Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• AP Exclusive: Misconduct forces more soldiers out
• Lead prosecutor quits U.S. general's sex assault case as trial nears
• The NFL's Nasty Warrior Culture
• Lebanon forms government after 10-month deadlock
• Syrian troops bombard town near Lebanon border
• Iraq PM announces training, funds in battlefield city
• Iraqi army fights to wrest northern town from militants
• Kurds clash with Turkish police at protests for rebel leader's release
• Bombs, clashes kill 7 from Iraq security forces
• Iraq strains under largest internal refugee crisis since height of war
• 18 Iraq soldiers, police die in attacks and clashes

AP Exclusive: Misconduct forces more soldiers out Posted: 15 Feb 2014 02:51 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years as the military emerges from a decade of war that put a greater focus on battle competence than on character.

Lead prosecutor quits U.S. general's sex assault case as trial nears Posted: 15 Feb 2014 01:34 PM PST By Colleen Jenkins WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - The lead prosecutor in a sexual assault case against a U.S. Army general set for trial next month has stepped down, a military spokesman said on Saturday, after defense lawyers say the prosecutor aired concerns about the credibility of a key witness. Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair is due to stand trial in March in a rare court-martial of an officer of his lofty rank. The married general admits to a three-year affair with a female Army captain who worked in his unit in Afghanistan, but he refutes charges that he twice forced her to perform oral sex. A spokesman at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where Sinclair is based, said Lieutenant Colonel William Helixon had "voluntarily left the prosecution team for personal reasons." Sinclair has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, including forcible sodomy and wrongful sexual conduct.

The NFL's Nasty Warrior Culture Posted: 15 Feb 2014 12:49 PM PST In both word and deed, pro football serves as a culturally sanctioned knockoff of the military. Until we face that fact, we'll never understand why players think brutal abuse is normal.

Lebanon forms government after 10-month deadlock Posted: 15 Feb 2014 11:56 AM PST By Laila Bassam and Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon announced a new government on Saturday, breaking a 10-month political deadlock during which spillover violence from neighboring Syria worsened internal instability. A caretaker government has run the country since former Prime Minister Najib Mikati resigned in March as parties aligned with the Shi'ite Hezbollah movement and a Sunni-led rival bloc pursued a power struggle exacerbated by their support for opposing sides in Syria's almost three-year-old civil war. "A government in the national interest was formed in a spirit of inclusivity," new Prime Minister Tammam Salam declared on live television. He said he hoped the new government would allow Lebanon to hold presidential elections before President Michel Suleiman's mandate expires in May and finally conduct parliamentary polls that were postponed last year due to the political impasse.

Syrian troops bombard town near Lebanon border Posted: 15 Feb 2014 10:43 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops pressed an offensive near Lebanon on Saturday, heavily bombarding a rebel-held town and forcing many residents to flee to safety across the border, activists said.

Iraq PM announces training, funds in battlefield city Posted: 15 Feb 2014 10:35 AM PST Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki promised training for allied tribal militia and over $83 million in construction funds during a visit Saturday to Ramadi, where militants hold territory seized weeks ago. The measures are the latest in a bid to placate people in Anbar province, whose capital is Ramadi, and Iraq's broader Sunni Arab minority, which complains of marginalisation by the government and of being unfairly targeted by heavy-handed security measures. Maliki's visit came as militants killed more than two dozen soldiers and police in other parts of the country over two days and held part of the northern town of Sulaiman Bek, another front in the persistent rebellion against his Shiite-led government in Sunni areas. It was the first time Maliki is known to have travelled to Anbar since jihadists and anti-government tribesmen seized parts of Ramadi and all of nearby Fallujah at the start of the year, in a major setback for his government.

Iraqi army fights to wrest northern town from militants Posted: 15 Feb 2014 06:54 AM PST Iraqi troops backed by helicopter gunships fought on Saturday to retake full control of a northern town from militants who overran parts of it earlier this week, the mayor and other local officials said. Talib Mohammed, the mayor of Sulaiman Pek, 160 km (100 miles) north of Baghdad, said the army had met fierce resistance in some parts of the town, after gaining some ground on Friday. "A police captain was killed by a sniper this morning while he was trying to evacuate his family." Militants raised the black flag of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - a Sunni group also fighting in neighboring Syria - over parts of Sulaiman Pek on Thursday. An army captain in Sulaiman Pek said snipers were hindering bomb disposal teams faced with dozens of explosive devices.

Kurds clash with Turkish police at protests for rebel leader's release Posted: 15 Feb 2014 06:25 AM PST By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR (Reuters) - Thousands of Kurds demonstrated in towns across south east Turkey on Saturday, some clashing violently with riot police as they called for the release of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on the 15th anniversary of his capture. Ocalan, leader of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), is viewed by nationalist Turks as responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in the group's 30-year war with the Turkish army. But for many of Turkey's estimated 15 million Kurds, the 64-year-old represents their bitter struggle for greater cultural and political rights. Demonstrators and police fought in side streets in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Bombs, clashes kill 7 from Iraq security forces Posted: 15 Feb 2014 05:23 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Officials say bombings and clashes in central Iraq have killed seven members of the security forces and wounded eight.

Iraq strains under largest internal refugee crisis since height of war Posted: 15 Feb 2014 04:30 AM PST Iraq has the largest internal displacement since the height of the US war on its hands today as government forces try to wrest control of parts of Anbar Province back from militants, adding yet another source of instability to a country already teetering. With the UN's rough estimate of six people per family, that is more than 370,000 people, most of them pouring out of the Anbar cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. According to the report, 85 percent of Fallujah's population has been displaced. Some are finding shelter in other parts of Anbar, but many are moving on to neighboring provinces, and an estimated 5,000 families have traveled to the relative safety of Iraqi Kurdistan in the north.

18 Iraq soldiers, police die in attacks and clashes Posted: 15 Feb 2014 02:56 AM PST Tikrit (Iraq) (AFP) - Eighteen Iraqi soldiers and police have been killed in targeted attacks and clashes, officials and doctors said Saturday, as the country struggles to contain its worst violence in years. Meanwhile, militants Saturday held part of the northern town of Sulaiman Bek, after security forces withdrew despite reportedly making gains in a battle for control of the area the day before. In Sulaiman Bek, a police captain was stopped by militants and shot dead on his way to pick up relatives in the town and evacuate them to safety. In the Jurf al-Sakhr areas south of Baghdad, five soldiers died in clashes with militants.

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