Maliki accuses Massoum of carrying out "a coup against the constitution and the political process" by failing to nominate him for a...

20K Trapped Iraqis Rescued From Mountain

Yazidis aided by Kurdish rebels

(Newser) - Today brought word from officials that militants in Iraq killed some 500 members of the Yazidi minority community, but much better news is also emerging: With tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped on a mountain by militants, about 20,000 of them have managed to flee within the past 24...

Iraq: Militants Killed 500 Yazidis, Buried Some Alive

Some were women, children in mass graves: human rights minister

(Newser) - The Islamic State's assault on the Yazidi minority community is every bit as horrific as might be expected, with Iraq's human rights minister telling Reuters today that the militant group has killed at least 500 Yazidis—and buried some of those alive. " We have striking evidence obtained...

The Next Target of ISIS: Western Nations?

CNN looks at possible ways the extremist group might attack

(Newser) - In the wake of two US airstrikes against ISIS, supporters of the extremist group that's been seizing towns in northern Iraq are calling for retaliatory strikes against America, CNN reports. "It is a clear message that the war is against Islam and the mujahideen," wrote the administrator...

Obama: Iraq Intervention Will Be 'Long Term'

'I don't think we're going to solve this problem in weeks,' he says

(Newser) - While President Obama reiterated today that he won't let the US get dragged back into a ground war in Iraq, he said the newly restarted airstrikes won't be ending anytime soon, reports the New York Times . “I don’t think we’re going to solve this problem...

Obama's Big Foreign Policy Regret? Gadhafi

Not the ousting of him, but its aftermath, he tells Thomas Friedman

(Newser) - In a wide-ranging interview with Thomas Friedman of the New York Times , the president reveals what might be his biggest regret in foreign policy: Libya. Obama says the US made the right move in joining the coalition to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi, but it didn't do enough to manage the...

US Launches 2nd Round of Airstrikes on ISIS

Attacks strike mortar and convoy near Irbil, officials say

(Newser) - American officials say the US launched a second round of airstrikes against Islamic State targets near Irbil today, using drones and fighter jets. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the strikes by name, say unmanned aircraft struck a mortar near Irbil and...

US Launches Airstrikes on Iraq Militants

American jets hit Islamic State artillery near Irbil

(Newser) - The US launched airstrikes against Iraq's Islamic State militants this morning. "US military aircraft conduct strike on ISIL artillery," tweeted Rear Adm. John Kirby. "Artillery was used against Kurdish forces defending (Irbil), near US personnel." He confirms that F/A-18 jets dropped a pair of laser-guided...

Why Obama Approved Airstrikes in Iraq

Extremists' rapid push north forced his hand, say analysts

(Newser) - President Obama gave the green light last night for the US military to launch airstrikes in Iraq, but why now? Some explanations:
  • Twofold mission: The US has already dropped food and supplies to Iraqis trapped on Mount Sinjar by extremist fighters from the Islamic State, or ISIS, and it may
...

Obama Authorizes Airstrikes in Iraq

US also begins humanitarian aid drops to trapped Iraqis

(Newser) - President Obama said tonight he has authorized the US military to carry out airstrikes in Iraq against Islamic militants if necessary to protect American personnel in northern Iraq. He emphasized, however, that no ground troops would be sent back to Iraq. Obama also said the US has begun humanitarian aid...

6.5K-Year-Old 'Noah' Found in Museum Basement

It had been uncatalogued since 1930 expedition in modern-day Iraq

(Newser) - An ancient skeleton gathering dust in the basement of the Penn Museum in Philadelphia for 85 years finally has an ID: It's a 6,500-year-old man newly nicknamed Noah, reports Philly.com . Historians didn't figure it out until a project to digitize the museum’s collection revealed that...

Obama Mulls Airstrikes, Aid to Help Trapped Iraqis

Decision on Yazidi surrounded by Islamic State expected 'imminently'

(Newser) - Both passive and active options are on the table as President Obama decides how to handle the humanitarian catastrophe developing at Iraq's Mount Sinjar , says a senior administration official who spoke to the New York Times . The passive alternative: Airdrops of food and much-needed medicine to the 40,000...

Saddam Hussein's Body Moved in Secret

It's in a 'safer place,' says Sunni tribal leader

(Newser) - After being hanged in 2006, Saddam Hussein was buried some 95 miles north of Baghdad, in his birthplace of Awja. His body is no longer there: A member of his Sunni tribe tells Reuters they whisked his remains out of the family plot eight months ago, amid concerns that Shiite...

ISIS Seizes Major Dam, Could Now Flood Baghdad

200K civilians flee after Kurdish forces defeated

(Newser) - ISIS militants have made major gains after a fresh push in northern Iraq, seizing three towns after defeating Kurdish forces and taking control of the country's biggest and most important dam. The militants have been destroying Shiite shrines and executing resisters in the captured towns and up to 200,...

ISIS Blows Up Jonah&#39;s Tomb
 ISIS Blows Up Jonah's Tomb 
Jul 25, 2014 12:27 AM CDT

ISIS Blows Up Jonah's Tomb

Mosul shrine destroyed as new president elected

(Newser) - Jonah, the prophet who ends up in a whale's belly, is as big a figure in the Koran as he is in the Bible, but that didn't stop ISIS militants yesterday from blowing up a shrine devoted to him in Mosul. Officials tell CNN that the shrine—one...

UN Official: ISIS Demanding Female Genital Mutilation

Militant Sunni group issues fatwa, official says

(Newser) - A UN official in Iraq shared disturbing news with reporters today: ISIS militants have issued a religious edict declaring that all women in or around Mosul must undergo female genital mutilation, reports Reuters . The fatwa from the Sunni insurgents, who overtook the northern Iraqi city in June, applies to females...

60 Die in Iraq Prisoner Convoy Ambush

Militants attacked convoy after jail evacuated

(Newser) - Gunmen attacked a prisoner convoy north of Baghdad today, setting off a gun battle with troops in which 52 prisoners and eight soldiers were killed, officials say. The attack came as Iraq's parliament was set to elect a president, part of a troubled political transition that has seen repeated...

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