Yahoo! News: Iraq

---

• U.S. Navy investigating sailors over nuclear exam cheating
• Army investigates hundreds for recruiting fraud that cost taxpayers $29m
• Barrel bombs kill eight in Syria's Aleppo
• U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford to retire: sources
• Russia says Syria to ship chemical arms as civilians flee bombs
• Chemical weapons deal strengthened Assad: U.S. intelligence chief
• US Rep. Rob Andrews of NJ resigning after 23 years
• US Army faces massive recruiting fraud scandal
• Iraqi militant leader refused to fall into line
• Army probing hundreds in recruiting fraud scheme
• India keen on investment despite S.Sudan unrest: FM
• Report: NSA Spied on Merkel's Predecessor Too
• Profit trumps principle on Syria weapons black market
• Two rockets hit Baghdad's Green Zone, car bombs kill 10
• US Rep. Rob Andrews of NJ resigning
• Al Qaeda disavowal of ISIS opens door to other jihadist groups
• Kuwaiti coastguard arrests Iranian 'drug smugglers'
• Renewed Iraq bloodshed kills seven
• UN airlifts aid to northeastern Syria
• Lawmakers seek in-state tuition rates for veterans
• Death toll rises as Syrian regime bombs Aleppo
• Is the White House Practicing Photo-Op Diplomacy?
• Kurds from Iraq wage holy war in Syria with one eye on home
• Al-Qaeda Cuts Ties with Syrian Rebel Group
• Obama to face blunt talk in Saudi Arabia
• U.S. intelligence analyst charged with extortion held on bail

U.S. Navy investigating sailors over nuclear exam cheating Posted: 04 Feb 2014 04:11 PM PST By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Navy has suspended about 30 instructors from duties at a nuclear propulsion school over alleged exam cheating, officials said on Tuesday, adding to concern over honesty in U.S. ranks after a similar scandal involving nuclear missile officers. The alleged cheating took place at the Nuclear Power Training Unit in Charleston, South Carolina, with senior enlisted sailors accused of sharing answers to an exam meant to help qualify them to operate training reactors there. Two Navy officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some 30 sailors had been implicated so far. "To say that I'm disappointed would be an understatement," Admiral Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, told a Pentagon news conference.

Army investigates hundreds for recruiting fraud that cost taxpayers $29m Posted: 04 Feb 2014 03:25 PM PST In the depths of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – when the US military needed soldiers the most – the Army decided to launch an "innovative" recruiting program.

Barrel bombs kill eight in Syria's Aleppo Posted: 04 Feb 2014 02:37 PM PST Syrian army helicopters dropped barrel bombs on Aleppo Tuesday, killing at least eight people as they pressed a bombing campaign launched in mid-December, a monitoring group said. The ongoing regime campaign against Syria's one-time economic hub drew a harsh comments from US Secretary of State John Kerry, who called it barbaric. More than 150 people have been killed over the past four days, in a string of barrel bomb raids and other air strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Five children were among those killed when barrel bombs hit a mosque in the Masakan Hanano district Tuesday, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on activists and other witnesses inside the war-torn country.

U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford to retire: sources Posted: 04 Feb 2014 02:12 PM PST U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford is retiring at the end of the month, current and former U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Ford, a career foreign service officer and a fluent Arabic speaker, was instrumental in negotiating with Syrian opposition groups to join talks in Switzerland last month to try to end Syria's nearly three-year-old civil war. It was not immediately clear why Ford is retiring. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to comment on whether Ford planned to retire.

Russia says Syria to ship chemical arms as civilians flee bombs Posted: 04 Feb 2014 01:43 PM PST By Gabriela Baczynska and Erika Solomon MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia said its ally Syria would soon ship more chemical weapons abroad for destruction after being accused of dragging its feet, while activists said civilians in Aleppo were fleeing deadly barrel bomb raids by President Bashar al-Assad's air force. Moscow also said on Tuesday that the Syrian government would show up at a new round of peace talks next week, hoping to allay Western concerns over Assad's commitment to negotiations which ended inconclusively in Geneva last week. Underlining the cost of the three-year conflict, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said armed opposition groups were recruiting Syrian refugee children in neighboring countries while Damascus government forces were detaining and torturing children with rebel links.

Chemical weapons deal strengthened Assad: U.S. intelligence chief Posted: 04 Feb 2014 01:18 PM PST By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Last year's agreement to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons left President Bashar al-Assad in a strengthened position, and there appears little chance rebels will soon force him from power, the U.S. intelligence chief told Congress on Tuesday. "The prospects are right now that (Assad) is actually in a strengthened position than when we discussed this last year, by virtue of his agreement to remove the chemical weapons, as slow as that process has been," said James Clapper, director of national intelligence. Clapper, testifying at a U.S. ...

US Rep. Rob Andrews of NJ resigning after 23 years Posted: 04 Feb 2014 01:13 PM PST HADDON HEIGHTS, N.J. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews announced Tuesday that he is resigning from Congress after more than 23 years, a decision that could short-circuit a House Ethics Committee inquiry into whether the New Jersey Democrat used campaign donations for personal purposes.

