Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Factbox: Key players at Syrian peace talks
• Syrian warring sides to meet under world's gaze
• Tortured Syrian activist's hopes tempered by war
• French Senators Express Support for Iranian Resistance and in Opposition to Iran's Meddling in Syria and Iraq
• Syria Kurds name municipal council in northeast
• Nuclear progress won't end tensions for Iran, West
• Iraq Kurdish leader sees little gains at Syria conference
• Air strike on Syria's Aleppo kills 10
• Kurds solidify autonomy in Syria on eve of peace talks
• Brutality of Syria war casts doubt on peace talks
• New Beirut car bombing against Hezbollah kills 4
• As another car bomb rocks Lebanon, rockets fly along a frayed border
• Iraq presses Qaeda offensive, UN warns on displaced
• Iraq says it intends to make 3 new provinces
• Iraq executes 26 people for 'terrorism' offences
• Black widows: Russian experts warn terrorist threat to Sochi is 'serious'
• Trump says weighing run for America's top job, Christie hurt
• Alleged Syrian detainee torture photos called a 'smoking gun'
• Iraq hangs 26 convicted on terror charges
• My Lunch with a Jihadi
• What Did Our Wars Win?
• Detained Iraqi Shi'ite militia chief threatens to kill politicians
• Brent holds above $106, supply worries offset Iran deal
• Today in History
• Vets Deserve Thanks Even When It Seems Unwelcome

Factbox: Key players at Syrian peace talks Posted: 21 Jan 2014 03:57 PM PST (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad's government and the Syrian opposition are scheduled to sit at peace talks for the first time on Wednesday in Switzerland after nearly three years of civil war. The political opposition in exile is struggling to overcome internal divisions and is weakened by rebel statements rejecting its authority. Below is a description of key players: GOVERNMENT WALID AL-MOUALEM Assad's foreign minister and head of the government delegation. As ambassador to Washington in the 1990s, when Syria and Israel embarked on failed peace talks, Moualem has more than a decade of direct experience in high-stake talks.

Syrian warring sides to meet under world's gaze Posted: 21 Jan 2014 03:07 PM PST By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Lesley Wroughton MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) - Syria's government and its enemies come face to face on Wednesday for the first time as world powers try to set aside their own differences and push for an end to three years of civil war that is unsettling the entire Middle East. A day of formal speeches under U.N. ...

Tortured Syrian activist's hopes tempered by war Posted: 21 Jan 2014 03:05 PM PST Gaziantep (Turkey) (AFP) - Despite 15 months of torture and ill treatment in Syria's notorious prisons, Ola, a young activist, grudgingly supports holding peace talks with the regime that jailed her. Her experience, which she shares with war-hardened maturity, reflects the evolution of a March 2011 revolt that morphed from peaceful protest against President Bashar al-Assad to a war that is estimated to have claimed more than 130,000 lives. Ola supports the opposition's decision to attend peace talks this week with the regime that imprisoned her, and believes they must help bring relief to the war's millions of victims. Speaking to AFP in southern Turkey, where she now lives in exile, Ola says she joined the revolt against the Assad family's four-decade rule because "we wanted to live like other human beings, fearless and free to think for ourselves".

French Senators Express Support for Iranian Resistance and in Opposition to Iran's Meddling in Syria and Iraq Posted: 21 Jan 2014 01:42 PM PST PARIS, Jan. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- French senators representing several political parties united today in support Iranian dissidents and in opposition to Iran's meddling in regional crises, notably Syria and Iraq. After a meeting that featured the head of the Iranian Resistance, the senators called on the French government to adopt an "effective and serious policy" regarding Iran and to act to protect members of the Iranian opposition at Camp Liberty in Iraq from more massacres such as those that killed scores and wounded hundreds over the past two-plus years. The senators also called for an "independent, comprehensive and transparent probe by international experts" into the September 1 raid on the Iranian refugees in Camp Ashraf at the upcoming conference of the Human Rights Council in March.

Syria Kurds name municipal council in northeast Posted: 21 Jan 2014 01:29 PM PST Syria's Kurds named a municipal council Tuesday for one of three majority-Kurdish regions in the country's northeast, two months after they declared self-rule, an official said. "We have named a municipal government for the Jazeera area," Saleh Muslim, head of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told AFP. "Soon similar councils will be named for Afrin and Kobani, the two other cantons of the Kurdish regions" in Syria, he said.

Nuclear progress won't end tensions for Iran, West Posted: 21 Jan 2014 12:32 PM PST DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.N. decision to revoke Iran's invitation to this week's Syrian peace talks almost as quickly as it came was a reminder that the path to reconciliation between Tehran and the West is hardly a smooth one. Progress on the issue of Iran's nuclear program is no guarantee of an easing of tensions in the multiple disputes between the two sides.

