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(Reuters) - More than 70 people were killed in a wave of bombings in markets in Shi'ite neighborhoods across Baghdad on Monday in worsening sectarian violence in Iraq. No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. But Sunni Muslim Islamist insurgents and al-Qaeda' s Iraqi wing have increased attacks since the beginning of the year and often target Shi'ite districts. ... More than 700 people were killed in attacks in April, according to a U.N. count, the highest monthly toll in almost five years. So far in May more than 300 have died. Thousands of Sunnis began staging street protests last...

At least 10 people have been killed in a series of explosions in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, reports say. Several more were wounded in the suspected bomb attacks, targeting mainly Shia districts of the capital, police told Reuters news agency. The violence comes amid a marked rise attacks linked to growing political and sectarian tension recently. The bloodshed has raised fears of a re-emergence of the levels of sectarian violence seen in 2006 and 2007. In one of the deadliest days recently, more than 70 people were killed and many others injured in a series of bomb attacks across Iraq...

I was watching TV this evening and started to flip cable channels when I saw a streaming on MSNBC on our forces finding castor beans. The following is a part of what their website said about it. NBC News’ Jim Miklaszewski that within just the past week, U.S. investigators had found two shipping containers filled with millions of much more recent documents relating to chemical and biological weapons. One of the documents, from 2001, was titled “Document burial and U.N. activities in Iraq,” the sources said. It gave detailed instructions on how to hide materials and deceive U.N. weapons inspectors,...

Image that accompanied Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's audiotape announcing the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The flag was originally al Qaeda in Iraq's banner, but has been adopted by other al Qaeda affiliated and associated groups. Image from the SITE Intelligence Group. The emir of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (also known as Abu Dua), has announced a new brand for his organization's efforts: the "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant." The new name replaces all previous brands used by al Qaeda's affiliates in Iraq and Syria, including the...

Car bombs tore through shopping areas within minutes of each other in mainly Shiite neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing at least 37 people and wounding more than 100. The attacks come amid rising sectarian discord in Iraq and appear aimed at shaking Iraqis’ confidence in the Shiite-led government. The explosions struck at the start of the local work week and primarily targeted outdoor markets. Violence in Iraq has fallen since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, but insurgents still frequently launch lethal attacks against security forces and civilians. It was the third time this...

It feels strange visiting a country like Morocco and listening to people extol the virtues of a political system my country waged a revolution against. Morocco has a king, and he’s a real one too, not some kind of a figurehead. But I went there, I listened, and after almost ten years of visiting Middle Eastern countries wracked by tyranny, terrorism, botched revolutions, and wars, I was perhaps a bit more willing to hear what they had to say than I might have been a decade ago. A monarchy is a tough sell for Americans. The founders of our country...

1,000-Year-Old Muslim Joke Book Found An 11th-century book by a revered Baghdad Muslim scholar turns out to be a tongue-in-cheek guide for party crashers, according to the researcher who translated the book into English. The tome was originally authored by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, a well known scholar of the Prophet Mohammed's teachings. According to Emily Selove of the University of Manchester, who did the translation, he wrote the book to remind readers "that every serious minded person needs to take a break." She continued, "This book, which contains flirtation, profanity, and even a little drunkenness, is a lot of fun and...

Al-Qaida assassins after GadhafiIntelligence suggests Libyan dictator's sudden cooperation due to holy war Posted: December 24, 20035:00 p.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Canadian intelligence suggests al-Qaida-backed militants in Libya want to assassinate Col. Moammar Gadhafi, possibly shedding light on the dictator's sudden efforts to cozy up to the West. Libyan President Col. Moammar Gadhafi (Courtesy: Sky News) Citing a Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS, report, The National Post reports the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, is waging holy war against Gadhafi in an effort to establish an Islamic state in Libya. "In order to achieve their goals, the LIFG has...

A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed in a dispute over a bicycle Saturday afternoon on the South Side, authorities said, and another man was killed in West Humboldt Park late Saturday night. Fifteen others were shot and survived Saturday night and Sunday morning, police said.

Vast stretches of Central Asia feel eerily uninhabited. Fly at 30,000 feet over... Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan -- and there are long moments when no town or road or field is visible from your window. Wandering bands and tribes roamed this immense area for 5,000 years, herding goat, sheep, cattle, and horses across immense steppes, through narrow valleys, and over high snowy passes. They left occasional tombs that survived the ages, and on rare occasions settled down and built towns or even cities. But for the most part, these peoples left behind few physical traces of their origins, beliefs, or ways...

