News On Iraq. - Page 20

mlurp · #**191** (**permalink**) 05-13-2012, 02:55 PM

But reduced

and spending way much so it becomes a total waste. Thats the govt. we elected, and far to many people running around going no where in a hurry which add to this and so many other waste of taxpayers dollars.

Quote:

.US insists Iraq police training not being scrapped

AFP – 4 hrs ago. 13 May 2012.

The US embassy in Baghdad insisted on Sunday it had no plans to shut down a multi-billion-dollar police training programme that it said was a "vital part" of its enormous civilian mission here.

Responding to a New York Times report that the US may phase the programme out entirely, the embassy did not comment on the newspaper's claims it would reduce the number of police advisers to just 50 or directly address charges it spent more than $100 million on a facility that it will no longer use.

"Despite a New York Times report to the contrary, the US Embassy in Baghdad and the Department of State have no plans to shut down the Police Development Programme in Iraq that began in October 2011," an embassy statement said.

It said it would return a Baghdad Police College annex to Iraqi authorities, thereby relocating US police advisers to the heavily-fortified embassy and generating "considerable cost savings".

"The Police Development Programme is a vital part of the US-Iraqi relationship and an effective means of standing by our Iraqi friends as they protect their sovereignty and democratic institutions from internal and external threats," embassy spokesman Michael McClellan said in the statement.

So important that well read it yourself.

Citing unnamed State Department officials, the New York Times reported on Sunday that new restructuring plans called for the number of police advisers to be reduced to just 50, from what was originally envisioned as a cadre of 350.

Name these idiots so they can be delt with or fired for gross malfuctions of common sense.

It also said that the embassy spent more than $100 million on upgrades to the Baghdad Police College, but that the building was "recently abandoned, unfinished".

WHY? And who made the profits?

The embassy did not immediately confirm the amount of money spent on the police college, and a spokesman said that "all staffing levels are evaluated periodically in coordination with the" Iraqi government.

Well if your going to screw it all up in the middle of building it, why even start?

The US military completed its withdrawal from Iraq at the end of last year, leaving around 150 troops under the authority of the embassy, charged with training Iraq's security forces in addition to the police training programme.

Yet as before we still waste as many dollars as possible and none of it is returned!

http://news.yahoo.com/us-insists-ira...145532087.html

Now, the embassy is the biggest in the world, with 12,755 personnel as of April -- 1,369 government officials and the remainder contractors.

Quote:

Iraq bomb attacks against security kill five AFP - 5 hrs ago
A series of bomb attacks mostly targeting security forces, including a suicide car bombing, killed five people across Iraq and wounded several more on Sunday, security … More »Iraq bomb attacks against security kill five

http://news.yahoo.com/middle-east/

mlurp · #**192** (**permalink**) 05-13-2012, 02:58 PM

These are the major links for Asia and the Middle East.. As well as other regions.

Middle East News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Asia News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Africa News Headlines - Yahoo! News

These are links to other regions worth watching...

Latin America News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Europe News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Australia / Antarctica News Headlines - Yahoo! News

My thanks to each reader.........

mlurp · #**193** (**permalink**) 05-20-2012, 02:53 PM

I guess life in many places around the world that host Muslims in large groups, depends on how well you get ahead by which side of the prophet next in line coin your family is born on.

And this has played out in Iraq sense we were there the second time to remove Saddam, as once he and his sons were gone there was nothing to stop this hate between them.

Quote:

.Lawyers for fugitive Iraq VP withdraw from case

By Ammar Karim | AFP – 2 hrs 37 mins ago. 20 May 2012.........

Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's defence team walked out of his trial Sunday after a judge refused to accept their evidence, as witnesses testified he gave them money to kill Iraqi soldiers and policemen.

Hashemi, last known to be in Turkey, is the subject of an Interpol red notice calling for his arrest, but he says he fears for his life in Baghdad. He is being tried in absentia on charges of running a death squad, which he says are politically motivated.

The senior Sunni official's lawyers tried to submit his travel records as evidence he could not have coordinated violent attacks because he was not in Iraq at the times witnesses claimed, but the judge in the case said he would still have been able to do so from overseas, an AFP reporter in the court said.

Shortly thereafter, Hashemi's legal team left the court.

"We decided to withdraw from the case as the appeals commission did not review the appeals we presented to it," Muayad al-Izzi, the head of Hashemi's defence team, told reporters, referring to their attempts to have the case heard in a special tribunal rather than the Central Criminal Court of Iraq.

The CCCI, which held the fourth hearing on the case on Sunday, responded by appointing two new lawyers to replace those who withdrew.

Hashemi had said in a May 17 statement on his website that he was considering withdrawing his lawyers due to "legal violations."

