Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Death of Former Beauty Queen Prompts Soul-Searching, Anger in Venezuela
• U.S. could train elite Iraqi forces in Jordan
• Senate moves toward supporting U.S. helicopters for Iraq
• Boehner: US should help Iraq in anti-terror fight
• In Settling Scores, Bob Gates Trips Over His Own Words
• Iraq holding off on an offensive against al-Qaida
• Jihadists fighting back in north Syria
• Suicide bomber kills 23 Iraqi army recruits
• Syrian opposition group on brink of collapse
• Did Obama screw up by picking Gates?
• Senate majority support Iran sanctions bill opposed by Obama
• Numbers of wounded down; care units to close
• Heavy clashes as Iraq fighting sparks rights worries
• Protest after sexual assault on Syrian Kurd refugee
• House Speaker Boehner calls for new aid to Iraq
• Discovery's Military Network changes name
• 10 Things to See: A week of top AP photos
• What's really going on in Iraq's Anbar Province?
• News Summary: Kurds sending crude oil to Turkey
• Iraq's crisis is driven by domestic politics. That's the good news.
• Bombing kills 21 at Iraq army recruiting center
• Veterans' Brain Injury Examined By Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine
• Bodies from crashed US chopper recovered in Britain
• Iraq PM faces major crisis just months ahead of polls
• Factbox: Syria's rebel groups
• Car bomb near school in central Syria kills 16
• Bombing kills 12 at Iraq army recruiting center
• Iraqi Kurds announce start of crude flow to Turkey
• Gates’ White House Bombshells May All Be Duds
• The Nasty Cheney Schadenfreude
• Syria’s Al Qaeda Gang Wars
• Why Obama’s Big Pivot to Asia Is a Myth
• Suicide bomber kills 13 Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad
• Fall of Fallujah a bitter pill for US veterans
• Violence not hitting Iraq oil for now, but raises concern
• Books are latest victim of Lebanon's violence

Death of Former Beauty Queen Prompts Soul-Searching, Anger in Venezuela Posted: 09 Jan 2014 04:42 PM PST Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has publicly called Henrique Capriles, his chief political opponent, a fascist pig and a queer posh boy, out of touch with the people. Yet, on Wednesday, the pair shook hands in Miraflores presidential palace at a hastily arranged meeting of state governors, called in response to the murder of a 29-year-old former Miss Venezuela that has rocked the nation. "Nicolás," Capriles wrote on Twitter, which has become a key vehicle for political rhetoric in Venezuela, "I propose we put aside our profound differences and meet." Mónica Spear, 29, and her husband Henry Thomas Berry, 39, were driving with their 5-year-old daughter on holiday in Venezulea—they lived in the U.S. According to authorities, robbers on the highway between the town of Puerto Cabello and the central city of Valencia laid an obstacle on the dimly-lit road which punctured a tyre of their Toyota Corolla.

U.S. could train elite Iraqi forces in Jordan Posted: 09 Jan 2014 04:39 PM PST By Missy Ryan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is considering providing new training to elite Iraqi forces in Jordan as U.S. officials seek ways to help the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki repel an al Qaeda campaign near its western border. Earlier this week, U.S. officials said the United States was in discussions with Iraq about training its elite forces in a third country, which would allow Washington to provide a modest measure of new support against militants in the absence of a troop deal allowing U.S. soldiers to operate within Iraq.

Senate moves toward supporting U.S. helicopters for Iraq Posted: 09 Jan 2014 04:18 PM PST The U.S. Senate is looking more favorably at a request to provide attack helicopters to Iraq, but a top senator has not yet given the Obama administration a green light for military assistance that Iraq wants to help it rebuff an al Qaeda bid to seize a western province. Robert Menendez, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has held back on supporting the lease and sale of several dozen Apache helicopters to the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki without certain assurances. Menendez' concerns have centered around how Washington can ensure that security forces under Maliki, a Shi'ite increasingly at odds with minority Sunnis in Iraq, use the helicopters prudently.

Boehner: US should help Iraq in anti-terror fight Posted: 09 Jan 2014 03:59 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that the United States should provide more equipment and other aid to the Iraqi government in its battle against al-Qaida militants, but he ruled out a reintroduction of U.S. troops for now.

In Settling Scores, Bob Gates Trips Over His Own Words Posted: 09 Jan 2014 03:44 PM PST When Bob Woodward's "Obama's Wars" came out in 2010, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged there had been strong debate within the Obama national security team but did not provide any details. Instead he said the team had moved forward to implement the debate and described...

Iraq holding off on an offensive against al-Qaida Posted: 09 Jan 2014 01:27 PM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's government is holding off on waging an all-out offensive to retake two key cities from al-Qaida because of fears that civilian casualties could incite Sunni anger and push moderate tribal leaders to side with the extremists, analysts and military officials said Thursday.

