Iraq

Real-Time News from Iraq

Iraq's Sunni politicians angry over arrests

by Karin Laub / Associated Press

Wednesday August 20, 2008, 9:49 PM

AP Iraqi Army soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 53rd Brigade, detain a suspect captured when they raided houses in the Jihad area of west Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008.

BAGHDAD -- Top Sunni politicians on Wednesday accused Iraq's Shiite-dominated security forces of carrying out political arrests, and warned that this could push Iraq into another round of sectarian fighting.

The outcry came in response to the high-profile arrests Tuesday of three Sunnis -- the son of a senior politician, a university president and a provincial council member.

The arrests could upset the delicate political cooperation between the Shiite majority and Sunni minority in parliament.

The Sunnis' angry words -- though not backed by specific threats of action -- highlighted the country's stubborn religious divisions. Sectarian hatred pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out Sunni-Shiite civil war two years ago, though recent months have seen a sharp drop in violence.

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Officials say U.S., Iraq reach draft troop accord

by Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Robert Burns / Associated Press

Wednesday August 20, 2008, 9:43 PM

AP U.S. Army soldiers from Fox Troop, Sabre Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment stand atop a Bradley armored vehicle as plumes of smoke rise from a burned irrigation canal in a deserted area on the outskirts of Balad Ruz, in Iraq's Diyala province, some 75 kilometers (47 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008.

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi and U.S. negotiators have completed a draft security agreement that would see American troops leave Iraqi cities as early as June 30, Iraqi and American officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

In Washington, a senior military official said the deal is acceptable to the U.S. side, subject to formal approval by President George W. Bush. It also requires final acceptance by Iraqi leaders, and some members of Iraq's Cabinet oppose some provisions.

Also completed is a companion draft document, known as a strategic framework agreement, spelling out in broad terms the political, security and economic relationships between Iraq and the United States, the senior military official said. The official discussed the draft accords on condition that he not be identified by name because the deals have not been announced and are not final.

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Iraqi refugees accepting free flights home

by Omar Sinan and Sameer N. Yacoub / Associated Press

Tuesday August 19, 2008, 10:30 PM

BAGHDAD -- Several hundred Iraqi refugees flew home from Egypt last week on the Iraqi prime minister's plane, the first government-organized flight aimed at accelerating the return of Iraqis now that violence has waned.

APAn Iraqi woman leads children down the steps of the plane as several hundred Iraqi refugees who had been living in Egypt return home free of charge on the Iraqi Prime Minister's plane, at the airport in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008. It was the second such government-organized flight aimed at accelerating the return of Iraqis.

A second flight followed Sunday.

Many of those returning on the free free flight, however, said they had come back only because they were broke after years of living outside Iraq and still feared the dangers in their homeland.

"If I had more money, I would have stayed and never gone back," Abu Hussein, a 32-year-old Shiite merchant, said waiting to board at Cairo's airport. "We hear from other returnees that they had regret going back because there is still bombing, kidnapping and killing."

The International Organization of Migration says some 13,000 Iraqis have returned from nations in the region -- a tiny proportion of the estimated 2.5 million who fled Iraq's turmoil after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Nearly 3 million more Iraqis have been displaced inside the country, the Switzerland-based humanitarian group says.

With violence down sharply over the past year, Iraq's government is eager to encourage more to come home.

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Iraqi refugees arriving in U.S. for resettlement

by Samantha Henry / Associated Press

Tuesday August 19, 2008, 10:22 PM

NEWARK, New Jersey -- Thousands of Iraqi refugees have arrived in the United States as part of a nationwide resettlement program to bring 12,000 Iraqis to the United States by the end of next month, officials said.

About a quarter of the 9,000 Iraqi refugees already here arrived over the past month, according to a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR. Most come from secondary countries including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.

A resettlement program run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden has received five Iraqi families in recent months -- a total of 19 people -- and more are expected, according to executive director Kevin Hickey.

"It's picking up," he said.

New Jersey -- and the New York metropolitan area -- are not usually major destinations for refugee resettlement because of the high cost of living and already-overburdened social service system typical of urban areas. Generally, most refugees are sent to smaller towns and cities across the U.S., officials say.

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Iraqi Sunnis outraged over Diyala raids, arrests

by Robert H. Reid / Associated Press

Tuesday August 19, 2008, 10:12 PM

APIn this Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008, photo, Iraqi Army soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 53rd Brigade, group up behind a wall as they prepare to raid a house during ongoing operations in which they arrested the head of a U.S.-funded Sunni group, a man identified as Tahir Abdullah al-Hamdani, in the Jihad area of west Baghdad, Iraq.

