| Blair denies Iraq violence result of 2003 invasion Posted: 14 Jun 2014 04:59 PM PDT  Tony Blair hit out on Sunday at critics who linked the 2003 invasion of Iraq with the current violence in the country, blaming instead the West's failure to act in Syria. The former prime minister, who led Britain into the US-led war to remove Saddam Hussein and is now a diplomatic envoy in the Middle East, also criticised the sectarianism of the government in Baghdad. He condemned the sectarianism of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government, who he said had "snuffed out what was a genuine opportunity to build a cohesive Iraq". But he said the Syrian conflict had provided the Islamic militants seizing swathes of territory in northern Iraq with battle experience and a base from which to launch their attacks across the border.
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| Iraq insurgent advance slows, U.S. sends carrier to Gulf Posted: 14 Jun 2014 03:53 PM PDT  By Ahmed Rasheed and Raheem Salman BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An offensive by insurgents that threatens to dismember Iraq seemed to slow on Saturday after days of lightning advances as government forces regained some territory in counter-attacks, easing pressure on the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad. As Iraqi officials spoke of wresting back the initiative against Sunni militants, neighboring Shi'ite Iran held out the prospect of working with its longtime U.S. arch-enemy to help restore security in Iraq. U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday he was reviewing military options, short of sending troops, to combat the insurgency. The United States ordered an aircraft carrier moved into the Gulf on Saturday, readying it in case Washington decides to pursue a military option after insurgents overran areas in the north and advanced on Baghdad.
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| Iraqi airstrike kills seven Kurdish security forces in Diyala: police Posted: 14 Jun 2014 03:53 PM PDT At least seven members of the Kurdish security forces were killed in an airstrike in Iraq's northeastern province of Diyala on Saturday, police said. The secretary general of the Kurdish security forces said however that only two people had died near the town of Jalawla in what he described as shelling, and that it was not yet clear whether Iraqi forces or militants were responsible. The incident and divergent accounts show the potential for security in Iraq to deteriorate further, given the deployment of several heavily armed factions and shifting areas of control. Both Iraqi and Kurdish sources said insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were also present in the area. |
| U.S. Is Sending an Aircraft Carrier to the Persian Gulf, Just in Case Posted: 14 Jun 2014 03:12 PM PDT  With the security situation deteriorating in Iraq, the Pentagon announced that it would send an aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf to afford the United States a military option. From the Pentagon statement: The order will provide the Commander-in-Chief additional flexibility should military options be required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq." The U.S.S. George H.W. Bush is the carrier getting the call, which is fitting since the first American adventure in Iraq came at the behest of the elder Bush. It's a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, meaning not only is it one of the largest warships in the world, but it is also powered by two nuclear reactors.
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| Thousands of Iraqi men answer urgent call to arms Posted: 14 Jun 2014 02:54 PM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Thousands of Shiites from Baghdad and across southern Iraq answered an urgent call to arms Saturday, joining security forces to fight the Islamic militants who have captured large swaths of territory north of the capital and now imperil a city with a much-revered religious shrine.
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| Pentagon orders aircraft carrier to Gulf to add Iraq military option Posted: 14 Jun 2014 01:51 PM PDT  U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered an aircraft carrier moved into the Gulf on Saturday, readying it in case Washington decides to pursue a military option after insurgents overwhelmed a string of Iraqi cities this week and threatened Baghdad. "The order will provide the Commander-in-Chief additional flexibility should military options be required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq," the Pentagon said in a statement. The carrier USS George H.W. Bush, moving from the North Arabian Sea, will be accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun, the statement said. President Barack Obama said on Friday he needed several days to determine how the United States would help Iraq deal with the stunning advance of Islamist militants, who earlier this week seized several major Iraqi cities and appeared to have set their sights on the capital, Baghdad.
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| US naval power steams toward Iraq Posted: 14 Jun 2014 01:39 PM PDT Such is the case with the USS George H.W. Bush, a nuclear-powered and heavily-armed carrier ordered into the Persian Gulf to protect US interests as Iraq's government and military seem unable to prevent cities there from being overrun by Islamist insurgents. Given the history of the past decade – Iraqi history and US history – that's a very tall order. |
| Afghans brave Taliban threats to choose new leader Posted: 14 Jun 2014 01:31 PM PDT  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghans braved threats of violence and searing heat Saturday to vote in a presidential runoff that likely will mark the country's first peaceful transfer of authority, an important step toward democracy as foreign combat troops leave. The new leader will be challenged with trying to improve ties with the West and combatting corruption while facing a powerful Taliban insurgency and declining international aid.