Iraq Kurdish leader sees little gains at Syria conference Posted: 21 Jan 2014 12:17 PM PST Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani said Tuesday he expected very little from the Geneva II peace conference on Syria and warned of the dangers of extremist groups gaining ground. The situation in neighbouring Syria is "very worrying for Iraq in general and Kurdistan province in particular because everything which happens in Syria has a direct knock-on effect," he said. Groups linked to Al-Qaeda were very active in Syria and were a "direct menace" to the Kurdish area, he said. "In no case can it be allowed that such terrorist groups gain power in Syria," he said, warning that the groups making up the rebel FSA seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad did not appear well placed to take his place.

Air strike on Syria's Aleppo kills 10 Posted: 21 Jan 2014 12:09 PM PST A government air strike killed 10 people in a rebel-held neighbourhood of Syria's main northern city Aleppo on Tuesday, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported that some fighters of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had refused orders to withdraw from a battle with government troops to fight against rival rebels. "An air strike hit the area of a bus station... in Jisr al-Hajj," in Aleppo, the Observatory said, with its director Rami Abdel Rahman telling AFP: "We have documented 10 deaths". The Observatory distributed amateur video footage showing a huge fire in the area, located in the westernmost part of Aleppo city.

Kurds solidify autonomy in Syria on eve of peace talks Posted: 21 Jan 2014 11:55 AM PST By Isabel Coles ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurds in Syria declared a provincial government in the north of the country on Tuesday, consolidating their geographic and political presence on the eve of peace talks in Switzerland at which they will not be represented. The municipal council will run affairs in one of three administrative districts set up by Kurds, who have seized upon the chaos of Syria's civil war to assert control in the northeast of the country. The body, which will preside over an area including the cities of Hassaka and Qamishli, has its own president and ministers of foreign affairs, defense, justice and education, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The push for greater autonomy by Kurds in Syria has unnerved regional powers, in particular neighboring Turkey, already dealing with similar demands from its own Kurdish population.

Brutality of Syria war casts doubt on peace talks Posted: 21 Jan 2014 11:52 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's conflict was sparked by an act of brutality — the detention and torture of schoolchildren who spray-painted anti-government graffiti in a southern city. In the three years since, the conflict has evolved into one of the most savage civil wars in decades.

New Beirut car bombing against Hezbollah kills 4 Posted: 21 Jan 2014 11:38 AM PST A suicide bomber killed four people in south Beirut Tuesday, in the latest in a string of attacks targeting strongholds of Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement and Syria ally Hezbollah. The blast was quickly claimed by Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, a group believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda's Syrian arm. Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon, in a statement on Twitter, said it was behind the attack. "With the help of God almighty we have responded to the massacres carried out by the party of Iran (Hezbollah)... with a martyrdom operation in their backyard in the southern (Beirut) suburbs," it said.

As another car bomb rocks Lebanon, rockets fly along a frayed border Posted: 21 Jan 2014 10:43 AM PST Rockets have been criss-crossing Lebanon's northern Bekaa Valley in the past week, striking Sunni and Shiite areas and inflaming sectarian tensions in an area adjacent to Syria's bloody battlefields.  In retaliation for a deadly rocket attack on a Sunni town in the Bekaa, a suicide car bomber blew himself up today in the Shiite-populated southern suburbs of Beirut, about two hours away, killing at least four in the third such attack since the start of the year in a Shiite neighborhood.  The incidents illustrate how Lebanon is descending further into Shiite vs. Sunni, tit-for-tat violence in a country that knows well the horrors of all-out civil war.  "Lebanon has entered a circle of madness and we expect more bombings in the country," said Walid Jumblatt, paramount leader of Lebanon's Druze community who has sought to straddle the Shiite-Sunni divide.

Iraq presses Qaeda offensive, UN warns on displaced Posted: 21 Jan 2014 10:38 AM PST Iraqi forces pressed their attack on anti-government fighters holding parts of the restive city of Ramadi Tuesday as the UN warned of an "exponential rise" in displacement with 22,000 families having fled their homes. Violence elsewhere killed 10 people, bringing to 700 the number killed in nationwide unrest this month, fuelling fears Iraq is slipping back into the all-out conflict that left tens of thousands dead in 2006 and 2007. Diplomats have urged Baghdad to foster political reconciliation to undercut support for militants, but with elections looming in April, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and others have taken a hard line and focused on wide-ranging security operations. Iraq also announced the execution of 26 men convicted of "terrorism" on Tuesday, the latest in a sharp increase in Baghdad's use of capital punishment as violence has spiked.

Iraq says it intends to make 3 new provinces Posted: 21 Jan 2014 10:17 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Shiite-led government said Tuesday it had decided in principle to create three new provinces from contested parts of the country in an apparent attempt to address Sunni grievances and counter the expansion of the Kurdish self-rule region.

Iraq executes 26 people for 'terrorism' offences Posted: 21 Jan 2014 09:15 AM PST Iraq has hanged 26 people convicted of "terrorism" offences, the Justice Ministry said on Tuesday, pursuing what a U.N. official criticized as a "conveyor-belt of executions". Sahwa (Awakening) militias are formed mostly of Sunni Muslim tribesmen who helped U.S. troops roll back an al Qaeda-led insurgency in Iraq from 2006 onwards. Violence in Iraq has surged in the past year to its highest levels since the Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian bloodshed that peaked in 2006 and 2007 when tens of thousands of people were killed. Iraq hanged at least 151 people in 2013, up from 129 in 2012 and 68 in 2011, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in its annual world report published on Tuesday.

