in Iraq

Iraq

Veteran Collected Benefits After Lying About Purple Heart, U.S. Says

NY Times Iraq - Thu, 05/02/2024 - 01:12
Sharon Toney-Finch, who served in Iraq, was charged with fraudulently claiming to have a Purple Heart and with defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Categories: Iraq

TikTok Star Is Killed in Third Death of Social Media Influencer in Iraq

NY Times Iraq - Mon, 04/29/2024 - 10:12
The shooting of Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi, known online as Um Fahad, comes amid tightening laws and increasingly conservative attitudes in the country.
Categories: Iraq

Jury Weighs Claims of Abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison Against Contractor, 20 Years Later

NY Times Iraq - Wed, 04/24/2024 - 00:13
Three men who were detained at the notorious prison in Iraq are suing a defense contractor, saying its interrogators told U.S. soldiers to “soften up” prisoners.
Categories: Iraq

Kurdish separatists, water issues loom large in long-awaited Erdogan visit to Iraq

Voice of America - Mon, 04/22/2024 - 13:01
BAGHDAD — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Iraq Monday for his first official visit in more than a decade as his country seeks greater cooperation from Baghdad in its fight against a Kurdish militant group that has a foothold in northern Iraq. Other issues also loom large between the two countries, including water supply issues and exports of oil and gas from northern Iraq to Turkey, which have been halted for more than a year. Erdogan’s last visit to Iraq was in 2011,...
Categories: Iraq

Iran’s president arrives in Pakistan for wide-ranging talks

Voice of America - Mon, 04/22/2024 - 09:59
ISLAMABAD — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi arrived in neighboring Pakistan Monday for official meetings with the host nation's leaders amid Iran-Israel tensions. An official pre-arrival announcement from Islamabad's foreign ministry stated that the talks will provide an “important opportunity” to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation in trade, connectivity, energy, and agriculture. It said Raisi’s high-level delegation would include the Iranian foreign minister, other...
Categories: Iraq

Rockets fired from Iraq toward US military base in Syria, security sources say

Voice of America - Mon, 04/22/2024 - 07:59
MOSUL, Iraq — At least five rockets were launched from Iraq's town of Zummar toward a U.S. military base in northeastern Syria Sunday, two Iraqi security sources and a U.S. official told Reuters. The attack against U.S. forces is the first since early February when Iranian-backed groups in Iraq stopped their attacks against U.S. troops. It comes a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani returned from a visit to the United States, where he met with President Joe Biden at...
Categories: Iraq

Terry Anderson, US journalist held captive for nearly 7 years, dies

Voice of America - Mon, 04/22/2024 - 02:45
los angeles, california — Terry Anderson, the globe-trotting Associated Press correspondent who became one of America's longest-held hostages after he was snatched from a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985 and held for nearly seven years, has died at 76. Anderson, who chronicled his abduction and torturous imprisonment by Islamic militants in his best-selling 1993 memoir "Den of Lions," died Sunday at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, said his daughter, Sulome...
Categories: Iraq

US says UN agency to help in getting aid to Gaza via sea

Voice of America - Sun, 04/21/2024 - 20:37
WASHINGTON — The U.N. World Food Program has agreed to help deliver aid for the starving civilians of Gaza once the U.S. military completes a pier for transporting the humanitarian assistance by sea, U.S. officials said Friday. The involvement of the U.N. agency could help resolve one of the major obstacles facing the U.S.-planned project — the reluctance of aid groups to handle on-the-ground distribution of food and other badly needed goods in Gaza absent significant changes by Israel. An...
Categories: Iraq

Explosion Hits Iraqi Military Base Used by Iran-backed Armed Group

NY Times Iraq - Sun, 04/21/2024 - 20:00
It was unclear who carried out the attack in Babylon Province, south of Baghdad.
Categories: Iraq

Iran’s president set to visit Pakistan for wide-ranging talks 

Voice of America - Sun, 04/21/2024 - 17:03
ISLAMABAD  — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will arrive in neighboring Pakistan on Monday for official meetings with the host nation's leaders amidst Iran-Israel tensions.    An announcement from Islamabad's foreign ministry Sunday stated that the talks will provide an “important opportunity” to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation in trade, connectivity, energy, and agriculture.    It said Raisi’s high-level delegation would include the Iranian foreign minister, other...
Categories: Iraq

Israel’s Strike on Iran Highlights Its Ability to Evade Tehran’s Air Defenses

NY Times Iraq - Sun, 04/21/2024 - 01:27
The retaliatory attack damaged a defense system near Natanz, a city in central Iran that is critical to the country’s nuclear weapons program.
Categories: Iraq

Thousands of Israelis stage anti-government protests calling for new elections

Voice of America - Sun, 04/21/2024 - 01:15
Tel Aviv, Israel — Thousands of Israeli demonstrators took to the streets Saturday to call for new elections and demand more action from the government to bring the hostages held in Gaza home, in the latest round of protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The protests have continued as the war in Gaza moves through its seventh month and amid growing anger over the government's approach to the 133 Israeli hostages still held by the Islamist movement Hamas. Surveys indicate...
Categories: Iraq

US House passes $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan

Voice of America - Sat, 04/20/2024 - 21:33
Washington — The U.S. House of Representatives on Saturday passed with bipartisan support a four-part, $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, putting the legislation on track for enactment following a long, difficult path through Congress. The legislation includes $61 billion for Kyiv’s ongoing war against Moscow’s invasion, as well as $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid for civilians in conflict zones, including Gaza, and $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific...
Categories: Iraq

Satellite image analyzed by AP shows damage to Israeli base after Iranian attack

Voice of America - Sat, 04/20/2024 - 20:47
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An Iranian attack on an Israeli desert air base last week as part of Tehran's unprecedented assault on the country damaged a taxiway, a satellite image analyzed by The Associated Press on Saturday shows. The overall damage done to Nevatim air base in southern Israel was minor despite Iran launching hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. Israeli air defenses and fighter jets, backed by the U.S., the United Kingdom and neighboring...
Categories: Iraq

Iraq's PMF force says base was attacked, army investigates

Voice of America - Sat, 04/20/2024 - 13:55
BAGHDAD — A huge blast at a military base in Iraq early on Saturday killed a member of an Iraqi security force that includes Iran-backed groups. The force commander said it was an attack while the army said it was investigating and there were no warplanes in the sky at the time. Two security sources had said earlier that an airstrike caused the blast, which killed a member of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and wounded eight others at Kalso military base about 50 km (30 miles)...
Categories: Iraq