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| Fearing three teens abducted, Israel escalates West Bank search with Abbas help Posted: 14 Jun 2014 12:17 PM PDT  By Yusri Al-Jammal HEBRON West Bank (Reuters) - Israel sent more troops to the occupied West Bank on Saturday to step up searches for three Israeli teenagers believed to have been abducted by Palestinians, with a military source saying it was not known if they were dead or alive. They arrested at least 12 Hebron area residents, including two women, confiscated video from privately owned security cameras and prevented around 300 residents from leaving the area, Palestinian officials and witnesses said. The incident tests ties between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which were frayed by his power-sharing deal in April with Hamas Islamists hostile to the Jewish state. In a televised statement delivered after he conferred with his security chiefs, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the three teenagers had "definitely" been kidnapped - though he did not say by whom.
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| Senate bill doubles spending on veterans' health Posted: 14 Jun 2014 12:15 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Spending on veterans' health care could double in three years under the Senate's solution to the long waits experienced by thousands seeking medical care at VA hospitals and clinics, according to congressional budget experts.
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| IRS Loses Lerner Emails, Capping Obama’s Awful Week Posted: 14 Jun 2014 12:11 PM PDT  On Friday night, the Associated Press revealed that the Internal Revenue Service has lost an untold number of emails sent to and from a key figure, Lois Lerner, in the long-simmering scandal over the agency's treatment of groups affiliated with the conservative Tea Party movement. The news broke at the end of a week in which Russia sent tanks into Ukraine, escalating a crisis the Obama administration has sought to contain;
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| AP Analysis: Turmoil blurring Mideast borders Posted: 14 Jun 2014 11:15 AM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — Working in secret, European diplomats drew up the borders that have defined the Middle East's nations for nearly a century — but now civil war, sectarian bloodshed and leadership failures threaten to rip that map apart.
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| ISIL Iraq onslaught aids Syria regime, jihadists: analysts Posted: 14 Jun 2014 11:12 AM PDT  Both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and jihadist groups battling to oust him stand to benefit from a lightning offensive by militants across the border in Iraq, analysts believe. Fighters from the powerful jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant began an offensive in Iraq on Monday, taking a swathe of mostly Sunni Arab territory in the north. The attack led by ISIL, which operates in both countries, has brought Iraq's army to the brink of collapse. Analysts say their advance could deliver not just a military boost to jihadists in Syria, but also political gains for Assad.
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| Moderate Syria rebel officers quit over 'lack of military aid' Posted: 14 Jun 2014 10:46 AM PDT  Nine top officers from the moderate Free Syrian Army resigned Saturday over shortages and mismanagement of military aid from donor countries to their uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. Some Western military aid has trickled into Syria in recent weeks, but overall the United States has been reticent to arm rebels over fears advanced weapons could end up in jihadist hands. Weapons shipped to Syria from the West, but more significantly from Gulf countries, are usually sent to specific groups, rather than to the Supreme Military Council, which was meant to coordinate the rebel military effort. Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammad Abboud told AFP he and the eight other rebel officers resigned because the "SMC has no role any more.
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| Soccer-U.S., Iran may be enemies; at World Cup they work together Posted: 14 Jun 2014 10:42 AM PDT By Jeb Blount RIO DE JANEIRO, June 14 (Reuters) - There may be no better indication of world soccer governing body FIFA's power than the ability to make the United States and Iran work together. The two countries have not had diplomatic relations for 34 years, but referees from the U.S. and Iranian football federations officiated together on Saturday at the Colombia-Greece World Cup Group C match in Belo Horizonte. ... |
| Hagel orders US aircraft carrier to Persian Gulf Posted: 14 Jun 2014 10:36 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered an aircraft carrier — the USS George H.W. Bush — to move from the northern Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf as President Barack Obama considers possible military options for Iraq.
