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About 12,000 Iraqi refugees will be admitted into the United States over the next year as measures to speed up the process begin to take effect, government officials said yesterday. The new target represents an increase in the number and pace of Iraqi refugees entering the country and means that 17 percent of the 70,000 refugees expected to be admitted next year will come from Iraq, officials from the State Department told reporters... In February, State Department officials promised to expand their commitment to Iraqi refugees, but long delays in reviewing applications have drawn sharp criticism.. Officials said that of...

Thursday December 6 10:40 PM ET Iraqi National Executed in Okla. By ROCHELLE HINES, Associated Press Writer McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - An Iraqi national who stabbed his wife and her uncle to death in 1992 was executed Thursday. Sahib Al-Mosawi, 53, was sentenced to death in 1994. He did not request a clemency hearing and had no appeals pending. He was executed by injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. He met his wife and her family at a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia after they left Iraq in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War (news - web sites). Their marriage ...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — Coalition troops teamed with Iraqi policemen and concerned local citizens to rid a major road of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and al-Qaeda cell members during a two-day operation in Tuwaitha. The purpose of the mission was to not just clear the route, but to also establish an Iraqi capability to keep the route safe for civilian and military traffic. Capt. Brian Gilbert, of Boise, Idaho, commander of Company D, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd (Heavy) Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, currently attached to 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, was met by about 60...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 2007 – When people ask him why the U.S. military should be helping Iraq establish a free and stable society, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jeremy M. de Vries cites how France helped the American colonies gain their independence from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. De Vries is one of eight servicemembers who have served in Iraq, Afghanistan or the Horn of Africa who have been speaking to American community groups and businesses across the nation as part of the Defense Department’s “Why We Serve” public-outreach program. “If it wasn’t for the French support, with supplies and...

February 2, 2005 TIJUANA – An American man and two Iraqis arrested at the Tijuana airport last week have been charged with immigration violations, according to Mexican authorities. A Mexican federal judge will determine whether to dismiss the charges or proceed with a trial. The men are being held at a state prison in Tijuana. The three flew to Tijuana from Mexico City Jan. 26 on an Aeromexico flight, but they were stopped by Mexican immigration authorities who inspected their documents, according to Mexican authorities. The Iraqis – later identified as Steven Yohanan Kurkis and Kaml Meti Bashar – showed...

WASHINGTON - Overwhelming numbers of Iraqis say the U.S. troop buildup has worsened security and the prospects for economic and political progress in their country, according to a poll released Monday that provides a strikingly bleak appraisal of the war. Forty-seven percent want American forces and their coalition allies to leave the country immediately, the survey showed, 12 points more than said so in a March poll as the troop increase was beginning. And 57 percent — including nearly all Sunnis and half of Shiites — said they consider attacks on coalition forces acceptable, a slight increase over the past...

The Associated Press asked Iraqis for their reactions to some of the key points raised by Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker about the situation in Iraq. ___ Abdul-Salam Ibrahim, 52, retired army officer and Sunni in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown: "What is new today is the American's frank admission, even if they knew that before, of their monumental failure. This is what made them acknowledge that there is Iranian intervention in Iraq. If they stay in Iraq, it will be a catastrophe. Anbar is not the place to judge. That place should be the capital Baghdad, where...

After leaving a ceremony to reopen the Al Aflaph Elementary School in Salhiyah, Capt. Joseph Guzowski, left, the commander of Troop A, 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, and Staff Sgt. Justin Miller, stop to play a game of foosball with some of the local children. Photo by Spc. Robert Yde, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs. BAGHDAD — One of the biggest changes that Capt. Joseph Guzowski has seen since his last deployment here three years ago is the dramatic transformation of the relationships between Coalition forces and the local...

U.S. Marines with Viking Red Section, Mobile Assault Platoon, Regimental Combat Team 2, observe an Iraqi personal security detachment fire AK-47 rifles on a firing range at Camp Gannon. The Iraqis are training to be personal security officers for local judges. Viking Red Marines Train Iraqis to Keep Judges Safe Troops employ visual cues to bridge language barrier. By Cpl. Eric C. Schwartz 2nd Marine Division CAMP GANNON, Husaybah, Iraq, Aug. 31, 2007 — It’s not news to read that politicians, famous athletes and even entertainers have bodyguards protecting them from dangerous people, but in Iraq, their judges need...

BAGHDAD, Aug. 28 — Despite a stepped-up commitment from the United States to take in Iraqis who are in danger because they worked for the American government and military, very few are signing up to go, resettlement officials say. The reason, Iraqis say, is that they are not allowed to apply in Iraq, requiring them to make a costly and uncertain journey to countries like Syria or Jordan, where they may be turned away by border officials already overwhelmed by fleeing Iraqis. The United Nations, which defines a refugee as someone who has fled his or her home country, has...