Jihadists fighting back in north Syria Posted: 09 Jan 2014 01:05 PM PST Jihadists battling rebels in northern Syria sought Thursday to recover turf lost during nearly a week of fighting between them that has killed hundreds in the latest twist in the civil war. The fighting comes a day after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was expelled from the devastated former commercial capital of Aleppo by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, a massive car bomb blast in the central province of Hama killed at least 18 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the rebels had launched an attack late Wednesday near the Khaldiya neighbourhood, controlled by the army, when they were ambushed.

Suicide bomber kills 23 Iraqi army recruits Posted: 09 Jan 2014 12:52 PM PST By Alistair Lyon BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 23 Iraqi army recruits and wounded 36 in Baghdad on Thursday, officials said, in an attack on men volunteering to join the government's struggle to crush al Qaeda-linked militants in Anbar province. Brigadier General Saad Maan, spokesman for the Baghdad Security Operations Centre, said the bomber blew himself up among the recruits at the small Muthanna airfield, used by the army in the capital. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred a day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he would eradicate the "evil" of al Qaeda and its allies. Fighters from the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is also at the forefront of Syria's civil war, last week seized control of Falluja and parts of Ramadi, capital of Iraq's western Anbar province.

Syrian opposition group on brink of collapse Posted: 09 Jan 2014 12:01 PM PST BEIRUT (AP) — Two weeks ahead of an international peace conference on Syria, the country's main Western-backed opposition group stands on the brink of collapse, dragged down by outside pressures, infighting and deep disagreements over the basic question of whether to talk to President Bashar Assad.

Did Obama screw up by picking Gates? Posted: 09 Jan 2014 11:47 AM PST Is the lesson of Robert Gates' buzzy memoir that President Barack Obama shouldn't have picked a Republican as his first defense secretary? No.

Senate majority support Iran sanctions bill opposed by Obama Posted: 09 Jan 2014 11:43 AM PST By Timothy Gardner and Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than half of U.S. senators support a bill to impose new sanctions on Iran should the Islamic Republic break an agreement to curb its nuclear program, aides said on Thursday, but there was no plan yet to debate the measure. The White House has threatened to veto the legislation, and Iran says last November's nuclear deal struck in Geneva would be dead if the U.S. Congress imposes new sanctions. The "Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act" is now supported by at least 54 senators in the 100-member chamber, according to a congressional record, with six senators joining on Wednesday. A Senate aide said two more joined on Thursday, bringing the total to 56.

Numbers of wounded down; care units to close Posted: 09 Jan 2014 11:23 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — With the number of seriously wounded and ill soldiers at a six-year low, the Army is closing down some of the special units set up to care for troops and reorganizing the program.

Heavy clashes as Iraq fighting sparks rights worries Posted: 09 Jan 2014 11:20 AM PST Fallujah (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraqi forces backed by tanks battled militants Thursday in Anbar, where fighting has displaced thousands and sparked warnings of rights abuses and fears the crisis could take weeks to resolve. The United Nations and non-government organisations have warned that civilians lack access to key supplies as the government blockades Fallujah and parts of the nearby Anbar provincial capital Ramadi, west of Baghdad, which were seized by militants last week. Washington has piled pressure on Iraq to focus on political reconciliation as well as military operations to resolve the standoff.

Protest after sexual assault on Syrian Kurd refugee Posted: 09 Jan 2014 10:49 AM PST Arbil (Iraq) (AFP) - Dozens of Syrian Kurds demonstrated outside the Iraqi Kurdish parliament on Thursday calling for six men held after the sexual assault of a teenage Syrian refugee to be executed. The men, all Iraqis, were arrested after the 16-year-old girl was assaulted on the outskirts of the Iraqi Kurdish region's capital Arbil on Tuesday, police said. A police statement said the girl had been walking to her family's home in Arbil after finishing work at a local supermarket when three men snatched her and took her to a farm on the outskirts of the city. Dozens of Syrian Kurdish protesters then gathered outside the autonomous Kurdish region's parliament to call for the six suspects to be executed.

House Speaker Boehner calls for new aid to Iraq Posted: 09 Jan 2014 10:33 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Thursday said President Barack Obama should authorize a more active American role in Iraq but he stopped short of calling for the participation of U.S. troops. Boehner, responding to a question at a weekly press conference about growing violence in Iraq, said that a new U.S. troop presence was "not called for at this time." But Boehner, a Republican, said the Obama administration could aid the Iraqi army with additional equipment. ...

Discovery's Military Network changes name Posted: 09 Jan 2014 10:20 AM PST PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Television's Military Channel is changing its mission, and its name.

10 Things to See: A week of top AP photos Posted: 09 Jan 2014 09:15 AM PST Here's your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.