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| Iraqi troops dig in, bolstering Baghdad's defences Posted: 14 Jun 2014 10:34 AM PDT  Soldiers armed with shovels are digging in just 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of Baghdad as others man new checkpoints, bolstering the Iraqi capital's defences against a militant assault. A major militant offensive launched on Monday, spearheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, has overrun a large chunk of northern and north-central Iraq. The advance swept to within less than 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the capital, raising fears among residents that the city itself would be next, though militants have since been pushed back by security forces in areas farther north, making an assault on Baghdad appear less likely. ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani has vowed its fighters would press on to Baghdad and Karbala, a city southwest of the capital that is considered one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.
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| US orders aircraft carrier into Gulf over Iraq crisis: Pentagon Posted: 14 Jun 2014 10:04 AM PDT  The United States has ordered an aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush, into the Gulf in response to the crisis in Iraq, the Pentagon said Saturday. "The order will provide the commander-in-chief additional flexibility should military options be required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq," Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, said. US President Barack Obama said Friday the United States would not send in US ground troops but that he was weighing all other options.
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| Strong blast in Syrian town near Iraq kills 8 Posted: 14 Jun 2014 09:54 AM PDT BEIRUT (AP) — A strong explosion struck a weapons market in an eastern Syrian town near the border with Iraq Saturday, killing at least eight people and wounding many others, state media and activists said. |
| Why YouTube won't remove Egyptian sexual assault video Posted: 14 Jun 2014 09:27 AM PDT  YouTube has refused to remove a video showing an Egyptian woman being sexually assaulted. Imagine the negative global reaction if YouTube - which is owned by Google, Inc. - had acquiesced to Egyptian officials. YouTube would have been accused of helping to cover up Egypt's sexual assault problem: An estimated 250 women have been subjected to mob sexual harassment or assaults during demonstrations in Tahrir Square since November 2012.
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| No, the Trouble in Iraq Will Not Bring Iran and the U.S. Together Posted: 14 Jun 2014 09:02 AM PDT  As a radical Sunni insurgency imperils Iraq, the United States and Iran have finally stumbled into a common enemy. Despite 35 years of hostility, enmity, proxy war, etc., the swift takeover of wide swaths of Iraq by the terrorist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has suddenly endowed the United States and Iran with a shared interest. The United States, which spilled blood and untold treasure upending Iraq and then working to stabilize it as well as training the Iraqi army, doesn't want to see its work entirely undone by marauding extremists. So, quite suddenly, America and Iran want the same thing for the first time in seemingly decades.
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| Turkey defends actions over consulate seizure in Iraq, 80 still held Posted: 14 Jun 2014 09:00 AM PDT By Tulay Karadeniz ANKARA (Reuters) - Diplomats and soldiers trapped inside Turkey's consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul had no option but to surrender this week after hundreds of heavily armed Islamist militants surrounded the building, the foreign ministry said on Saturday. The seizure by insurgents from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Wednesday of 49 Turks, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and children, has prompted criticism of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government for failing to foresee the danger and evacuate the consulate sooner. The ISIL offensive threatens to dismember Iraq and leaves Turkey facing a widening Islamist insurgency in two of its southern neighbors, with ISIL also making territorial gains in Syria near the Turkish border. Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru said every security precaution had been taken at the consulate but that events unfolded quickly and that Iraqi security forces stationed around the building abandoned their posts as ISIL seized Mosul. |
| 'Who lost Iraq?' The political fight over America’s longest war Posted: 14 Jun 2014 08:49 AM PDT As it was with "Who lost China?" and "Who lost Vietnam?" the blame game over America's longest war is raging in Washington as the US-backed Iraq military abandons its weapons, sheds its uniforms, and runs for cover in the face of a smaller, less well-equipped insurgency. Congressional hawks, Bush administration neocons, and some US military veterans who fought in Iraq say President Obama and his advisors were much too quick to pull US combat forces out of Iraq after a successful troop "surge," leaving that sorry country to face the threat of insurgents backed by Al Qaeda and other no-gooders in the volatile region. Sen. John McCain says Obama should fire his entire national security team, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey. "They have been a total failure," Sen. McCain says. |
| Father, son lead Army unit 4 decades apart Posted: 14 Jun 2014 08:45 AM PDT  FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — Like many soldiers, Lt. Col. Patrick Harkins has a veteran father who knows firsthand the stress of wartime deployments. One big difference is that Harkins' dad led the very same unit of paratroopers known as the Iron Rakkasans into combat decades earlier.
