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by Tony Gamal-Gabriel © Agence France-Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Iraqi artist Wijdan al-Majed is transforming Baghdad’s concrete jungle into a color-filled city with murals depicting well-known figures from the war-scarred country and abroad. Perched on a scaffold at a busy intersection, the 49-year-old artist and instructor at the Baghdad College of Fine Arts is adding final touches to a mural dedicated to celebrated Iraqi poet Muzzafar al-Nawab. Peasant women in traditional dress adorn […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Three rockets crashed into a base at the Iraqi capital’s airport housing US troops Friday, security sources said, in the latest attack coinciding with tensions between Baghdad’s allies Tehran and Washington. One of the sources told AFP the projectiles hit the section of the airbase occupied by Iraqi troops, who share the base with soldiers deployed by Washington as part of the US-led anti-jihadist coalition. One Iraqi soldier was wounded, […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — The US has granted Iraq a three-month extension to a sanctions waiver allowing it to import Iranian gas, an Iraqi official told AFP Monday. The move represents a welcome reprieve for a country that relies heavily on its neighbour for energy supplies. Iraq buys gas and electricity from Iran to supply about a third of its power sector, worn down by years of conflict and poor maintenance and unable to meet […]
by Haydar Indhar Agence France-Presse DIWANIYAH, Iraq (AFP) — With its neighbours activating new dams, Iraq’s historic twin rivers could run dry — unless new infrastructure projects and tense talks with Turkey and Iran bear fruit. Nowhere is the effect on the country more palpable than in Basra, Iraq’s only coastal province. Here, the Tigris and Euphrates — on which millions of Iraqis rely to farm — meet at the Shatt al-Arab waterway before spilling […]
by Ammar Karim Agence France-Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) – A governor on the run, officials summoned to court and candidates accused of bribing councilors: the Mosul ferry disaster has brought renewed attention to the scourge of corruption in Iraq. Nationwide horror over the March 21 capsizing of the overloaded riverboat in the northern city of Mosul, which claimed 100 lives, mostly of women and children, has given way to a clamor for provincial officials to be […]
by Salam Faraj with Mohammad Salim in Mosul © Agence France-Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq headed to the polls Saturday for its first parliamentary election since declaring victory over the Islamic State group, with the country hoping to shore up a fragile peace and rebuild. Some 24.5 million voters began casting their ballots under tight security, as the jihadists still pose a major security threat despite a sharp fall in violence. The poll comes […]
by Ammar Karim Agence France Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for the elimination of jihadist “sleeper cells” Monday after a twin suicide bombing killed 31 people in Baghdad in the second such attack in three days. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but most such attacks in Iraq are the work of the Islamic State jihadist group. The bombing comes after Abadi’s government declared victory over IS […]
by Anuj Chopra Agence France Presse RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May landed in Riyadh Wednesday for talks with the Saudi king and crown prince, with Yemen’s brewing humanitarian crisis and the kingdom’s sweeping reforms topping her agenda. May flew in to the Saudi capital on the second leg of her Middle East tour, following a surprise visit to Baghdad where she met her Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi and hailed recent […]
by Sarah Benhaida with Ahmad al-Rubaye in Taza Khurmatu Agence France Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Baghdad said Sunday that foreign Kurdish forces were present in the province of Kirkuk in what amounted to a “declaration of war”, dramatically raising the stakes in its dispute with Iraq’s Kurds. Kurdish officials denied Baghdad’s claim that forces from Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were among its peshmerga fighters in an armed standoff with Iraqi troops in […]
by Salam Faraj and W.G. Dunlop with Simon Valmary in Mosul Agence France Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Suicide bombings claimed by the Islamic State group killed at least 27 people in Baghdad, officials said on Tuesday, as Iraqi forces fight to retake the last jihadist-held areas in Mosul. In the deadlier of the two attacks, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at a popular ice cream shop around midnight (2100 GMT Monday), killing […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle at a popular Baghdad ice cream shop, killing at least eight people, security officials said on Tuesday. The overnight attack in the Karrada district in central Baghdad also wounded at least 30 people, officials said. The Islamic State group-linked Amaq propaganda agency said the suicide bomber targeted a “gathering of Shiites.” IS considers members of Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority to be heretics and frequently carries […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) — Residents in Baghdad’s Hayy al-Shurta neighborhood were on Friday morning (February 17) assessing the damage caused to their properties by a car bomb blast which occurred on late Thursday (February 16). A car packed with explosives blew up there, killing at least 51 people and wounding 55, security and medical sources said, in the deadliest such attack in Iraq this year. Security sources said the vehicle which blew up was parked […]