Angelina Jolie is in Iraq to witness firsthand the humanitarian crisis there, the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR has announced. The actress and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, 32, flew from New York to Syria on Monday. In Damascus, she visited a UNHCR registration center and spend hours talking to Iraqi refugees in their homes. Tuesday's journey took her to Iraq to meet with 1,200 refugees camped out in a makeshift outpost at the border, because they are unable to leave the country. She also witnessed dozens of Iraqis crossing into Syria. "I have come to Syria and Iraq to help draw...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26, 2007 – Seven Iraqi citizens found their way to a coalition patrol base near Khan Ban Sa’ad, Iraq, yesterday after escaping a makeshift prison, military officials reported. The alleged captors were linked to an earlier operation yesterday when attack helicopters patrolling the area observed three individuals moving in a tactical formation through a ditch. Coalition forces positively identified the individuals as hostile enemy forces and fired on their position, killing all three. The escapees identified the remains of the three individuals as their captors and led coalition ground forces to the makeshift prison, officials said. Inside the...

8/23/2007 - ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Approximately 80 Iraqis from the city of An Nasiriyah interacted for the first time with Airmen and Soldiers at the Ziggurat historical monument Aug. 21 at Ali Base. It has been more than 10 years since any Iraqi native has been allowed to visit the Ziggurat of Ur, which is the most dominant landmark on Ali Base, because during the reign of Suddam Hussein the installation was used by the Iraqi army. The Ziggurat was constructed more than 4,000 years ago by worshipers of the moon god Nanna living near the ancient city...

U.S. intelligence chief says in El Paso he's worried about "terrorist gateway." National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell told the El Paso Times in an interview following his talk to a Border Security Conference last week that he's worried that terrorist groups, such as the newly regrouping al-Qaida organization, are paying more attention to the Southwest border as a way to enter the United States and cause "mass casualties." Recently declassified intelligence summaries show that al-Qaida is regrouping in the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan and is looking for ways to penetrate the United States, McConnell told the Times....

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Aug. 5, 2007 – Weary of the violence to which their community has been victim, residents of the Andaloos district here have organized a Neighborhood Watch to keep watch against insurgent activity. Iraqi men of the Andaloos district of Fallujah wait in the hot sun July 30, 2007, to be selected as recruits for the new Neighborhood Watch program set up in their community through the efforts of Marines, Iraqi Army, Iraqi police and local community leaders. The program is part of ongoing Operation Alljah to transform the communities within Fallujah to provide security, civil assistance and...

COMBAT OUTPOST CLEARY — Using a school in the city of al Wahida, Soldiers from a Fort Bragg, N.C., Civil Affairs battalion attached to the 3rd Infantry Divsion set up a one-day clinic for Iocal residents July 28. Known as a cooperative medical engagement, the operation requires Coalition and Iraqi forces to come together and provide medical treatment in prescribed areas, said Staff Sgt. Patrick R. Weston, special operations medical noncommissioned officer, Civil Affairs Team Alpha 712th, Company A, 97th Civil Affairs Battalion. Physician assistants and unit medics out of COP Cleary diagnosed and provided medicine to those in need....

Warren Mayor Mark Steenbergh claims the federal government is looking to relocate more than 16,000 Iraqi refugees to Warren and Sterling Heights -- and there's no way his city can handle it.

BAGHDAD —Troops from 3rd Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division (Mechanized), led a combined operation with Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment to bring medical care to the people living in Hor Al Bosh, Iraq, July 15. During the event, more than 400 local citizens were treated at a local school for, primarily, minor ailments. Iraqi Army medics, an Iraqi Army doctor from the 4th Brigade, 9th IA Div., several medics and physician’s assistants from both 2nd Bn., 8th Cav. Regt. and Charlie Medical Company, 115th Brigade Support Battalion treated everything from minor burns to colds, ear infections, headaches...

WASHINGTON - The harder President Bush has pushed to win in Iraq, the closer he has come to losing. The question no longer is whether the U.S. military can fully stabilize Iraq. It cannot. That was a possibility four years ago, immediately after Saddam Hussein's government fell. Before the insurgency took hold. Before U.S. occupation authorities lost any chance to avoid the sectarian strife of today's Iraq. Now only the Iraqis can save Iraq. They need the U.S. military's help, no doubt. But the Bush administration has made no secret of the fact that the U.S. troop buildup in Baghdad...

BAGHDAD - American soldiers rolled into Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City slum on Saturday in search of Iranian-linked militants and as many as 26 Iraqis were killed in what a U.S. officer described as "an intense firefight." But residents, police and hospital officials said eight civilians were killed in their homes and angrily accused U.S. forces of firing blindly on the innocent. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the raids and demanded an explanation for the assault into a district where he has barred U.S. operations in the past. Separately, two American solders were charged with the premeditated murder of three Iraqis,...