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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced late Sunday the start of a military offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city, from the Islamic State group. State TV showed a brief written statement announcing the start of the widely anticipated military offensive to drive the terror group out of the northern city home to more than a million civilians. Broadcasts showed the prime minister, dressed in a military uniform, speaking while flanked by senior officers. State TV broadcast patriotic music within minutes of the announcement. The thuds of sporadic artillery shelling rumbled across the rolling Nineveh plains in the...

America was tired of him, Iran was tired of him, the Sunnis were really tired of him, even the country’s Shiite-in-chief thought it was time for him to move along. There’s no doubt he would have dug in on last weekend’s attempted coup if he thought the military would protect him, but they were prepared to cut him loose as well.And so an ignominious reign ends with a whimper. Maliki: I withdraw my candidacy for PM in favour of Abadi to safeguard unity & stability of Iraq, political process pic.twitter.com/iSIAWI3oai— Sajad Jiyad سجاد (@SajadJiyad) August 14, 2014 It was...

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said Thursday night that he had agreed to relinquish power, state television reported, potentially ending a crisis in which his deployment of extra security forces around the capital had raised worries of a military coup.

Nouri al-Malki, the embattled prime minister of Iraq, announced on Thursday that he was stepping down after support from his party and associates in parliament slipped away.

The United States has thrown its weight behind Iraqi president Fuad Masum after he was accused by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki of violating the constitution. US state department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement: “The United States fully supports president Fuad Masum in his role as guarantor of the Iraqi constitution. “We reaffirm our support for a process to select a prime minister who can represent the aspirations of the Iraqi people by building a national consensus and governing in an inclusive manner,” she said, echoing an earlier comment made on Twitter by deputy assistant secretary of state for...

‘Something’s going down in Baghdad': Reports of possible coup Posted at 6:59 pm on August 10, 2014 by Twitchy Staff Meanwhile... Obama leaving Farm Neck Golf Course after five hours 6:33 PM - 10 Aug 2014

Iraq’s parliament just chose a new President who refused to rename Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki to a third term. Maliki declared the move unconstitutional and his own State of Law Party pulled support from him. Now his forces are seizing government buildings in Iraq, have closed the airport, and are surrounding the Green Zone.

To understand why Iraq is imploding, you must understand Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — and why the United States has supported him since 2006. I have known Maliki, or Abu Isra, as he is known to people close to him, for more than a decade. I have traveled across three continents with him. I know his family and his inner circle. When Maliki was an obscure member of parliament, I was among the very few Americans in Baghdad who took his phone calls. In 2006, I helped introduce him to the U.S. ambassador, recommending him as a promising option for...

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has told the BBC that he hopes jets from Russia and Belarus will turn the tide against rebels in the coming days. "God willing within one week this force will be effective and will destroy the terrorists' dens," he said. He said that the process of buying US jets had been "long-winded" and that the militants' advance could have been avoided if air cover had been in place. Isis and its Sunni Muslim allies seized large parts of Iraq this month. Mr Maliki was speaking to the BBC's Arabic service in his first interview for...

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi PM says he will not accept election results showing secular challenger with win.

I'm not sure what to think about all this. On the one hand, extending an olive branch to the Baath Party may help to continue the healing process in Iraq. On the other hand, extending an olive branch to the Baath Party may help to incite violence and a renewal of extremism. Just last December, 35 former Baathists were arrested for conspiring to reconstitute the party of Saddam. Perhaps, moderate Baathists can be viewed like "moderate Taliban" -- it's an illogical oxymoron. Al Jazeera reports: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's latest call for reconciliation with members of the former regime came...

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's faltering crackdown on Shiite militants has won the backing of Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties that fear both the powerful sectarian militias and the effects of failure on Iraq's fragile government. The emergence of a common cause could help bridge Iraq's political rifts. The head of the Kurdish self-ruled region, Massoud Barzani, has offered Kurdish troops to help fight anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. More significantly, Sunni Arab Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi signed off on a statement by President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and the Shiite vice president, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, expressing support...

