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Religious militias are suspected of carrying out a massacre in a brothel in Baghdad in which 29 women and two men were killed. ... an notorious brothel-keeper known only as "Aws", who used to bribe police and soldiers in the neighbourhood to turn a blind eye to his rackets. The side street where the compound was located was routinely guarded by members of the security forces. Grisly photographs obtained by the AFP news agency showed crouching bodies of five women huddled together in a corner of a bathroom with blood-spattered tiled walls and floor ...

BAGHDAD — Kurdish security forces took over two major oil fields outside the disputed northern city of Kirkuk before dawn Friday and said they would use some of the production for domestic purposes, further widening a split with the central government of Prime Minister Maliki. The president of the Kurdish (prior, no fly) zone has said the areas won't be returned — including the highly disputed, flashpoint city of Kirkuk — and he called for Kurdish lawmakers to prepare to hold an independence referendum in the area, a move strongly opposed by Baghdad, Turkey and the United States. //Snip// http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/11/iraq-parliament-dysfunction.html,...

Iraqi insurgents are preparing for an assault on Baghdad, with sleeper cells planted inside the capital to rise up at "Zero Hour" and aid fighters pushing in from the outskirts, according to senior Iraqi and U.S. security officials. Iraqis speak of a "Zero Hour" as the moment a previously-prepared attack plan would start to unfold. A high-level Iraqi security official estimated there were 1,500 sleeper cell members hibernating in western Baghdad and a further 1,000 in areas on the outskirts of the capital. He said their goal was to penetrate the U.S.-made "Green Zone" - a fortified enclave of government...

<p>President Barack Obama says he's sending about 200 more U.S. troops to Iraq to protect Americans and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.</p> <p>The announcement will bring to nearly 800 the total number of U.S. forces in and around Iraq to train local forces, secure the embassy and protect American interests.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has armed drones flying over Baghdad to protect U.S. troops that recently arrived to assess Iraq's deteriorating security, the Pentagon said Friday. The military for more than a week has been flying manned and unmanned aircraft over Iraq, averaging a few dozen sorties daily for reconnaissance.

The Islamic State of Syria and Sham (ISIS) and their Sunni tribal allies reached the strategic Mahmudiyah district southwest of Baghdad in large numbers on June 26th. Kurdish officials said that militants had seized the towns of Iskandariyah and Mahmudiyah. The depleted Iraqi Army 17th Division is still fighting in the area, but it lacks air support and armored vehicles. Since Mahmudiyah district controls the key supply routes linking Baghdad with the Shiite majority in the south, more Iraqi Army units will have to be pulled back from fighting in the north. According to reports by Stratfor Global Intelligence, unnamed...

They answered the call by the thousands, some walking miles in sweltering heat to volunteer to fight an al Qaeda splinter group barreling towards the Iraqi capital. With reports that fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the terror group also known as ISIS, was some 40 miles from the gates of Baghdad, the country's top religious and political leaders appealed for able-bodied men of fighting age to volunteer to defend the country. "Mosul, Tal Afar, Falluja, wherever, by God's will we will be ready to defend any location," said 23-year-old Ahmed, who showed up Thursday at a...

The US is reported to have demanded the resignation of Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki as a condition for US military intervention. The Wall Street Journal says the US has signalled its desire for unity government in Iraq without Maliki. Maliki's government has rejected calls for the prime minister to quit. His spokesman, Zuhair al-Nahar, said the west should focus instead on providing immediate military help to the Iraqi government.

raq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki fired four of his top security officers on Tuesday for abandoning their "professional and military duty" a week after the fall of the northwest city of Mosul to Sunni militants, the government said. Top officers, including Lieutenant General Mehdi Sabah Gharawi, the top commander for Nineveh province where Sunni fighters have gained ground, were fired because they "failed to fulfill their professional and military duties", according to a government statement read out on state television.

John Kerry is too busy spreading BS about climate change to worry about the Middle East going up in flames. On Tuesday. former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said that “Secretary Kerry, in my view, should be on a plane right now for Baghdad.” “Diplomacy is what is crucial right now. “We need to work with the Iraqis at the highest level. That would be Secretary Kerry, backed by the president, so that they can demonstrate the national unity, Kurdish, Sunni and Shia, that is going to be essential, if there is going to be any hope of turning...

Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has fired senior officers for failing to halt a sweeping advance by Sunni Islamist rebels. Four army commanders were dismissed for failing to perform "their national duty", a government statement said on Tuesday. Iraqi forces have been engaged in heavy clashes with the rebels who have seized several key cities in the past week.

The lightning advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham and its allies from Mosul to the outskirts of Samarra, as well as its capture of several towns in eastern Diyala, all over the course of several days, appears to be part of a greater strategy to surround the capital of Baghdad before laying siege to it. This plan, to take over the "belt" region outside of Baghdad and cut off the capital, appears to be the same strategy used by the ISIS' predecessor back in 2006. The 2006 plan, which was drawn up by the Islamic State...

President Obama announced that American troops are being deployed to Iraq. Returning nearly three years after the United States withdrew in 2011 Deployed to protect American personnel and embassy staff in Baghdad This comes as John Kerry says Washington is 'open to discussions' with Tehran about military cooperation He also told Yahoo! News correspondent Katie Couric that drone strikes also 'may well be' an option in the coming days Just a year ago, Obama was weighing ever-tougher sanctions against Iran's mullahs ISIS captured Tal Afar, a key northern town along the highway to Syria, early on Monday, with a population...

U.S. President Barack Obama has informed Congress he is deploying up to 275 troops to provide security at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The announcement on June 16 comes after Sunni-led militants from an Al-Qaeda splinter group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), seized large swaths of territory across northern Iraq in recent days and advanced toward Baghdad Obama's announcement is in accordance with the U.S. War Powers Act – a federal law that checks the U.S. president’s power to send troops into foreign military action without consent from Congress. The law requires the president to inform...

The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 16, 2014 Text of a Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate June 16, 2014 Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:) Starting on June 15, 2014, up to approximately 275 U.S. Armed Forces personnel are deploying to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and property, if necessary, and is equipped for combat. This force will...

President Barack Obama told Congress on Monday the United States was deploying up to 275 military personnel to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the country's embassy in Baghdad after militants seized control of the north of the country.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is considering sending a small number of American special forces soldiers to Iraq in an urgent attempt to help the government in Baghdad slow the nation's rampant Sunni insurgency, U.S. officials said Monday. While President Barack Obama has explicitly ruled out putting U.S. troops into direct combat in Iraq, the plan under consideration suggests he would be willing to send Americans into a collapsing security situation for training and other purposes

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens against all but essential travel to Iraq. Travel within Iraq remains dangerous given the security situation. On June 16, the Department of State began relocating some staff members from the Embassy to the Consulates General in Basrah and Erbil and Iraq Support Unit in Amman. The Embassy remains open and is operating. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning dated June 11, 2014, to update information on security incidents and to remind U.S. citizens of ongoing security concerns in Iraq, including kidnapping and terrorist violence. The ability of the Embassy to respond to...

The USS Mesa Verde with 550 Marines on board entered the Gulf on Monday to support possible U.S. action to help Iraq's Shi'ite-led government combat a Sunni Islamist insurgency that has overtaken large areas of the country's north, CNN reported. The USS Mesa Verde joins the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which the Pentagon ordered on Saturday to move into the Gulf. President Barack Obama has said he is considering military action, short of putting U.S. troops in Iraq, to aid that government's efforts to stop the insurgency.