Tag Archives: Iraq

Obama Authorizes Air Strikes, Humanitarian Aid Mission in Iraq

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President Obama said Thursday he has authorized “targeted” air strikes if necessary to protect American interests in Iraq from insurgent forces that are taking over the country’s northern cities.

Obama

If the terrorist group ISIS reaches Erbil, the president said he will call in U.S. air strikes. The U.S. has an embassy and other staffers in the city. Air strikes have also been authorized to protect families fleeing ISIS in the Sinjar Mountains.

An air drop of food, water and medicine made at the request of the Iraqi government has been completed, the president said in the statement from the White House.

U.S. aircraft, escorted by fighter jets, dropped 5,300 gallons of fresh drinking water and 8,000 meals ready to eat.

The emergency effort is being deployed to help a group of 40,000 Yazidis, a group of ethnic Kurds, who fled villages in northern Iraq under threat from ISIS.

The Yazidis fled to the Sinjar Mountains, in a remote part of northern Iraq near the border of Syria, where they are stuck without food or water while ISIS forces are gathered at the base of the mountains.

 

Islamic State offering HONEYMOON bus tours across Syria and Iraq after opening ‘marriage bureau’ for women looking to marry the jihadist of their dreams

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Islamic State's buses

 

Extremist Islamists may well have wondered how they could possibly celebrate the happiest day of their lives – their wedding – while at the same time re-affirming their commitment to violent jihad.

Or they may not have. In any case, the gap in the market has now been filled by the Islamic State, which is offering honeymoon bus tours across its self-declared caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria.

The move into tourism comes after the group, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, opened a marriage bureau for women who want to meet the jihadi of their dreams.

The matchmaking service is operating from Al-Bab, in Syria’s Aleppo province, for ‘single women and widows who would like to marry IS fighters,’ said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Newlywed couples can then join other civilians on Islamic State’s bus tours around the various parts of the newly declared Muslim theocracy.

Running twice a week from Raqa in Syria to Anbar, Iraq, IS buses fly the group’s distinctive black flag and play jihadist songs throughout the journey, reports AFP.

It is not known whether tourists are invited to sing along.

Islamic State now controls massive swathes of northern and eastern Syria, the Iraq-Syria border, and parts of northern and western Iraq.

 

More than 50 bodies, including 2 children, found in Iraq

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Լարվածություն Իրաքում

Iraq witnessed another violent day Wednesday as the country’s security and political crises deepen.

More than 50 unidentified bodies were found in the predominantly Shiite town of Alexandria on Wednesday, Iraqi security officials said.

The bodies of two children were among the dozens found in different parts of the town.

Details about the circumstances of the deaths were not immediately available, and officials did not say when the people may have been killed.

The discoveries follow weeks of carnage across the country as Iraqi forces battle radical Sunni militants from the Լարվածություն Իրաքում.

Bronze bust of former Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein found in Baghdad airport debris in 2003 to sell for $10million

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Saddam Hussein

 

A bronze bust of former dictator Saddam Hussein which was found in debris in war-torn Iraq is being sold for a jaw-dropping $10million (£6million).

The 40kg war trophy was spotted by former US Army soldier Earl Torres, 47, from Las Vegas, as he cleared Baghdad International Airport in 2003.

The bust, which is around 17 inches in height, formed part of a 15ft statue of Saddam and was picked up by Torres who brought it back to the US after a 13-month tour of duty.

The statue was partially-destroyed after an intense battle in the airport which became the hub of American operations during the war in Iraq for seven years.
Torres, who served in the army for 14 years, has already attracted interest from potential buyers – but he says he is yet to agree on a price.

 

Iraq’s Shiite Militiamen Parade in Show of Force

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Իրաք,շիա զինյալներ, շքերթThousands of Shiite militiamen have paraded in Baghdad and several other cities in southern Iraq with heavy weaponry, signaling their readiness to take on Sunni militants who seized much of the country’s north.

In Baghdad, about 20,000 men, many in combat gear, marched through the Sadr City district on Saturday with assault rifles, machine-guns, multiple rocket launchers and missiles. Similar parades were held in the southern cities of Amarah and Basra, with the militants in Basra displaying field artillery pieces hauled by heavy trucks.

The parades were staged by followers of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and came after the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and allied Sunni militants, captured a crossing on the Syria-Iraq border the day before.

 

Iraq, Iran Top World’s Unhappiest Countries List

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դժբախտ

 

Do you live in one of the world’s unhappiest places?

A new study released this week by Gallup cited Iran as the country with the highest negative emotions — a close second behind Iraq.

Just last month, six Iranians were arrested in the country for dancing to Pharrell’s “Happy” in the country’s capitol, Tehran. They have since been released.

Gallup measured negative emotions in 138 countries in 2013 by asking people whether they experienced a lot of anger, stress, sadness, physical pain and worry the previous day. Gallup compiles the “yes” results into a Negative Experience Index score for each country. The higher the score, the more pervasive negative emotions are in a country.

In another Gallup study ranking positive emotions, Paraguay ranks first in positive experiences, and Syria was the least likely country worldwide to report positive experiences.

Giving Iran a run for its money — at least as far as unhappiness is concerned — are these other countries:

  1. Iraq
  2. Iran
  3. Egypt
  4. Greece
  5. Syria
  6. Sierra Leone
  7. Cyprus
  8. Northern Cyprus
  9. Cambodia

10. Lebanon

 Անկախ

Iraq Officials Say Blasts at Shiite Mosque Kill 35

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iraqA suicide attacker staged a double bombing near a Shiite mosque in northern Baghdad as worshippers were leaving after evening prayers on Wednesday, killing at least 35 in the latest deadly episode of violence to rock the country, according to Iraqi authorities.

A suicide bomber made his way to the gate of the mosque and then blew himself up. Shortly afterward, a car he apparently arrived in exploded nearby, police said.

At least 52 people were wounded, according to police and hospital officials, who confirmed the casualty numbers. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Suicide and car bombings targeting Shiites are frequently the work of al-Qaida’s branch in Iraq, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

 

43 dead after car bombings pummel Baghdad and other areas of Iraq

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iraq-bombings-story-topA string of car and roadside bombs exploded across Iraq on Monday morning, killing at least 43 people and wounding nearly 200 others, police said.

Interior Ministry officials said more than 20 attacks were carried out by the “enemies of Iraq.”

Most of the casualties occurred in the capital, Baghdad, the officials said. All the attacks occurred in predominantly Shiite areas.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Iraq has been in the throes of relentless violence, much of it stemming from discord between Sunnis and Shiites.

Sunnis have long felt politically marginalized under a Shiite-led government in the post-Saddam Hussein era.

According to a CNN tally, the violence has killed nearly 600 people in Iraq this month.