Iraq is acquiring an array of missiles and other sophisticated systems for the 36 Lockheed Martin F-16s it's buying to build an air force but Washington is reluctant to provide Baghdad with the most advanced U.S. weapons. U.S. officials say they are worried that a strong Iraqi air force with offensive weapons systems would alarm Iraq's neighbors. Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980 and Kuwait a decade later. Even nine years after Saddam was toppled in the 2003 U.S. invasion, Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Muslim allies in the Persian Gulf remain deeply suspicious of Shiite-majority Iraq and its Shiite...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.number10.gov.uk/news/prime-minister-statement-on-alan-mcmenemy/ Prime Minister's statement on Alan McMenemy Friday 20 January 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed the British Embassy in Baghdad have received the body of hostage Alan McMenemy. The Prime Minister said: “It is with great sadness that I can confirm that the British Embassy in Baghdad received a body today that has been identified as Alan McMenemy, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2007, along with four other men. The bodies of Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan were returned in 2009. Peter Moore was the only hostage released alive...

A wave of at least 14 bombings ripped across Baghdad Thursday morning, killing at least 60 people in the worst violence in Iraq for months.

A wave of violence ripped across Baghdad on Thursday morning, killing at least 57 people and injuring nearly 200 in a coordinated attack designed to wreak havoc in the Iraqi capital just days after American forces left the country.

The seven remaining Jews in Baghdad have been named by WikiLeaks, leaving them in danger of persecution, according to the city's Anglican vicar. Their lives are now in immediate danger, according to Canon Andrew White, and they’ve been advised to hide their religion. Canon White said Baghdad’s Anglican Church is trying to protect them, as they fear extremists might try to kill them if they’re identified. WikiLeaks published diplomatic cables from Baghdad which named the individuals of the small Jewish community. And now the American Embassy is trying to locate any Jewish diplomats who could help the exposed individuals take...

Baghdad - At least 21 people were killed Wednesday in a wave of car bombings in the Iraqi capital, according to security and medical sources. Over 60 people were injured in the bombings, two of which involved suicide attacks, in central, north and south Baghdad, the sources said. Four of the bombs exploded outside police stations and at the entrance to the Interior Ministry building in Baghdad, said a spokesman for the ministry, Adel Daham, said. A fifth car bomb exploded near a police convoy in the mainly Shiite northern district of Al Horiya, according to security sources. Daham said...

MSNBC Headline Tag only.

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi officials say the death toll from a string of blasts in a Shiite neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad has jumped to 34. Two police officials said the bombs targeted a Shiite mosque as well as a market Thursday evening. The officials said that 82 people were also injured in the explosions. Officials from the hospitals where the dead and injured were taken confirmed the casualty figures.

In the single largest loss of life for the American military in Iraq in the past two years, five troops were killed in central Iraq, U.S. officials said.

IRAQ NOTEBOOK: Witches, Bollywood at grad party REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press Updated 09:01 a.m., Tuesday, May 24, 2011 BAGHDAD (AP) - Harry Potter-inspired witches in flowing black satin gowns and pointed hats shimmied onstage as young warlocks in black-and-red capes looked on. Nearby, Indian-themed music blared from a boom box at a Baghdad version of a Bollywood movie set. Fun and frivolity aren't the first things that come to mind when someone mentions Baghdad. But this is college graduation season and time for a tradition that has survived the upheaval of war, kidnappings and bombs: masquerade parties. Students here like...

Does the name “Scott Ritter” sound familiar? It should. He used to get a lot of media attention. Ritter was the chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq during the Nineties. He became a darling of the press and Democrat Party when he began criticizing President Bush’s invasion of Iraq in the strongest possible terms. On the eve of war, he predicted the United States would “leave Iraq with its tail between its legs, defeated.” Our defeat was “inevitable” because we did not “have the military means to take over Baghdad.” Once the U.S. military made Ritter eat those words,...

(Reuters) - Iraq's capital wants the United States to apologize and pay $1 billion for the damage done to the city not by bombs but by blast walls and Humvees since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. The city's government issued its demands in a statement on Wednesday that said Baghdad's infrastructure and aesthetics have been seriously damaged by the American military. "The U.S. forces changed this beautiful city to a camp in an ugly and destructive way, which reflected deliberate ignorance and carelessness about the simplest forms of public taste," the statement said. "Due to the huge damage,...

