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Trump threatens Iran over embassy incident, which he calls the 'Anti-Benghazi' BY BRETT SAMUELS - 12/31/19 04:49 PM EST President Trump threatened Iran after demonstrators, including members of an Iranian-backed militia, breached the walls of the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad on Tuesday. "Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities," Trump tweeted. "They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!" Trump declared that the embassy in Iraq was safe thanks to the deployment of U.S. military resources and a...

Federal Kurdistan Region’s President Barzani has come to an agreement on 4 points with Iraqi Vice Presidents Allavi and Nuceyfi for a solution to the issues between Erbil and Baghdad. Federal Kurdistan Region’s President Masoud Barzani and Iraqi Vice Presidents Iyad Allavi and Usame Nuceyfi have reached an agreement on 4 points for a solution to the issues between Erbil and Baghdad. Federal Kurdistan Region Presidential Council Chairperson Fuad Hussein announced that the 3-party meeting has concluded with agreement on 4 points for a solution to the issues. In the statement, Hussein said all three parties have agreed on the...

Hundreds of supporters of Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stormed into Baghdad's Green Zone and broke into the Iraqi parliament building. The protesters, who had gathered outside the heavily fortified district, known as the Green Zone, crossed a bridge over the Tigris River chanting: 'The cowards ran away!' in apparent reference to departing lawmakers before breaking into the parliament building. The staggering scenes came after Sadr denounced Iraq's politicians' for their failure to reform a political quota system blamed for rampant corruption.

Saad al-Hadithi spoke to The Associated Press after an earlier statement from the prime minister's office seemed to dismiss the idea entirely. "Baghdad is the capital for all Iraqis and it's not possible for a wall or a fence to isolate the city," the earlier statement said. The plan for the wall was originally drafted by the Interior Ministry as an effort to curb near-daily attacks carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and cut down on checkpoints inside the city that snarl traffic. The Interior Ministry's spokesman, police Brig. Gen. Saad Maan, told The Associated...

I AM the Author of My WORD there is no other and though others place man in this place by names, occasions or people "I AM THE WORD" and it MY SPIRIT speaking directly to you as these verses are read and spoken , yeah even meditated on. So Truly as My Word "It is written" it was only as these men journaled out My Heart that today it is given to you! So be my Scribe and sit at my feet for I have fresh Manna for each of you daily and it is I that desire you to...

Barack Obama should listen to Peter Arnett. Arnett is the well-known war correspondent who not only covered the long war in Vietnam for the Associated Press, for which he won the Pulitzer, but who covered the shameful evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon in April 1975. Most recently, he was embedded in Baghdad, reporting from the front. The year 1975 was when the United States abandoned the people of South Vietnam to their fate as soldiers of the Communist North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong descended upon the city. They did so after the South Vietnamese Army, our...

Three planeloads of American diplomats and contractors evacuated from northern Iraq amid growing fears as Al Qaeda uprising in the region spreads... Several hundred American contractors are still waiting to leave, although the State Department said on Thursday that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad continues to operate as usual.

Tony Rezko's former development partner is broke. ### Dan Mahru -- a lawyer who became an ice peddler and real estate developer -- has filed for bankruptcy, declaring that he and his business partners, including Rezko, owe as much as $95 million to creditors. Mahru estimates his personal debts could be as high as $50 million. Mahru and Rezko split a few years ago. But they're still fighting dozens of lawsuits filed over housing developments they built. "I couldn't handle all the multitude of lawsuits involving Mr. Rezko,'' Mahru says. Mahru lists $48,970.61 in assets in the bankruptcy case he...

Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the U.S. government would appeal a court decision that dismissed charges against five Blackwater employees stemming from a fatal shooting in Baghdad in 2007. The shooting emerged as a political flashpoint in Iraq, where many saw it as evidence that Americans operated outside of the law. Blackwater, since renamed Xe, later had its license to operate in Iraq pulled. Biden said that he felt ''personal regret'' for the shooting, AP reports. ''A dismissal is not an acquittal,'' he said. The case against the members of the Blackwater convoy, who were charged with manslaughter...