These included the trial not being transferred to another venue and Hashemi's lawyers not being permitted to meet with accused members of his staff or witnesses individually, the statement said.

Also on Sunday, witnesses, including a tribal leader, testified that they were offered money and pressured by Hashemi in return for targeting policemen and soldiers.

"Hashemi presented me with financial support in return for carrying out armed operations," said Khidhr Ibrahim al-Mashhadani, a tribal leader from north of Baghdad who claimed he was paid a salary of $12,500 per month for his efforts.

"The operations targeted only the security forces."

Another witness, Raad Ismail Ibrahim al-Janabi, said: "Hashemi told me, 'I want you to carry out special operations. The country needs you, you will carry out military duties against insurgents, and if you don't implement the orders, there will be penalties'."

Janabi, identified as one of Hashemi's bodyguards, said he planted roadside bombs targeting government vehicles.

The next hearing in the trial was scheduled for May 31.

Hashemi, one of Iraq's top Sunni Arab officials, was accused in December of running a death squad and, along with his staff and bodyguards, faces around 150 charges.

The accusations were first levelled after US troops completed their withdrawal, during a political crisis in which his bloc boycotted the cabinet and parliament, accusing Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of monopolising power.

After the initial charges were filed, the vice president fled to the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, whose authorities declined to hand him over to the central government.

They then allowed him to leave on a tour of the region that has taken him to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and now Turkey. Ankara has said it will not extradite him to Iraq.

Lawyers for fugitive Iraq VP withdraw from case - Yahoo! News

mlurp · #**194** (**permalink**) 05-24-2012, 03:13 PM

Gee I was like most hoping once we left I would be wrong in what I saw for the future in Iraq. But

I was correct.

Quote:

.Baghdad mortar attack kills one, wounds six

AFP – 1 hr 31 mins ago. 24 may 2012...........

A mortar attack in Baghdad killed one person and wounded six others Thursday, in the second attack in Iraq's capital during key talks on Iran's nuclear programme, security and medical officials said.

An interior ministry official said a mortar round struck a street in the Bataween area of central Baghdad, across the Tigris River from the heavily-fortified Green Zone where the talks between Iran and world powers pressing it to scale back its nuclear programme were taking place.

The official put the toll at one dead and six wounded, which was confirmed by a medical source at Ibn al-Nafis hospital.

On Wednesday, the first day of the talks, four people were wounded by a roadside bomb near a Sunni mosque in Al-Yarmuk, west Baghdad.

The attacks come despite heightened security measures in and around the Iraqi capital for the two-day meeting.

Thousands of additional Iraqi security personnel were deployed in areas north, west and south of Baghdad to try to prevent the firing of mortars and rockets into the capital, a security official said.

The official also said without providing figures that additional forces were deployed at checkpoints in the Iraqi capital, and searches increased.

Also on Thursday, a roadside bomb against an army patrol near Dujail, north of Baghdad, killed one soldier and wounded another soldier and three civilians, an army officer said.

And in Mosul in northern Iraq, police on Thursday found the bodies of two girls who had apparently been bludgeoned to death, police First Lieutenant Mohammed Khalaf al-Juburi said.

The two had been kidnapped a day earlier, Juburi said.

Violence in Iraq is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common, with 126 people killed in April.

,

What if this was your town?

Baghdad mortar attack kills one, wounds six - Yahoo! News

NO COMMENTS as usual.

mlurp · #**195** (**permalink**) 05-26-2012, 01:05 PM

Between the insurgents and the clash of their own faith, these killers have plenty of places to attack and carry out the evil work.

Quote:

.Four killed in Iraq attacks

AFP – 4 hrs ago. 26 May 2012.......

Attacks north of Baghdad on Saturday killed four people, including three soldiers who died in a bombing, security and medical officials said.

In the deadliest attack, a roadside bomb against an Iraqi army patrol in the town of Badush, just outside the main northern city of Mosul, killed three soldiers, police First Lieutenant Salam al-Juburi said.

A bomb attack and a shooting in the town of Abu Saidah, in restive central Diyala province, left one labourer dead and five people, including a soldier, wounded.

In the shooting, gunmen opened fire on a truck carrying workers, killing one and wounding four others, according to a police major and Ahmed Ibrahim, a doctor at the main hospital in the provincial capital Diyala.

A separate roadside bomb exploded close to a passing Iraqi army patrol, leaving one soldier wounded, the major and a medic said.

Two more roadside bombs near the home of a Kurdish family in Jalawla, also in Diyala, left two young men wounded, they said.

Violence in Iraq has declined dramatically since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common, especially in Diyala and Mosul. A total of 126 Iraqis were killed in violence in April, according to official figures.

If it is declining explain that to the families who bear the blunt of this Violence.