Five car bombs exploded in different neighborhoods around Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing at least eight people and injuring 30, and shattering a months-long period of relative calm in the capital. Officers from Baghdad Operational Command defused another three car bombs. Recent days had seen large-scale attacks in other parts of the country, mainly against security forces and religious pilgrims, but Baghdad had been spared. Within a few hours Sunday morning that distinction blew apart like the angry scraps of twisted metal strewn across the city’s busy streets. The attacks began shortly after 7 a.m., despite heightened security for the...

BAGHDAD – Militants attacked at least four Christian homes Thursday night with a combination of grenades and bombs, killing two people and sending fear into the already terrified tiny Christian community. It was the first attack against the country's Christian community since al-Qaida-linked militants last week threatened a wave of violence against them. Christians went so far as to tone down their Christmas celebrations in what was a peaceful holiday, but the attacks Thursday night demonstrated the intent of militants to keep up their deadly pressure on the Christian community. In the deadliest attack, assailants in southwestern Baghdad threw two...

Six explosions target Christians across Iraqi capital, killing two and wounding 15, days after al-Qaeda renewed threat. Two people have been killed and 15 others wounded in a series of bomb attacks against the homes of minority Christians in different parts of Baghdad, police and interior ministry officials said on Thursday. Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reports from Baghdad that the six explosions took place outside as well as in the yards of Christian homes across Baghdad. The attacks come just a few days after al-Qaeda renewed its threat against Iraq's small Christian community during this holiday period. The worst attack...

NEW YORK — An FBI official says a notorious terrorist suspected of aiding the insurgency in Iraq will be added to the agency's list of its most wanted terrorists. The official said Monday that an FBI committee recommended this month that 73-year-old Palestinian Abu Ibrahim be placed on the list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision wasn't official. An investigation by The Associated Press had revealed the terrorist was still alive and had fled to Syria. Ibrahim has been indicted in the 1982 bombing of Pam Am Flight 830. The explosion killed a 16-year-old boy and...

Iraqi women recently competed in the Miss Baghdad beauty pageant - an event that was on hold for nearly 30 years during years of war and Ba'ath Party rule.

On that tragic day, "three-year-old Adam witnessed the horror of dozens of deaths, including that of his own parents. He wandered among the corpses and the blood, following the terrorists around and admonishing them, 'enough, enough, enough.' According to witnesses, this continued for two hours until Adam was himself murdered." That is all I know about Adam, but I cannot get his story out of my head. I believe Adam gave us a message for the whole world.

Iran has significantly expanded its intervention and is ready to transform Iraq into a proxy, a report said.The Center for New Politics and Policy asserted that Iran was filling the vacuum left by the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq. In a report titled "Iraq's Shi'a Leadership Crisis and the Iranian End Game," the Washington-based center said Iran was using both Shi'ite and Sunni militias to destabilize Iraq to prevent the emergence of a pro-U.S. government in Baghdad.

MILINET:A Marine's Eye-View Of Baghdad--SgtMaj Jack Du Bois,USMC (Ret.) Thought you may be interested in my fast trip to Baghdad to see if all was ok or if the news was being cautious about its condition. I am happy to report that all is OK in Baghdad and the news media is not reporting it's currant condition. As I entered Baghdad I saw a bunch of people with German Shepherd dogs along the road. This explained the fine condition of the road. These bomb sniffing dogs keep the bombs at bay and the road was in excellent shape. As I...

Unless told what to look for, the casual visitor to the once glamorous Baghdad thoroughfare that hugs the east bank of the Tigris would almost certainly pass them by. The Stars of David carved into the stonework of the low-slung buildings that line the alleyways of Abu Nuwas Street are little more than a curiosity these days – a memento of a civilisation lost to the pages of history. Judaism has a connection to Iraq that no other faith can match. The patriarch Abraham may well have been born there; the prophet Jonah reluctantly returned to foretell the destruction of...

Sunday, on the eve of All Saints' Day, Nov. 1, 2010, the faithful gathered at the Assyrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad. As Father Wassim Sabih finished the mass, eight al-Qaida stormed in, began shooting and forced him to the floor. As the priest pleaded that his parishioners be spared, they executed him and began their mission of mass murder. When security forces broke in, the killers threw grenades to finish off the surviving Christians and detonated explosive-laden vests to kill the police. The toll was 46 parishioners and two priests killed, 78 others wounded, many...