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's largest Sunni party accused government security forces of sectarian bias Tuesday after soldiers arrested a Sunni university president and a Sunni provincial council member northeast of Baghdad.

The raids in Diyala province follow an Iraqi crackdown there against U.S.-backed Sunni Arab volunteers who turned against al-Qaida and joined the fight against the terror movement.

The moves are likely to heighten Sunni suspicions about the Shiite-led national government at a time when the U.S. sees progress in tamping down the sectarian hatreds that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war two years ago.

Before dawn Tuesday, Iraqi troops backed by U.S. helicopters swooped down on the provincial government complex in Baqouba, Diyala's capital about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The troops stormed the office of the provincial governor, Raad Rashid al-Tamimi, triggering a gunfight that killed his secretary and wounded four of his guards, police said.

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Gunmen ambush election officials in south Iraq

by Sameer N. Yacoub / Associated Press

Monday August 18, 2008, 10:24 PM

BAGHDAD -- Masked gunmen ambushed a bus carrying election workers in southern Iraq on Monday, killing two of them including an official known for resisting interference by Shiite religious extremists, authorities said.

APA member of the Iraqi National Police inspects the remains of a vehicle after a car bomb struck Shiite pilgrims boarding minibuses in the mainly Shiite district of Shaab in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008.

Also Monday, a suicide car bomber blasted a police checkpoint in the western city of Ramadi, killing seven policemen, an official said.

The two incidents in widely separated parts of the country illustrate the dangers still facing Iraq despite a sharp decline in violence over the past year.

The attack on the bus occurred when gunmen opened fire as their car passed it in the Abu al-Khasib area south of Basra, police and election officials said. A third election employee was wounded.

The dead included the head of a local government committee preparing for provincial elections, Maath Wahab, and his deputy, Jassim Mohammed, according to Hazim al-Rubaie, director of Basra electoral committee.

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U.S. drawdown raises security fears in Iraqi city

by Phillip Robertson / Associated Press

Sunday August 17, 2008, 11:32 PM

AP PhotoMaj. John Blankenhorn of the U.S. Army, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, indicates the route of a recent Shiite procession in Tal Afar, Iraq Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008. A string of bombings in this small but strategic city in northwest Iraq is stoking fears of a return to sectarian conflict and raising doubts about a strategy of handing security in urban areas to Iraqi police.

TAL AFAR, Iraq -- A series of bombings in this small but strategic northwestern Iraqi city is stoking fears of a return to sectarian conflict here and raising questions about a strategy of handing urban security to Iraqi police.

Since April, at least four major bombings have killed about 40 people and wounded nearly 150 on this city on the main route from Mosul to the east and the Syrian border 60 miles to the west. The deadliest was on Aug. 8, when a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives in a vegetable market in a Shiite district, killing at least 20 people, police said. U.S. officials blamed the attack on al-Qaida in Iraq.

The city's mayor, Najim Abdullah, fears that the removal of American troops from his city and the deployment of Iraqi army soldiers to nearby Mosul have left his overwhelmingly Turkoman community vulnerable.

"The goal was to start sectarian violence with the car bombs," he said. "There used to be a whole brigade here and now it's less. Soon, these policies will backfire in Tal Afar and allow terrorists to come in."

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U.N. unveils plans to step back into Iraq

by Kim Gamel / Associated Press

Wednesday August 13, 2008, 9:06 PM

BAGHDAD -- Five years after bombings forced the United Nations to pull out of Iraq, the world body is back. It announced plans Wednesday to help Iraq rebuild and create jobs following complaints the government has been unable or unwilling to spend its oil riches.

An agreement signed by the U.N. and the Iraqi government outlined a series of steps to help the Iraqis improve spending. The U.N. will also aid in the funding of reconstruction, development and humanitarian projects.

With a budget of $2.2 billion through 2010, the U.N. hopes to use its know-how to train Iraqi bureaucrats and create incentives to develop the country's private sector. One of the main goals is to create jobs in a country where widespread unemployment especially in areas outside of Baghdad could undermine recent security gains if young men lose hope in their futures and turn to extremism.

The ambitious plans came ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Aug. 19, 2003, bombing at the U.N.'s Baghdad headquarters that killed 22 people, including top U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

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