What's really going on in Iraq's Anbar Province? Posted: 09 Jan 2014 08:49 AM PST With the civil war raging in Syria and a porous border between Syria and Iraq's Anbar and Nineveh Provinces that has allowed militants – many of them jihadis in the style of Al Qaeda – to flow back and forth pretty much at will, Iraq's central government has a major challenge on its hands. It doesn't help that Iraq has parliamentary elections scheduled for this April and that its political polarization breaks down largely on sectarian lines. But the country is not "on the brink" or "about to implode," if these stock phrases are meant to imply Iraq's impending descent into the depths of savagery that swept the country in 2005-07 or that Syria, with more than 150,000 dead, is experiencing now with its war. And unlike Syria, locked in a long and grinding war which neither the government nor feuding rebel factions has the ability to win, Iraq has political tools at its disposal that could bring the conflict back down to a simmer if compromises are made.

News Summary: Kurds sending crude oil to Turkey Posted: 09 Jan 2014 08:48 AM PST CRUDE EXPORT: Iraq's self-ruled northern Kurdish region says it has unilaterally started sending its crude to Turkey and is going ahead with plans to export oil despite objections by the central government ...

Iraq's crisis is driven by domestic politics. That's the good news. Posted: 09 Jan 2014 08:46 AM PST Last year was the most violent in Iraq since at least 2008, and this year is off to a terrible start, with jihadis and their Sunni Arab allies in Anbar Province having driven central government forces out of the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki from the Dawa Party, a Shiite Islamist political movement with close ties to Iran, has governed Iraq with intolerance and arrogance, stubbornly refusing to reach out to Iraq's disenchanted Sunni Arab majority and dismissing almost all of the community's political leaders who stand up to him as terrorists or friends of terrorists. Because what's happening in Iraq at the moment is not some atavistic expression of "ancient" hatreds and irreconcilable cultural differences. And that's the kind of failure that can be rectified if Iraq's leaders, starting with Mr. Maliki, decide to change course from the politics of marginalization and exclusion.

Bombing kills 21 at Iraq army recruiting center Posted: 09 Jan 2014 08:38 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military recruiting center in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 21 people in an attack likely meant to send a message to the government and would-be army volunteers over the Iraqi troops' ongoing push to retake two cities overrun by al-Qaida militants.

Veterans' Brain Injury Examined By Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine Posted: 09 Jan 2014 08:36 AM PST BRONX, N.Y., Jan. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Roadside bombs and other blasts have made head injury the "signature wound" of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Most combat veterans recover from mild traumatic brain injury, also known as concussion, but a small minority experience significant and long-term side effects. Now, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, in cooperation with Resurrecting Lives Foundation, are investigating the effect of repeated combat-related blast exposures on the brains of veterans with the goal of improving diagnostics and treatment. Mild traumatic brain injury can cause problems with cognition, concentration, memory and emotional control as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Bodies from crashed US chopper recovered in Britain Posted: 09 Jan 2014 07:41 AM PST The bodies of four members of the US Air Force whose helicopter crashed while training in eastern England were recovered from marshland on Thursday, police said. Their bodies were taken to a nearby hospital by private ambulance for a post-mortem examination, Norfolk police said. The investigation has been handed over to the USAF with Britain's Ministry of Defence. US Captains Christopher S. Stover and Sean M. Ruane, Technical Sergeant Dale E. Mathews and female Staff Sergeant Afton M. Ponce died when their Pave Hawk came down near the Norfolk village of Cley-next-the-Sea.

Iraq PM faces major crisis just months ahead of polls Posted: 09 Jan 2014 07:27 AM PST Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is facing one of the biggest challenges of his eight-year rule, with key areas on Baghdad's doorstep outside government control just months before general elections. He is also often accused of marginalising and targeting Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, many members of which oppose his government, and has presided over a sharp increase in violence in the country to levels not seen in five years. The city of Fallujah, just 60 kilometres (37 miles) west of Baghdad, has been out of government hands for days, while parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi, farther west, are also under the control of militants. "Maliki faces the biggest challenge since 2006," said Ihsan al-Shammari, a political science professor at Baghdad University.

Factbox: Syria's rebel groups Posted: 09 Jan 2014 06:50 AM PST Syria's rebel movement has been a constantly shifting array of groups and alliances since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began nearly three years ago. Assad's security crackdown transformed Syria's largely peaceful protest movement in March 2011 into an armed insurgency in the first year of the revolt, and since then opposition formations have been increasingly overtaken by Islamist groups. As new leaders have emerged within the opposition, infighting intensified and reached a new level this month, with several rebel factions declaring war against the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Below is a description of some of Syria's main rebel groups: *Islamic Front: An amalgam of six major Islamist groups, this alliance is believed to be the biggest rebel army working in Syria.