Video - Col. Mark Tillman's talk Col. Mark Tillman • Commander of Air Force One (2001-2009) • • Air Force One Pilot on September 11, 2001 • • Commander of 250 person crew • Selected by the White House as the nation’s 12th Presidential pilot, Colonel (ret) Mark W. Tillman served President George W. Bush as pilot and commander of Air Force One from 2001-2009. • As the leader of a large organization, his tenure was marked with excellence and an adherence to a Zero Fail philosophy. • Col. Tillman commanded Air Force One through multiple national events. Most notably,...

Islamic militants attack Baghdad Catholic parish during Mass; dozens slain   November 01, 2010 Gunmen linked with al-Qaeda stormed a Catholic church in Baghdad during Mass on October 31. “They entered the church with their weapons, wearing military uniforms,” said an 18-year-old who survived the attack. “They came into the prayer hall and immediately killed the priest.” After the gunmen took the worshippers hostage, US troops and Iraqi police stormed the parish in a rescue attempt. One gunman detonated a suicide belt, and a shootout ensued, leaving at least 37 hostages and 7 members of security forces dead along with...

In 1997, one of Bill Clinton's Cabinet members suggested that Shelton order a US plane to fly low over Baghdad so Saddam would shoot it down and, ta da, give America instant justification for war. "I was so mad I was about to explode," recounts Shelton, thinking about the sacrificial pilot. “Why, of course we can,” he responded. "Just as soon as we get your ass qualified to fly it, I will have it flown just as low and slow as you want to go.” The memoir doesn't name the Cabinet member, but Elliott notes that the way the passage...

In past when we decided to spend summer vacation, we usually as a members of small family, voted to go to Baghdad because; it is the Capital most beautiful place in Iraq has Electricity 24 hours, has some good places that we had liked to go,That was in Saddam's regime, Iraq was limited in Baghdad & his own city only; the rest cities were neglected; then after 2003 we waited the new regime, new Iraqis leaders for new Iraq, new future, new life, meanwhile Kurdistan region has grown a lot since 1991 when they separated & has their independence from...

A suicide bomber has killed at least 43 people and injured 40 more southwest of Baghdad, Iraqi police say. The attack targeted government-backed Sunni militia members lining up to be paid in the town of Radwaniya. The Sunni militia fighters, known as the Sahwa or Awakening Councils, were once allied with al-Qaeda, but turned against the militant group in 2006. Struggle for IraqCoalition questions Baghdad glazier Iraq: Key facts and figures Q&A: Parliamentary polls Among the dead were at least six soldiers and three accountants, the Associated Press news agency reported. At least 13 soldiers were also wounded, along with...

The great Library of Alexandria, established by Ptolemy II (circa 280 BC), has come to symbolize the receptacle of knowledge of Classical civilization. This great repository was barbarously razed in the Middle Ages. At its height, the Library contained an estimated forty thousand volumes on a wide variety of topics. It held works on astronomy, mathematics, physics, medicine, and philosophy -- many of which were copied from the hieroglyphic and cuneiform texts of the Egyptians and Babylonians. It also stored histories of all the countries of the known world: histories of Egypt, of Babylonia, of Persia, of the lands of...

Forces under the office of Prime Minister Maliki held hundreds of Sunni men at the facility. The U.S. fears that the news will stoke instability. Reporting from Baghdad Hundreds of Sunni men disappeared for months into a secret Baghdad prison under the jurisdiction of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's military office, where many were routinely tortured until the country's Human Rights Ministry gained access to the facility, Iraqi officials say. The men were detained by the Iraqi army in October in sweeps targeting Sunni groups in Nineveh province, a stronghold of the group Al Qaeda in Iraq and other militants in...

BAGHDAD – Suicide attackers detonated three car bombs near embassies in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 200 in back-to-back attacks, authorities said. The bombings came two days after a chilling execution-style attack by gunmen who raided homes south of Baghdad, killing 24 people, many of them believed to be anti-al-Qaida fighters. The rise in bloodshed after a relative lull deepened fears that insurgents will seize on the political turmoil after last month's indecisive parliamentary elections to sow further instability.