Four killed in Iraq attacks - Yahoo! News

mlurp · #**196** (**permalink**) 05-27-2012, 02:54 PM

Iraq has many problems and one of the worst is the infighting between the Shiite & Sunni's.
Because when a population is divided by this amount of hate, it will spread all over the Middle East, into the Euro Zone mwhere a lot of both have gone looking for state hand outs. And they are rioting at times already. As told by my step mom who lives in Germany.

Quote:

.19 Pakistani pilgrims wounded in Iraq bombing

AFP – 57 mins ago.

A roadside bomb in Iraq's Anbar province wounded 19 Pakistani Shiite pilgrims on Sunday, police and a doctor said, in the second attack against pilgrims in the Sunni province in days.

"A bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims was targeted by a roadside bomb at around 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) on the highway to Baghdad" from Fallujah, Anbar police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Taher Kitab told AFP.

The attack wounded the driver of the bus and 18 passengers, including three children who were in critical condition, he said.

Assem al-Hadithi, a doctor at Fallujah Hospital, confirmed the toll, and said that the pilgrims were going to visit the Al-Askari Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

The attack comes after a roadside bomb exploded on Wednesday near a bus carrying Lebanese Shiite pilgrims west of Anbar's provincial capital Ramadi, killing three and wounding at least 10.

Iraq is home to some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam, to which hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flock each year. Pilgrims are periodically attacked, often with bombs.

Brutal sectarian fighting tore across Iraq beginning in 2006, leaving tens of thousands of people dead.

While the violence was brought under control by a US troop surge and by Sunni tribesmen switching sides to fight against insurgents, sectarian tensions in Iraq remain high.

19 Pakistani pilgrims wounded in Iraq bombing - Yahoo! News

mlurp · #**197** (**permalink**) 05-31-2012, 02:05 PM

Well Iraq has made some news of late. and it always starts with tragedy.

Quote:

.Baghdad blasts kill 17, shatter relative calm

By Laith Hammoudi | AFP – 3 hrs ago. 31 May 2012..........

A spate of bombings in Baghdad on Thursday killed at least 17 people and wounded dozens more, shattering a relative calm with deadliest violence in the capital in weeks.

Roadside bombs and explosives-packed cars detonated across a half-dozen neighbourhoods in the north, south and west of Baghdad, underlining persistent security concerns even as international energy companies met in the centre of the capital to bid on nationwide oil and gas exploration blocks.

Overall, 17 people were killed and at least 57 wounded in the attacks, an interior ministry official and two medical sources said. Three others died in shootings in northern Iraq.

Thursday's deadliest attack struck in the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Shuala, where a car bomb killed at least 13 people and wounded 32, medical officials said.

A police first lieutenant in Shuala said the car was driven by a suicide attacker.

The explosion badly damaged nearby shops, and windows in several adjacent buildings were shattered, an AFP journalist reported. Emergency crews were still at the scene more than an hour after the attack along with dozens of tearful residents.

"I did not feel anything, but then suddenly I was thrown through the air and I hit a door," said a taxi driver who identified himself only as Abu Qarrar.

"I saw dead bodies, wounded people, people with body parts torn off," said the 39-year-old, whose traditional Arab dishdasha robe was stained with blood. "I tried to help some people, and then the ambulances arrived, and now, they are cleaning the streets as if nothing happened."

Signs of the attack littered the scene, from a yellow taxi being taken away for examination by police, with its driver's seat and door covered in blood, to an unmarked civilian pick-up truck leaving the neighbourhood with a coffin loaded into its back.
............................................. CONTINUED ................................................

Baghdad blasts kill 17, shatter relative calm - Yahoo! News

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Quote:

Middle East News Headlines

Iraq plans new energy auction after lacklustre sale W.G. Dunlop and Salam Faraj - AFP - 3 hrs ago
Iraq on Thursday announced it will hold a fifth energy auction after a landmark sale of energy exploration blocks closed with just three out of a potential 12 awarde … More »Iraq plans new energy auction after lacklustre sale

Iraqi VP's lawyers want president to testify SINAN SALAHEDDIN - AP - 3 hrs ago
Lawyers for Iraq's fugitive vice president on Thursday asked judges in his terror trial to summon the nation's president as a defense witness. More »Iraqi VP's lawyers want president to testify

Middle East News Headlines - Yahoo! News

mlurp · #**198** (**permalink**) 06-01-2012, 12:58 PM

Dang I am running out of words and thoughts on Iraq. It was a total waste and now it is not much better, in fact it is getting worst with these power hungry politician's on the major population side.

Quote:

.Iraq attacks kill four: officials

AFP – 44 mins ago. 1 June 2012...........

Bomb attacks and shootings in central Iraq on Friday killed four people, including a police colonel and an army officer, security and medical officials said.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb at the Rashid vegetable market on the capital's southwest outskirts left one person dead and at least three wounded, according to an interior ministry official and a medical source.