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| In defense of Baghdad, Iraq turns to Shi'ite militias Posted: 14 Jun 2014 08:39 AM PDT By Ned Parker and Raheem Salman BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Special Forces soldier watched as militia fighters from the group Asaib Ahl Haq reinforced his elite Iraqi military battalion north of Baghdad earlier this week. Beyond their ranks, deployed between the Shiite cities of Dujail and Balad, was the army of Sunni militants. "The weapons they have are better than the military's." For several months, Asaib Ahl Haq and another Iranian-trained militia, Kata'ib Hezbollah, have been Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's secret weapon in his fight against Sunni militants who seized western Iraq's largest cities Fallujah and Ramadi in January. Maliki will be counting on them as never before in the coming days to lead an informal army of Shi'ite citizen volunteers in the defense of Baghdad. |
| Iran's president: Ready to help Iraq if asked Posted: 14 Jun 2014 08:31 AM PDT  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's president pledged Saturday to help Iraq fight militants surging through its north if asked, including potentially assisting U.S. forces if it decides on taking military action.
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| Iran may cooperate with US against Iraq jihadists Posted: 14 Jun 2014 08:20 AM PDT  Iran may consider cooperating with its arch-foe the United States to fight Sunni extremist militants in Iraq, but has not yet received a request to intervene militarily across the border. In the clearest indication so far that Iran may be pulled into the conflict, President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday admitted that turmoil caused by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) advance towards Baghdad could have calamitous dimensions for the whole region. Acknowledging his country's "close and intimate" relations with Iraq, Rouhani left the door open to some form of intervention when asked if mutual interest could possibly bring Iran and the US together. "If we see that the United States takes action against terrorist groups in Iraq, then one can think about it," he said.
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| Sunni clerics criticise Iraq Shiite call to arms Posted: 14 Jun 2014 07:20 AM PDT  A union of Sunni Muslim clerics on Saturday criticised calls for Iraqi Shiites to fight a jihadist-led militant offensive in northern Iraq, which the body called a "Sunni revolution". The Doha-based International Union of Muslim Scholars said developments in Iraq were a "result of oppression and exclusion of people that wanted freedom," in reference to the country's minority Sunni Arab community. The union, which is led by influential cleric Yusef al-Qaradawi, who is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, denounced "sectarian fatwa edicts calling for arms among our Shiite brothers" insisting they would lead to "devastating sectarian war." "We urge our Shiite brothers in Iraq and elsewhere, and Sunnis, to avoid being the fuel for an awful sectarian war, and call on them to stand by their Sunni brothers to reach a viable solution," it said.
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| Israel says Palestinians kidnapped three missing teens Posted: 14 Jun 2014 06:49 AM PDT  Three Israeli teenagers, one of them also a US citizen, have been kidnapped in the occupied West Bank, presumably by Palestinians, the army said on Saturday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held the Palestinian Authority responsible for their wellbeing, but Palestinians baulked at the idea they were to blame for the disappearance inside an Israeli-controlled area of the West Bank. The abductions come as Israel piles pressure on a new Palestinian government, formed early last week under a reconciliation deal between the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Israel foe Hamas.
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| Turkey pulls diplomats out of Benghazi, urges nationals to leave Posted: 14 Jun 2014 06:44 AM PDT  Turkey has temporarily pulled its diplomatic staff out of the Libyan city of Benghazi and urged its nationals to leave the east of the country amid mounting security concerns, the Turkish foreign ministry said on Saturday. Turkey is one of the last countries to maintain a diplomatic presence in Benghazi, where the U.S. ambassador was killed during an attack by Islamist militants on the American diplomatic mission in the port city in 2012. The foreign ministry said its diplomats would continue to work from Tripoli while the Benghazi mission was closed.
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| Young Iraqis volunteer to fight surging militants Posted: 14 Jun 2014 06:35 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of young Iraqi men gripped by religious and nationalistic fervor streamed into volunteer centers Saturday across Baghdad, answering a call by the country's top Shiite cleric to join the fight against Sunni militants advancing in the north.