The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah has expanded operations in Iraq. Officials said Hizbullah Brigades have been operating in several areas of Baghdad. They said the group's campaign was meant to exploit tension between Sunnis and Shi'ites. Officials said Iran has increased support to Hizbullah in an effort to undermine the Iraqi government and security forces in the wake of elections on March 7. They said the elections have raised tension between Shi'ite factions, particularly the ruling party led by Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki and his rival, former Prime Minister Iyad Alawi. Al Maliki has demanded a recount of the vote. "There...

What a day. Went to work on a Blackhawk, which was different. But A FREAKIN' BLAST! [caption id="attachment_1552" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Limo Is Here"][/caption] We haven't determined exactly whether we're allowed to mention the names of the places we're going now right away. We'll clear that up tomorrow. I understood that we were allowed to tell you all about it as soon as we finished and return to Baghdad but a couple of my colleagues thought differently. So I'll err on the side of caution. All I will say for now is that we went to two different places today....

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is looking for Iraqi friends on Facebook. The embassy launched the page Thursday with the aim of reaching out to Iraqis who want to learn more about American culture and society, the latest step by the State Department to boost interest in Iraq's burgeoning online culture and promote Web entrepreneurship. The State Department has organized a number of high-profile visits to Iraq in recent months by top executives from Google, Twitter, AT&T and others. Recently, the embassy assisted in setting up a YouTube channel for the Iraqi government. The Facebook page launch...

Biden Heading To Baghdad Amid Election Tensionsby The Associated Press January 20, 2010 An upcoming election intended to ease Iraq's sectarian rifts is instead dredging up old hostilities — with the White House sending Vice President Joe Biden to smooth tensions between the Shiites who hold power and the Sunnis who want a greater slice of it. Some Sunni leaders have been outraged by the Shiite-led government's political blacklist against perceived backers of Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime, and by officials in a Shiite holy city vowing to banish any Saddam loyalists before the balloting for parliament in six weeks. The...

Iraq and Iran will begin talks next week to mark their borders, both countries said on Thursday, weeks after Tehran took over a disputed oil well in a move Iraq's prime minister called "unjustified." Nuri al-Maliki's criticism of the Iranian move came during talks between him and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, during the latter's one-day visit to Baghdad. "There will be a meeting within a week between the two countries about the borders," Mottaki said at a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari at the foreign ministry in central Baghdad. He added that in the following...

The preliminary deals signed by Angola's state oil company, Sonangol, Wednesday to develop two small fields in the most dangerous part of Iraq constituted a major breakthrough for Baghdad's high-risk drive to attract international oil companies to help it restore its flagging fortunes and transform the global energy market. Over the next 20 years Sonangol will develop the Qayara and Najmah fields, which between them contain an estimated 1.66 billion barrels of oil, in Nineveh province, where al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgents operate. But the Oil Ministry will pay the company $5-$6 for every barrel its produces. That's three times...

The string of deadly bombings against government buildings and Shiite landmarks in Baghdad that began last August provides a startling reminder that the Qaeda-associated Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) remains a clear danger to Iraq’s long-term stability. The three sets of multiple attacks that took place on August 19, October 25, and December 8—the three deadliest attacks since 2007—killed at least 362 people and wounded over 1,233. In an otherwise continuously improving security situation, the ISI claimed responsibility for the spectacular, headline-grabbing attacks in an effort to embarrass the Iraqi government, intensify Sunni disgruntlement with the current political establishment and...

Car bombs exploded amid busy streets and official buildings in Baghdad this morning, killing at least 127 people and wounding 450 more, in the latest assault on the Iraqi government by militants, according to police officials.

Justice: Once again, Americans asked to put their lives on the line go on trial. Their crime was doing the very job we asked them to do in Iraq. Will they now be sacrificed for an ungrateful Iraq?On Tuesday, five members of a tactical support team of Blackwater Worldwide security guards in Iraq made their first appearance in U.S. District Court on charges ranging from voluntary manslaughter to the use of automatic weapons. The "crime" was protecting State Department personnel under fire in a war zone and firing back. On Sept. 16, 2007, 18 members of the "Raven 23" team...

Western Baghdad is the location of nomenclature and force composition oddities that indicate further Iraqi Army expansion. Only two of the nine Iraqi Army brigades in western Baghdad are numbered and assigned in accordance with the standard brigade numbering system. Those seven brigades are the only seven non-standard designations in the entire Iraqi Army.