Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Three rockets were fired at the US embassy in Iraq early Thursday, the Iraqi army said, at the end of a day marked by rocket and drone attacks on bases hosting American forces in Iraq and Syria. The embassy itself was not hit, the army said, but three nearby places in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone were. A spate of recent attacks on US military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq has […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — The Iraqi army said two rockets were fired Tuesday at a base hosting Americans, in the third such attack in three days and as a US government delegation is visiting the country. The two rockets fell on an unoccupied segment of the Ain-al-Assad airbase, “without causing damage or casualties,” the army said. The latest rocket attack follows one against an airbase at Baghdad airport housing US-led coalition troops on Sunday […]
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq’s health minister resigned on Tuesday, ten days after a fire in a Baghdad Covid-19 hospital killed more than 80 people. Hassan al-Tamimi, who joined the government with the backing of powerful Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr, stepped down of his own accord, a government statement said. The fire, which killed 82 and injured 110, triggered outrage on social media, with a widespread hashtag demanding the health minister be sacked. Prime Minister […]
by Ammar Karim and Salam Faraj Agence France Presse BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — More than 80 people died Sunday when a fire ripped through a Baghdad hospital for Covid-19 patients, sparking outrage and the suspension of top officials overseeing Iraq’s crumbling health services. The blaze at eastern Baghdad’s Ibn al-Khatib hospital began when badly stored oxygen cylinders blew up, medics said. Many of the victims were on respirators and were burned or suffocated in […]
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) — Covid-19 infections in Iraq surpassed one million on Wednesday, the health ministry said, a figure unmatched in the Arab world, in a country that has long faced medical shortages. The ministry reported 8,696 new coronavirus infections and 38 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total since the start of the country’s outbreak in February last year to 1,001,854, including 15,098 deaths. The ministry has said it carries out around […]
SAMARRA, Iraq (AFP) — Seven rockets targeted an Iraqi airbase housing US troops north of Baghdad on Monday, a security source said, the latest in a string of attacks Washington routinely blames on Iran-linked factions. The evening attack on Al-Balad did not cause any casualties or damage inside the base, the security official said. The other five rockets crashed into a nearby village, he added, noting that all seven were fired from a separate village […]
Sinopharm vaccine delivery paves way for immediate vaccination BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq on Tuesday received 50,000 Sinopharm vaccines donated by China, the health ministry announced, launching a long-awaited vaccination campaign. Health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr told reporters that the first delivery in the early hours meant inoculations could begin. “The doses will be delivered to Baghdad’s three main hospitals, and maybe to some provinces,” said Badr, who confirmed the jabs were donations. “We will […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for an investigation into a rocket attack on an airbase in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and promised to “hold accountable those responsible.” A volley of rockets targeting the base late Monday killed a foreign civilian contractor and wounded five others and a US soldier, the US-led coalition said. “We are outraged by today’s rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region,” Blinken said in […]
by Qassim Khidir Agence France-Presse ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) — Delband Rawanduzi spoke softly to her oak seedlings, as if willing them to grow fast and repopulate forests in Iraqi Kurdistan depleted by war, illegal logging and fires. Over the next five years, the 26-year-old aims to plant one million oaks — resilient trees that can endure both the cold of northern Iraq and the dry spells of one of the world’s hottest countries. Her plan […]
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 Jerome Rivet and Maya Gebeily BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — French President Emmanuel Macron landed in Baghdad Wednesday on his first official visit to Iraq, where he hopes to help the country reassert its “sovereignty” despite simmering US-Iran tensions. Coming straight from a two-day trip to Beirut, the capital of crisis-hit Lebanon, Macron will be the most significant leader to visit Iraq since Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi came to power in May. The trip was […]
