Articles written by Qassim Abdul-zahra
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Air raids over eastern Syria near Iraqi border kill 6 Iran-backed militants
BAGHDAD (AP) — Three overnight airstrikes on eastern Syria Saturday near a strategic border crossing with Iraq killed six Iran-backed militants, two members of Iraqi militia groups told The Associated Press. The strikes on the border region of B...
Pope, top Iraq Shiite cleric deliver message of coexistence
PLAINS OF UR, Iraq (AP) — Pope Francis walked through a narrow alley in Iraq's holy city of Najaf for a historic meeting with the country's top Shiite cleric Saturday, and together they delivered a powerful message of peaceful coexistence in a c...
Congress split on US strikes in Syria on Iran-backed militia
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration defended the U.S. military airstrikes in Syria as legal and appropriate Friday, saying they took out facilities that housed valuable "capabilities" used by Iranian-backed militia groups to attack American a...
Iran's allies on high alert in Trump's final weeks in office
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran has instructed allies across the Middle East to be on high alert and avoid provoking tensions with the U.S. that could give an outgoing Trump administration cause to launch attacks in the U.S. president's final weeks in office, Ir...
Iraq officials: Rocket attack hits base housing US troops
BAGHDAD (AP) — A barrage of rockets hit a base housing U.S. and other coalition troops north of Baghdad on Saturday, Iraqi security officials said, just days after a similar attack killed three servicemen, including two Americans. The U.S.-led c...
Iraq army says US strikes kill 5 security forces, 1 civilian
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's military said five security force members and a civilian were killed early Friday in a barrage of U.S. airstrikes launched hours after a rocket attack killed and wounded American and British servicemen at a base north of B...
Not a break, but fissures in US-Iraqi military alliance
BAGHDAD (AP) — A new watchtower rose over an American military base in northern Iraq, and cranes lifted hefty slabs of concrete to reinforce the barricades in beefed-up protections. The danger, soldiers there said, came not from the constellation of...
Militiamen breach US Embassy in Baghdad; Trump blames Iran
BAGHDAD (AP) — Dozens of Iraqi Shiite militiamen and their supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, smashing a main door and setting fire to a reception area, angered over deadly U.S. airstrikes targeting the I...
Protesters attack US Embassy in Baghdad after airstrikes
BAGHDAD (AP) — Angered by deadly airstrikes targeting an Iran-backed militia, dozens of Iraqi Shiite militiamen and their supporters broke into the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, smashing a main door and setting fire to a reception a...
Militiamen withdraw from US Embassy but Iraq tensions linger
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran-backed militiamen withdrew from the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Wednesday after two days of clashes with American security forces, but U.S.-Iran tensions remain high and could spill over into further violence. The w...
US strikes hit Iraqi militia blamed in contractor's death
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. carried out military strikes in Iraq and Syria targeting an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia blamed for a rocket attack that killed an American contractor, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday. Secretary of State Mike P...
Iraqis defy crackdown to hold biggest protests yet
BAGHDAD (AP) — Tens of thousands of Iraqis massed in Baghdad's Tahrir Square on Friday in the biggest demonstrations since anti-government protests erupted a month ago, defying security forces that have killed scores of people and harshly c...
Iraq's top cleric urges calm as deadly clashes continue
BAGHDAD (AP) — Security forces opened fire on hundreds of anti-government demonstrators Friday in central Baghdad, killing one protester, hours after Iraq's top Shiite cleric warned both sides to end four days of deadly violence "before it's too l...
Curfew, more tear gas in Baghdad after 2 days of violence
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi security forces used tear gas against a few hundred protesters gathered in central Baghdad on Thursday, hours after a curfew was announced in the Iraqi capital on the heels of two days of deadly violence that gripped the c...
Strikes on Iran-backed militias threaten to destabilize Iraq
BAGHDAD (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on an Iranian weapons depot in Iraq, confirmed by U.S. officials, is threatening to destabilize security in the volatile country that has struggled to remain neutral in the conflict between Washington and T...
ExxonMobil employees evacuating oil field in southern Iraq
BAGHDAD (AP) — Employees of energy giant ExxonMobil have begun evacuating from an oil field in the southern Iraqi province of Basra but work at the field is still ongoing, Iraqi officials said Saturday. The evacuation comes amid rising tensions betwe...
Once again, Iraq caught up in tensions between US and Iran
BAGHDAD (AP) — When U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sat down with Iraqi officials in Baghdad last week as tensions mounted between America and Iran, he delivered a nuanced message: If you're not going to stand with us, stand aside. The m...
Once again, Iraq caught up in escalating US-Iran tensions
BAGHDAD (AP) — When U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sat down with Iraqi officials in Baghdad last week as tensions mounted between America and Iran, he delivered a nuanced message: If you're not going to stand with us, stand aside. The m...
Iraqi leader says there's 'consensus' on US troops presence
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's president said Friday he does not see any "serious" opposition to the presence of American forces in Iraq, provided they continue to be there specifically to assist Iraqi forces in the fight against the Islamic State group. B...
More than 150 IS militants handed over to Iraq from Syria
OUTSIDE BAGHOUZ, Syria (AP) — U.S.-backed Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State group handed over more than 150 Iraqi members of the group to Iraq, an Iraqi security official said Thursday, marking the biggest repatriation from Syria of c...
From Syria, IS slips into Iraq to fight another day
BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State fighters facing defeat in Syria are slipping across the border into Iraq, where they are destabilizing the country's fragile security, U.S. and Iraqi officials say. Hundreds — likely more than 1,000 — IS fighters have cro...
Slain Iraqi novelist criticized foreign meddling, militias
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi novelist Alaa Mashzoub was a secular civil society activist who used his bike to get around Karbala's infamous traffic and road closures. He was also an outspoken critic of foreign interference in Iraq and political meddling b...
After defeat in Iraq, IS fights on in last enclave in Syria
BAGHDAD (AP) — A year after it was routed from Iraq in a devastating war that left entire neighborhoods and towns in ruins, the Islamic State group is fighting to hang on to its last enclave in eastern Syria, engaging in deadly battles with U...
Security forces deploy in Iraq's Basra following violence
BASRA, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi security forces deployed on the streets of Basra on Saturday, a day after protesters in the southern city stormed the Iranian consulate and torched government buildings in violence that rocked the oil-exporting Shiite h...
Iraqi protesters set fire to Iran consulate in southern city
BASRA, Iraq (AP) — Angry protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in the southern city of Basra on Friday, setting a fire inside amid a wave of demonstrations that have turned deadly in the past few days, a security official and eyewitnesses said. At...