Black widows: Russian experts warn terrorist threat to Sochi is 'serious' Posted: 21 Jan 2014 08:46 AM PST Russian security forces have launched a massive manhunt for at least four potential suicide bombers who are preparing to launch terrorist attacks, including a frantic search for one "black widow" who may have already infiltrated the "ring of steel" security zone around the site of the upcoming Sochi Olympic Winter Games. The frenzy of police activity, and the accompanying media storm, could be mainly the product of jitters among security forces as the opening day of the Games draws closer. Police are circulating posters showing a hijab-clad woman who is identified as Ruzana Ibragimova, also known as Salima, said to be the widow of an Islamic militant killed by Russian security forces last year. According to NBC news, at least three more potential suicide bombers have been named as probably headed for Sochi.

Trump says weighing run for America's top job, Christie hurt Posted: 21 Jan 2014 08:11 AM PST By Richard Valdmanis MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Outspoken real estate magnate Donald Trump said on Tuesday he may seek the Republican presidential nomination for 2016, adding that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's prospects for a White House run have dimmed since a scandal erupted. A run for the presidency "is something I would certainly look at," Trump told Reuters. I'm unhappy with the way things are going in America." Trump gave the telephone interview before making a breakfast speech at the "Politics & Eggs" forum at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire - an event that tends to feature presidential hopefuls. New Hampshire traditionally holds the nation's first presidential nominating primaries and is a regular stop for White House aspirants.

Alleged Syrian detainee torture photos called a 'smoking gun' Posted: 21 Jan 2014 05:41 AM PST The team was commissioned by a London law firm that was in turn hired by the government of Qatar, a sponsor of the Syrian opposition, according to the report's authors.  It is also a backer of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant organization that has openly sent thousands of fighters across the border to fight alongside regime forces.

Iraq hangs 26 convicted on terror charges Posted: 21 Jan 2014 04:22 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Justice Ministry says 26 prisoners convicted of terrorism-related charges have been executed, all of them Iraqi nationals.

My Lunch with a Jihadi Posted: 21 Jan 2014 02:45 AM PST As a Marine Captain in Iraq, Elliot Ackerman lost men fighting jihadis, but then he found himself breaking bread with a former adversary in a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey.

What Did Our Wars Win? Posted: 21 Jan 2014 12:00 AM PST "He ended one war and kept us out of any other," is the tribute paid President Eisenhower. Ike ended the Korean conflict in 1953, refused to intervene to save the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, and, rather than back the British-French-Israeli invasion, ordered them all out of Egypt in 1956. Ending America longest wars may prove to be Barack Obama's legacy. After Moammar Gadhafi fell in Libya, the mercenaries he had hired returned to Mali.

Detained Iraqi Shi'ite militia chief threatens to kill politicians Posted: 20 Jan 2014 11:57 PM PST By Suadad al-Salhy BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A Shi'ite militia leader arrested in Iraq after his group fired mortars into Saudi Arabia has said leaders of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's political bloc will be killed unless he is released within 24 hours. Wathiq al-Battat, speaking to Reuters on a mobile phone he said had been given him by a sympathetic prison guard, said he was being held without charge in solitary confinement in a small, cold cell, with no access to lawyers or his family. Battat was detained in Baghdad on January 2, six weeks after his Iranian-backed al-Mukhtar Army fired six mortar bombs from southern Iraq into the Saudi desert, causing no casualties. He told Reuters at the time that the attack was a warning to Saudi Arabia to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs.

Brent holds above $106, supply worries offset Iran deal Posted: 20 Jan 2014 10:59 PM PST By Manash Goswami SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent futures held above $106 a barrel on Tuesday as immediate supply worries from prolonged outages in Africa offset the impact of a deal aimed ending a decade-long dispute over Iran's nuclear programme. While chances of a potential conflict diminished after Iran halted its most sensitive nuclear operations under a preliminary deal, the prospects of the OPEC member pumping more supplies still remains far away. U.S. oil futures slipped 37 cents to $94.00. There was no settlement on the New York Mercantile Exchange due to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

Today in History Posted: 20 Jan 2014 09:01 PM PST Today is Tuesday, Jan. 21, the 21st day of 2014. There are 344 days left in the year.

Vets Deserve Thanks Even When It Seems Unwelcome Posted: 20 Jan 2014 09:00 PM PST DEAR ABBY: I just read the letter from "Twice Bitten in Washington" (Nov. 4), who had thanked veterans for their service to our country and received several negative responses. I'm a retired vet, dying from Agent Orange poisoning. I served two tours in Vietnam, and when I returned from Nam, I was called a baby killer, spat upon and refused taxi service because I was in uniform. America has had a change in attitude since the Vietnam War. Today, many folks appreciate what the military is doing. ...

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