US Army faces massive recruiting fraud scandal Posted: 04 Feb 2014 01:03 PM PST Criminal investigators suspect hundreds of US Army soldiers exploited a recruitment program to receive illegal kickbacks worth more than $29 million, lawmakers and officials said Tuesday. The scale of the potential fraud was "astounding" and ranks as one of the largest criminal probes in the Army's history, said Senator Claire McCaskill, who held a hearing on the scandal. An Army audit has found that more than 1,200 recruiters had received payments that were potentially fraudulent, defense officials said. The kickbacks grew out of a 2005 project launched at a time when the US Army and National Guard were struggling to secure new recruits amid heavy casualties in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Iraqi militant leader refused to fall into line Posted: 04 Feb 2014 12:48 PM PST DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — He has commanded a relentless bombing campaign against Iraqi civilians, orchestrated audacious jailbreaks of fellow militants and expanded his hard-line Islamist organization's reach deep into neighboring Syria.

Army probing hundreds in recruiting fraud scheme Posted: 04 Feb 2014 12:41 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of soldiers and others are under criminal investigation in what the military describes as a widespread scheme to take fraudulent payments and kickbacks from a National Guard recruiting program. The fraud cost the U.S. at least $29 million and possibly tens of millions dollars more, officials said Tuesday.

India keen on investment despite S.Sudan unrest: FM Posted: 04 Feb 2014 12:29 PM PST Damage to Indian-invested oil facilities in war-torn South Sudan will not deter New Delhi from future business opportunities in the region, its foreign minister said in Khartoum Tuesday. State-owned ONGC Videsh Ltd, a partner in two joint oil production companies in South Sudan, announced on December 26 that the firms had temporarily halted operations because of deteriorating security. The Indian firm has also invested in oil pipelines in Sudan. "I will certainly persuade them that they must raise the level of their ambitions and their determination to continue with business here," External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told AFP in an interview on the first day of an official visit to Khartoum.

Report: NSA Spied on Merkel's Predecessor Too Posted: 04 Feb 2014 12:05 PM PST Report: NSA spied on Merkel's predecessor over opposition to Iraq war

Profit trumps principle on Syria weapons black market Posted: 04 Feb 2014 09:47 AM PST The trade in illegal weaponry in Lebanon has all the characteristics of a stock market, with prices increasing and decreasing according to the security climate and the mood on the Lebanese street. Syrian Army soldiers are selling personal weapons, some of them freshly delivered from Russia and Iran, to their rebel opponents as well as to their allies from the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, Lebanese arms dealers say. Syrian rebel groups once depended on smuggled arms from Lebanon. Today, the flow has reversed, underlining how much the pool of weaponry in Syria has expanded as the war approaches its third anniversary.

Two rockets hit Baghdad's Green Zone, car bombs kill 10 Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:11 AM PST Rockets hit Baghdad's heavily fortified "Green Zone", home to the prime minister's office and several Western embassies, on Tuesday and car bombs elsewhere in the capital killed 10 people, police and medical sources said. One soldier was killed in the rare attack on the Green Zone, which is likely to heighten concerns about Iraq's ability to protect strategic sites as security deteriorates. The car bombs struck mostly Shi'ite districts, including Shurta, in the southwest of Baghdad, where four people were killed in a crowded market, the police and medical sources said. A car bomb in south Baghdad's al-Maalif neighborhood killed two people and three died in a blast in the Bayaa quarter.

US Rep. Rob Andrews of NJ resigning Posted: 04 Feb 2014 06:47 AM PST TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews will leave Congress within weeks after 23 years in office, according to a person with direct knowledge of the New Jersey Democrat's plans.

Al Qaeda disavowal of ISIS opens door to other jihadist groups Posted: 04 Feb 2014 06:25 AM PST Al Qaeda's leadership has publicly broken ties with its one-time Iraqi affiliate, now operating in Syria, a move that has significant implications for the fractured Syrian opposition and highlights the changing influence of Al Qaeda over emerging radical groups. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is "not a branch of Al Qaeda," and has no "organizational relationship with it and [al-Qaeda] is not the group responsible for their actions," read a statement issued by the terrorist group's Pakistan-based command center Monday. It is the first time Al Qaeda central, as the main branch is often called, has publicly disavowed a group.  ISIS got its start in Iraq during the US occupation as Al Qaeda in Iraq, renamed itself the Islamic State of Iraq in 2006, and expanded to Syria, becoming the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, last year.

Kuwaiti coastguard arrests Iranian 'drug smugglers' Posted: 04 Feb 2014 06:07 AM PST The Kuwaiti coastguard have arrested six suspected Iranian drug smugglers and seized their boat when it entered the Gulf state's territorial waters, the interior ministry said on Tuesday. A group of 12 Iranians and two Afghan nationals were also detained last week and their boat seized by the authorities after it entered Kuwaiti waters.