Gunmen also shot dead a police colonel in the Shaab neighbourhood of north Baghdad while he was leaving work, security and medical officials said.

In the former rebel bastion of Fallujah, gunmen killed an army intelligence captain in the centre of the city on Friday morning, Colonel Mohammed Dulaimi from the provincial security command centre said. Doctor Assem al-Hadithi at Fallujah hospital confirmed the death.

And in the town of Baladruz, north of Baghdad in restive Diyala province, a roadside bomb struck the car of an anti-Qaeda militiaman, killing the fighter, a local police colonel and a medic said.

The fighter was a member of the Sahwa, a collection of Sunni tribal militias that sided with US forces against Al-Qaeda from late 2006, helping turn the tide of Iraq's insurgency.

The violence came a day after bombings across the capital killed 17 people, while shootings in the north of the country killed three others, underlining persistent security concerns in Iraq despite dramatically lower levels of violence compared to the brutal confessional bloodshed of 2006-2007.

Iraq attacks kill four: officials - Yahoo! News

Zero comments as usual.

mlurp · #**199** (**permalink**) 06-02-2012, 12:30 PM

Hey Iraq has taken it's head out of the sandbox it calls home and is repeating my comment about it's death toll though very slowly..

Quote:

Iraqi figures show slight growth in death toll

By SAMEER N. YACOUB | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago... 2 June 2012......

BAGHDAD (AP) — Official figures show a slight increase in the number of Iraqis killed in violence for the last two months.

Figures released by the Defense, Interior and Health Ministry on Saturday showed that 132 people were killed in May, including 90 civilians, 20 policemen and 22 soldiers.

That's up from 126 deaths in April and 112 in March — the lowest monthly death toll since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

I wonder just how many were civilians?

The bloodiest day of the past month was Thursday when 18 people were killed in a series of bombings and shootings, most in the capital of Baghdad.

And of course leave out the many number of wounded.

Violence has fallen in Iraq since a wave of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, but insurgents still carry out attacks on security forces and civilians to undermine the Shiite-led government.

Change the govt., to Sunni's and then you would have much more violence. So it is a win situation either way.

Iraqi figures show slight growth in death toll - Yahoo! News

The standard 1 comment.

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Quote:

Middle East News Headlines And this doen't help one bit.

Iraq crisis escalates with calls for PM to go Mohamad Ali Harissi - AFP - 16 hrs ago
A series of intertwined political crises that began with accusations that Iraq's prime minister was consolidating power have escalated into calls to unseat him, and paralysed … More »Iraq crisis escalates with calls for PM to go

http://news.yahoo.com/middle-east/

mlurp · #**200** (**permalink**) 06-04-2012, 11:47 AM

just like I spoke about earlier, Iran has a strong presents in Iraq now that we left. And I would bet my life savings the same will happen once we leave Afghanistan.
Iran should have been delt with softly many years ago but

we had to be hard with the last of the softer leaders. That big stick has created a lot of problems.
And not one responsible then till now was elected by the people. But were Political Appointees. A sorry bunch no less. And these people are worst than the ones we do elect.

Quote:

..Iran rallies to aid of Iraq's embattled leader

By BRIAN MURPHY and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA | Associated Press – 1 hr 57 mins ago... 4 June 2012.....................

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran has played many political roles in Baghdad since the fall of Saddam Hussein: spoiler to American-crafted administrations, haven for Iraqi political outcasts and big brother to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government.

Now add a new description as emergency repairmen trying to keep al-Maliki's coalition from splitting at the seams.

Which IMHO would work out in the end if this idiot was gone.

Shiite powerhouse Iran appears desperate to save the patchwork administration it helped create in late 2010 to pull Iraq out of its last major political crisis. Tehran is calling in favors among its allied factions in Iraq, and exerting its significant religious and commercial influence to try to block al-Maliki's opponents from getting a no-confidence motion.

On Monday, one of the linchpin partners in al-Maliki's government, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, traveled to Iran for talks, government officials said. A day earlier, al-Sadr urged al-Maliki to "do the right thing" and resign, but it remains unclear whether al-Sadr will bow to Iranian pressure in the end.

A collapse of al-Maliki's government would be a potential stinging blow to Iran's ruling system, which is already nervous about the future of its other critical Middle East ally, Syria's embattled President Bashar Assad. It also presents a rare convergence of interests between Tehran and Washington, which also views the wily al-Maliki as perhaps the only viable Iraqi leader for the moment.

"No doubt Iran is a significant political force in Iraq," said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a Syracuse University professor who follows Iranian affairs.

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Iran rallies to aid of Iraq's embattled leader - Yahoo! News

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