Baghdad, 28 March (AKI) - Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has reportedly extended the 72-hour deadline for Shia militiamen fighting security forces in the southern city of Basra, to hand over their weapons. The Iraqi prime minister had originally set a deadline of 29 March for the militias to give up their arms but on Friday he extended it until 8 April. Fighting is continuing between Shia militias and Iraqi security forces and reports say that more than 130 people have been killed and 350 injured since a clampdown on the militias began in the oil-rich city on Tuesday. Some...

Iraq PM wants two other Saddam-era officials executed with Chemical AliBy SAMEER N. YACOUB and ANNA JOHNSON/Associated Press Thursday, March 6, 2008 12:06 AM CST Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as 'Chemical Ali,' for his alleged use of chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds, listens to prosecution evidence during the Operation Anfal trial, in Baghdad, Iraq, in this, Jan. 8, 2007, file photo. The Iraqi government is refusing to execute the Saddam Hussein henchman and cousin known as 'Chemical Ali' unless the executions of two other Saddam associates also are approved. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, Pool) BAGHDAD - The Iraqi...

Released detainees sit to hear words of encouragement from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during today’s detainee release ceremony at Camp Liberty. Nearly 500 men were released after the Combined Review and Release Board determined they are no longer a threat to Iraqi or Coalition forces, or the security of Iraq. Photo by Maj. Elizabeth Robbins, Multi-National Force-Iraq Public Affairs. CAMP LIBERTY — A detainee release ceremony here today at Forward Operating Base Constitution highlighted the expanded capacity of the Government of Iraq and Multi-National Force-Iraq to release detainees from Coalition Force custody. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki oversaw the...

BAGHDAD - Iraq's beleaguered prime minister accused his American critics on Sunday of underestimating how hard it is to rebuild his country and failing to appreciate his government's achievements "such as stopping the civil and sectarian war." Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said told reporters that some of the criticism from Washington sends "signals to terrorists luring them into thinking that the security situation in the country is not good." He offered no specific examples. He also said U.S. critics may not know "the size of the destruction that Iraq passed through" and do not appreciate "the big role of the...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made a serious step towards national unity at a time when Paris and Washington showered him with criticism. At a news conference in Baghdad on August 26, he announced that at a joint meeting representatives of the Iraqi Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds had reached agreement on a number of issues, which were crucial for the restoration of political stability, such as amnesty of political prisoners, elections to local and provincial governments, a bill on redistribution of oil profits and, last but not the least, abolition of the ban on jobs for the former Baath party...

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lashed out yesterday at US lawmakers who have called on him to step down, and accused American forces of committing "big mistakes" in killing and detaining Iraqi civilians in the hunt for insurgents. Alerts The embattled leader has come under fire from an array of allies and adversaries who say he has failed to unite his Cabinet and put crucial laws and programs in place. Yesterday he drew fresh criticism from two influential congressional Republicans. Maliki aimed his angriest words at Democratic senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Carl Levin of Michigan. "There are American...

France calls for new Iraq prime minister By Peter Allen in Paris Last Updated: 1:16am BST 27/08/2007 France's foreign minister risked fracturing his country's new relationship with America yesterday, by calling for Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, to be replaced. Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister In an interview published in the American magazine Newsweek, Bernard Kouchner, who visited Baghdad last week, said: "I just had (Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State) on the phone 10 or 15 minutes ago, and I told her, 'Listen, he's got to be replaced'. "Many people believe the prime minister ought to...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hit back on Sunday at Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton and other U.S. critics who have called for him to be replaced, telling them "to come to their senses." Maliki is under mounting pressure from officials in Washington to show political progress towards reconciling his majority Shi'ite Muslim sect and minority Sunni Arabs. U.S. officials are frustrated by the negligible progress so far. Clinton and fellow Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, have called for Maliki to be voted out because of his failure to find a...