Car bomb near school in central Syria kills 16 Posted: 09 Jan 2014 05:58 AM PST DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A powerful car bomb exploded near a school in a central province Thursday, killing at least 16 people and causing massive damage to a residential area, Syrian state media and an opposition watchdog said.

Bombing kills 12 at Iraq army recruiting center Posted: 09 Jan 2014 04:50 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military recruiting center in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 12 people in an attack likely meant to send a message to the government and would-be army volunteers over the Iraqi troops' ongoing push to retake two cities overrun by al-Qaida militants.

Iraqi Kurds announce start of crude flow to Turkey Posted: 09 Jan 2014 04:14 AM PST Iraq's self-ruled northern Kurdish region says it has unilaterally started sending its crude to Turkey and is going ahead with plans to export oil despite objections by the central government in Baghdad. ...

Gates’ White House Bombshells May All Be Duds Posted: 09 Jan 2014 03:00 AM PST That may not be so easy with the political eruption this week in Washington, following the release of excerpts from the memoirs of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The excerpts, which will undoubtedly work as intended to produce sales of the first Cabinet-level memoir of the Obama administration, allege that President Barack Obama escalated the Afghanistan war while being convinced that the strategy didn't work.  Gates also accused former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of opposing the similar 2007 escalation in Iraq entirely for political purposes, recalling his first-hand witness of a conversation between Clinton and Obama where she made this damaging admission. Let's start with Gates' view of President Obama.  The Washington Post's Bob Woodward frames this as "one of the more serious charges that a defense secretary could make against a commander in chief sending forces into combat," which is to put them into harm's way merely for political expediency.

The Nasty Cheney Schadenfreude Posted: 09 Jan 2014 02:45 AM PST Cheney-haters are pretending to be concerned that Liz's Senate campaign destroyed her family. But under different circumstances, they'd call her a hero for breaking with the clan.

Syria’s Al Qaeda Gang Wars Posted: 09 Jan 2014 02:45 AM PST The power-hungry leader of a jihadists rebel group in Syria has riled up his fellow extremists—and they're turning their guns on each other.

Why Obama’s Big Pivot to Asia Is a Myth Posted: 09 Jan 2014 02:30 AM PST The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it plans to send 800 troop and more than 40 tanks and armored vehicles to South Korea as part of the U.S. pivot to Asia. The Obama administration says the pivot, first announced in 2011, is happening on three fronts. Second, on the economic front, the United States is seeking new trade partnerships with Asian nations. Finally, in a diplomatic effort, the United States is increasing cooperation with Asian governments.

Suicide bomber kills 13 Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad Posted: 09 Jan 2014 01:54 AM PST A suicide bomber killed 13 Iraqi army recruits and wounded more than 30 in Baghdad on Thursday, police said, in an attack on men responding to a government appeal for volunteers to help fight al Qaeda-linked militants in Anbar province. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred a day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed to eradicate al Qaeda in Iraq. Fighters from the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which is also active across the border in Syria, overran police stations in Falluja and another city in Iraq's western Anbar province last week.

Fall of Fallujah a bitter pill for US veterans Posted: 09 Jan 2014 01:27 AM PST For American veterans of Fallujah, seeing Al-Qaeda militants regain control of the Iraqi city is a painful sight, leading some to question what they were fighting for nearly 10 years ago. The bloodiest combat of the US war in Iraq took place in Fallujah in two intense battles in 2004, with US Marines rolling back militants in days of brutal street fighting. But now Al-Qaeda flags are flying over Fallujah in western Anbar province after extremist gunmen swept into the city last week. Their gains illustrate how security is unraveling in Iraq, two years since US forces pulled out of the country.

Violence not hitting Iraq oil for now, but raises concern Posted: 09 Jan 2014 12:31 AM PST By Peg Mackey and Isabel Coles LONDON/ARBIL (Reuters) - Iraq's oil industry and its foreign investors see no cause to panic after al Qaeda militants seized major towns last week - troubled Anbar province, they note, could hardly be further from the main oilfields. Yet the violence, in part a spillover from Syria's civil war into Iraq's western desert, has brought new unease about the security of pipelines and other facilities, which are concentrated in the northeast and southeast of the country. And new evidence of the Baghdad government's trouble in winning acceptance by Sunni Muslims, who make up a third of the population, clouds long-term prospects for a stable economy, fully a decade after U.S. forces toppled Sunni leader Saddam Hussein. Iraq is looking to 2014 to show the biggest annual rise in oil exports since then, confirming its No. 2 position behind Saudi Arabia in OPEC as investments bear fruit.

Books are latest victim of Lebanon's violence Posted: 08 Jan 2014 11:40 PM PST TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — The masked men came in the night, ripped off the front door and set the bookstore on fire. They were out to punish the owner, an elderly priest, after false rumors that he had written an anti-Islamic tract.

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