Iraqi and Coalition forces remain on the offensive in the Baghdad Belts of eastern Anbar province, northern Babil and Diyala, as the bulk of the major suicide and bombing attacks have shifted to the northern regions of Iraq. Kirkuk has seen a massive suicide attack during the past week, while insurgents targeted two bridges in western Anbar province, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched a multi-brigade operation. Diyala Arrowhead Ripper in the provincial capital of Baqubah has now expanded into the eastern sector of the city, called Old Baqubah. The eastern portion of Baqubah has been cordoned, and Iraqi...

It's a tale of two clocks, or perhaps three. The vague echo of Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" has resonance, with Baghdad and Washington being the two 21st-century capitals, and Iraq's uncertain revolution the historical conflict. Baghdad's and Washington's clocks tick at very different speeds. Though both are erratic, Washington's runs fast, Baghdad's agonizingly slow. Failure to synchronize will have dangerous consequences.

Last week, a group of tribal leaders in Salah-ad-Din, the mostly Sunni province due north of Baghdad, agreed to work with the Iraqi government and U.S. forces against al Qaeda. Then al Qaeda destroyed the two remaining minarets of the al-Askariya mosque in Samarra, a city in the province. Coincidence? Perhaps. But al Qaeda is clearly taking a page from the Viet Cong's book. The terrorists have been mounting a slow-motion Tet offensive of spectacular attacks on markets, bridges, and mosques, knowing that the media report each such attack as an American defeat. The fact is that al Qaeda is...

<p>BAGHDAD - A day after radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr resurfaced to end nearly four months in hiding and demand U.S. troops leave Iraq, American forces raided his Sadr City stronghold and killed five suspected militia fighters in air strikes Saturday.</p>

BAGHDAD, March 24 -- More than 45 Iraqis were killed and dozens injured in suicide bombings across Iraq on Saturday, officials said, as insurgents stepped up their offensives against the Iraqi police and military. The deadliest attack took place in Baghdad when a suicide bomber managed to get a truck loaded with construction materials -- and explosives -- past a checkpoint and into the parking lot of a Dora neighborhood police station, where construction work was being done. Fourteen policemen and six civilians were killed, and 26 people were wounded, news services reported, citing police sources.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The latest security crackdown in one part of Baghdad has led to significantly fewer attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces with improvised explosive devices, an American Army commander said on Friday. Col. J.B. Burton, who heads a brigade patrolling a 36-square-mile (93-square-km) area of western Baghdad where about 1 million people live, cautioned that difficult work lay ahead and that the United States was not declaring victory. "It is important to note that the overall effects of this new Baghdad security plan ... will not be seen in days or weeks, but over the course of months,"...

Both houses of Congress have now gone on record opposing Bush's dispatch of 21,500 more troops to Iraq. Yet neither house is willing to end U.S. involvement by cutting off funding for the war. Transparently, this is not a strategy for victory. It is a hold-the-line, stay-the-course strategy until America concludes that the price in blood and treasure of averting defeat is too high, and demands that U.S. troops be brought home, no matter the consequences. Absent a deus ex machina, we are on the road to defeat. The timing alone remains in doubt.

Excerpt - BAGHDAD, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Wednesday it was checking reports that a Chinook transport helicopter might have come down near Baghdad. Two witnesses in the area, just north of Baghdad, told Reuters they saw a Chinook helicopter come down amid gunfire from the ground. They said it was unclear if the helicopter had crashed or made an emergency landing. ~ snip ~

The Belmont Club History and History in the Making Friday, March 31, 2006 Pretty pictures 2 It's kinda nice when an Iraqi resistance conference provides some confirmation for the pictures I've been drawing. Iraq the Model's latest posts throws more light on the relationship of the "political struggle" in Iraq to the insurgency. These days in Beirut, the fourth conference for supporting the "Iraqi resistance" is being held. It came only less than a year after their grand failure 3rd conference which we wrote about back in August.The most notable statement given during this conference was made by Hasan...

"...displays of Islam’s violent intolerance have been coming thick and fast the last few decades, and can be found on every page of history going back to the 7th century, when Islam began its expansion with the blood of several hundred decapitated Jews."

Last week the golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra was blown apart. Sectarian riots followed, and reprisals and deaths ensued. Thugs and criminals came out of the woodwork to foment further violence. But instead of the apocalypse of an ensuing civil war, a curfew was enforced. Iraqi security forces stepped in with some success. Shaken Sunni and Shiite leaders appeared on television to urge restraint, and there appeared at least the semblance of reconciliation that may soon presage a viable coalition government. But here at home you would have thought that our own capitol dome had exploded.