Renewed Iraq bloodshed kills seven Posted: 04 Feb 2014 05:13 AM PST Attacks in and around Baghdad killed seven people on Tuesday as Iraqi forces made steady progress against militants in conflict-hit Anbar province where the government lost key territory weeks ago. The bloodshed comes after more than 1,000 people were killed in January, the worst monthly death toll in nearly six years, as security forces grapple with frequent attacks and battles in Anbar with anti-government fighters, including those loyal to the powerful Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant jihadist group. Four bombings in and near the capital killed seven people while Katyusha rockets also hit the heavily-fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, home to parliament and the US embassy, officials said. A car bomb in western Baghdad ripped through a market and killed four people, while blasts elsewhere in the city killed two others.

UN airlifts aid to northeastern Syria Posted: 04 Feb 2014 05:04 AM PST The UN World Food Programme on Tuesday said it was airlifting supplies to northeastern Syria, where raging violence has made it nearly impossible to truck aid in. "WFP started airlifting on Tuesday enough food to feed close to 30,000 displaced people for a month from Iraq to Qamishli in northeast Syria," spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said. "This is for people who otherwise would be cut off from humanitarian assistance," she told reporters. In December, the WFP airlifted supplies for 62,000 in the northeast who had been deprived of food aid for more than five months.

Lawmakers seek in-state tuition rates for veterans Posted: 04 Feb 2014 04:11 AM PST The House overwhelmingly passed legislation Monday that would require public universities around the country to charge veterans in-state tuition rates or face financial penalty. Congress intended for veterans ...

Death toll rises as Syrian regime bombs Aleppo Posted: 04 Feb 2014 03:45 AM PST Syrian army helicopters carried out new raids over the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday, dropping explosive-packed barrel bombs as they press a punishing aerial assault, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported multiple barrel bomb attacks across rebel-held parts of the city, where 30 people were killed in similar raids on Monday alone. The Aleppo Media Centre said one of the raids hit a school in the Masakan Hanano neighbourhood, and that children were among those killed. Over the weekend, the Observatory said 85 people were killed in a single day of air strikes and barrel bomb attacks on Saturday.

Is the White House Practicing Photo-Op Diplomacy? Posted: 04 Feb 2014 02:30 AM PST In his State of the Union address delivered last week, President Obama talked at length about domestic issues--income inequality, health care, jobs and education.  Foreign policy issues, including the continuing war in Afghanistan, the crisis in Syria, and talks over Iran's nuclear program were given lip service at the end of his speech. One of the reasons for this is that Americans have grown tired of a decade of endless war—and domestic policy matters much more to voters than foreign policy.

Kurds from Iraq wage holy war in Syria with one eye on home Posted: 04 Feb 2014 02:14 AM PST By Isabel Coles HALABJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Twenty-five year old Ako Abd al-Qadir went to wage holy war in Syria vowing to return and conquer all of Iraqi Kurdistan in the name of Islam on the way back to his home town of Halabja. "God willing, we will come back and trample over your dead bodies until we reach Halabja," he said, threatening the region's "infidel" ruling parties in a video made en route to Syria and posted on social media sites. Ako is one of around 200 young Iraqi Kurds who have joined the ranks of militant Islamists in a conflict that has become a clarion call for home-grown jihadists across the world, keen to prove themselves amid fundamentalist fervor and war. The trend is alarming for Iraqi Kurdistan, a region that has managed to shield itself from the violence afflicting the rest of Iraq and nearby Syria, and to attract investment from some of the world's largest oil companies.

Al-Qaeda Cuts Ties with Syrian Rebel Group Posted: 03 Feb 2014 09:43 PM PST Al-Qaeda has formally cut ties with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a radicalist group fighting against Assad's regime, following months of feuding between the two groups. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's leader, denounced ISIS after being unable to reconcile a conflict between them and the al-Nusra Front, another al-Qaeda arm in the region.

Obama to face blunt talk in Saudi Arabia Posted: 03 Feb 2014 08:14 PM PST Blunt talk over the US opening to Iran and reticence in Syria will be on the menu when President Barack Obama travels to Saudi Arabia next month to meet King Abdullah. Obama's White House years have caused frustration and incomprehension in Riyadh and a rocky ride for Washington's key strategic relationship with the Gulf kingdom. His nuclear diplomacy with Iran, Sunni Saudi Arabia's Shiite-led foe in a swirling regional proxy war, and his last gasp reversal on striking Syria last year infuriated the Saudi court.

U.S. intelligence analyst charged with extortion held on bail Posted: 03 Feb 2014 05:13 PM PST By Zachary Fagenson MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. intelligence analyst charged with trying to orchestrate a covert heist of hundreds of thousands of dollars of drug money while working for the Pentagon's top secret Defense Intelligence Agency, made his first appearance in a south Florida federal court Monday. Jose Emmanuel Torres, 37, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week and charged with bribery, extortion and misusing U.S. government computers. Torres held the rank of gunnery sergeant and joined the Marines in 1999, Marine Corps spokesman Major Mike Alvarez said late on Monday. The charges stem from 2012 and 2013 when Torres was assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), investigating terrorism and drug trafficking, according to court documents.

You are subscribed to email updates from Iraq News Headlines - Yahoo! News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610