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| Why were kidnapped Israeli teens hitchhiking in the West Bank? Posted: 14 Jun 2014 06:06 AM PDT More than 36 hours after three Israeli teenage yeshiva students went missing in the West Bank, the country is asking many questions: Who was behind the apparent kidnapping, where they are being held, or if they are even still alive. No one is questioning why they were hitchhiking late at night on a highway frequented by many Palestinians. It's a common practice among Israeli settlers, especially teens, driven not only by perhaps a lack of patience or time to wait for the next bus but also a pioneer ethos fueled by faith and an unswerving belief in their right to this land. Most Israeli settlers are unwilling to be held hostage by fear of their Palestinian neighbors or by the United Nations, which has deemed their presence here illegal under international law. |
| Trauma Surgeon Uses War Zone Skills to Better Treat Patients at Home Posted: 14 Jun 2014 05:09 AM PDT  By ELY BROWN and LAUREN EFFRON For trauma surgeon Dr. Peter Rhee, performing a couple of hernia repairs only to turn around hours later and treat a patient's life-threatening stab wounds is just another day in the office. And he has seen much worse. Rhee,...
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| Afghans line up to vote in presidential runoff Posted: 14 Jun 2014 05:04 AM PDT  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Despite a Taliban threat to stay away, Afghans lined up Saturday to vote in a presidential runoff between two candidates who both promise to improve ties with the West and combat corruption as they confront a powerful Taliban insurgency and preside over the withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of the year.
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| How Ohio's GOP Sparked a Grassroots Movement to Pass a Voter Bill of Rights Posted: 14 Jun 2014 05:00 AM PDT  The goal of the Ohio Voter Bill of Rights is simple: give voting rights the same constitutional protections afforded to free speech and the right to bear arms. "I could never understand why our voting rights weren't in the Constitution, and why we had to worry about the Voting Rights Act being renewed every seven years," Ohio state Rep. Alicia Reece told The Wire on Thursday. The driving force behind the effort to get a voting rights referendum on the November ballot, Reece said, "I was told by some of my elders that I shouldn't worry about it, because they would never be, as they said, 'crazy enough' to touch the Voting Rights Act." The Supreme Court was "crazy enough" to touch the Voting Rights Act.
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| Misguided US invasion spawned crisis in Iraq: analysts Posted: 14 Jun 2014 04:48 AM PDT  The rise of Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Iraq can be traced to America's invasion of the country more than a decade ago, as it left a power vacuum and unleashed sectarian bloodletting, experts said Friday. With television footage of Sunni extremists sweeping across Iraq this week, critics of former president George W. Bush's decision to invade in 2003 said the onslaught offered yet more proof of the war's disastrous fallout. For University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole, events in Iraq are "an indictment of the George W. Bush administration, which falsely said it was going into Iraq because of a connection between Al-Qaeda and Baghdad." But by occupying and "weakening" Iraq, the Bush administration ironically created conditions that allowed Al-Qaeda "to take and hold territory in our own time," he wrote.
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| Iran says envisages Iraq role with U.S. if Washington tackles regional militants Posted: 14 Jun 2014 04:31 AM PDT  By Parisa Hafezi ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran could contemplate cooperating with its old adversary the United States on restoring security to Iraq if it saw Washington confronting "terrorist groups in Iraq and elsewhere", Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday. Rouhani, a pragmatist who has presided over a thaw in Iran's relations with the West, also said Tehran was unlikely to send forces to Iraq but stood ready to provide help within the framework of international law. Baghdad has not requested such assistance, he added.
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| Iraq forces find burned bodies of 12 police in recaptured town Posted: 14 Jun 2014 04:22 AM PDT  Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi security forces found the burned bodies of 12 policemen when they recaptured a town north of Baghdad from militants on Saturday, a police colonel and a doctor said.
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| Iraq's Maliki tells army that Sunni insurgents will be defeated Posted: 14 Jun 2014 03:58 AM PDT Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told army officers in the city of Samarra that volunteers were arriving to help defeat Islamist militants who have swept through Sunni Muslim territory towards Baghdad. "Samarra will not be the last line of defence, but a gathering point and launchpad," Maliki said, addressing military officers in the city around 100 km (60 miles) north of the capital on the road to insurgent-controlled Mosul. "Within the coming hours, all the volunteers will arrive to support the security forces in their war against the gangs of ISIL. This is the beginning of the end of them," Maliki, a Shi'ite Muslim, said in comments broadcast on Iraqi television on Saturday after he travelled to Samarra on Friday. |
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