WASHINGTON, May 20, 2013 (AFP) The United States condemned the bombing of two Shiite mosques in Iraq on Monday, appealing for calm amid a mounting wave of sectarian attacks. White House press secretary Jay Carney said "we strongly condemn" the latest attacks, which left 13 people dead in a Shiite area south of Baghdad. ...

BAGHDAD,April 15,2013 (AFP) A spate of 11 car bombs during morning rush hour across Iraq on Monday killed seven people and wounded dozens, the latest in a spike in violence just days before the country's first elections since 2010. Officials said vehicles packed with explosives were detonated in the northern disputed cities of Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu, the central city of Samarra, and the cities of Hilla and ...

April 14, 2013 An interview conducted by the former spokesperson of the Iraqi government, Ali Dabbagh, with the ex-Iraqi official and strongman during the Saddam era, Tariq Aziz, will be broadcast exclusively on Al Arabiya on Thursday April 18. The former foreign minister and deputy premier said in the three-hour interview that late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was mentally unstable when he decided to inv ...

Baghdad, April 14, 2013 (AFP) Attacks north of Iraqi capital on Sunday killed at least 10 people, including a provincial elections candidate and six policemen, the latest in an uptick in violence just days ahead of polls. The credibility of the vote, Iraq's first since 2010, has been drawn into question as 14 election hopefuls have been murdered and just 12 of the country's 18 provinces will be taking part. ...

By Diaa Hadid and Qassim Abdul-Zahra, BAGHDAD, April 9, 2013 (Associated Press) Ten years ago, a statue fell in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Joyful Iraqis helped by an American tank retriever pulled down their longtime dictator, cast as 16 feet of bronze. The scene broadcast live worldwide became an icon of the war, a symbol of final victory over Saddam Hussein. But for the residents of the capital, it was onl ...

BAGHDAD, March 19,  2013 (AFP) Famous the world over for housing masses of foreign journalists during the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Palestine Hotel has since undergone a makeover and looks brand new. Now all it needs is customers. From employees cleaning dust off the faux marble to guards waiting to guide visitors through a metal detector, the 18-storey property's two-year facelift has it talking a big g ...

March 15, 2013 (AFP) Gunmen shot dead eight Iraqi soldiers as they were on their way to report to their unit in a town north of Baghdad on Friday evening, security officials said. At least one soldier survived the gun attack in which a minibus the troops were riding in was overturned, but he was badly wounded, an army colonel and a police colonel said, both speaking on condition of anonymity. ...

BAGHDAD, March 14, 2013 (AFP) A string of apparently coordinated blasts struck near Iraqi government offices close to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Thursday, a security official and witnesses said. The explosions went off near the foreign ministry, culture ministry and an office of the communications ministry in the Allawi neighbourhood in the centre of the capital at around 1:30 pm (1030 GMT). ...

March 10, 2013 Duck and dive before you get a lady’s heel in your face. A discussion on the budget goes wild when the Iraqiya List parliamentary bloc leader gets a shoe thrown at his face by a female lawmaker from the Iraqi National Movement Party. Most Iraqis laughed at this fact as the female MP, Alya Nusayf, struck out in vengeance. The scuffle happened Thursday inside parliament when Iraqiya List’s Sule ...

BAGHDAD, Feb 26, 2013 (AFP) An Iraqi judge on Tuesday closed the case of a French reporter who was held for three weeks before being released, and he is now free to leave the country, his lawyer Naama al-Rubaye said. "After this decision, he can now leave," Rubaye said of Nadir Dendoune, who was detained in January for allegedly taking unauthorised photographs of security installations but freed earlier thi ...

CAIRO, Nov 16, 2012 (AFP) An Iraqi official said on Friday Baghdad will recommend that Arab states use oil as a weapon to exert pressure on Israel and countries that back it, particularly the United States, over the Gaza crisis. "Playing the economic card is our most powerful weapon at the moment in supporting the Palestinian people, for no military power can currently stand up to Israel," Iraq's permanent ...

BAGHDAD, September 10, 2012 (AFP) Al-Qaeda front organization the Islamic State of Iraq posted a claim on the Internet Monday for a wave of more than 30 attacks around the country that killed more than 88 people. The bombings and shootings were in response to the “campaign of extermination and torture of Sunni Muslim detainees in Safavid prisons,” the statement said in a pejorative reference to the Shiite-l ...