Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Jihadists attack Iraq's largest oil refinery
• Turkish army says five Kurdish rebels killed in clashes
• IS video shows destruction of ancient Assyrian city
• Exclusive: Iraq's leader to seek arms, with deferred payment, on U.S. visit
• Fort Riley suicide bombing plot: Was an FBI sting operation necessary?
• Reuters Iraq bureau chief threatened, denounced over story
• Attacks kill 9 in and around Iraq's capital
• White House Brief: Things to know about Hillary Clinton
• Ambassador: US handed Cambodia to 'butcher' 40 years ago
• U.S., allies conduct air strikes in Syria and Iraq: U.S. military
• 10 things you may not know about Hillary Rodham Clinton
• Syrian Kurds battle Islamic State in northeast
• IS in Egypt claims soldier's execution-style killing
• Kansas man arrested in bomb plot in support of Islamic State: prosecutor
• Middle East political rivalries stoke dangerous sectarianism
• Today in History
• Kansas man arrested in bomb plot in support of Islamic State
• 35 dead as Syria forces repel IS attack on airport: monitor

Jihadists attack Iraq's largest oil refinery Posted: 11 Apr 2015 04:24 PM PDT Islamic State militants on Saturday launched suicide attacks against the Baiji oil refinery, Iraq's largest, a senior army officer said. "Today Daesh (an Arab acronym for IS) launched an attack against the Baiji oil refinery," said a major general from Salaheddin province, in which Baiji is located. Two were killed but one managed to blow himself up," the army officer said. The army officer said 20 jihadist fighters were killed in raids by the Iraqi air force, although that figure could not be verified.

Turkish army says five Kurdish rebels killed in clashes Posted: 11 Apr 2015 02:58 PM PDT Five rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed and four Turkish soldiers wounded in a day of clashes Saturday, the army said, in a blow to a fragile peace process to end a decades-long insurgency. The army said Turkish troops had been dispatched to the district of Diaydin in the Agri region of southeast Turkey after receiving intelligence of a planned "festival" to promote the "separatist terror organisation". This is official shorthand for the PKK, banned as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and EU and whose actual name is never used by the authorities. In a statement on its website, the army confirmed that four Turkish soldiers had been wounded in the clashes.

IS video shows destruction of ancient Assyrian city Posted: 11 Apr 2015 01:54 PM PDT The Islamic State group on Saturday released a video that shows militants smashing artefacts at the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq before blowing up the site. The undated video suggests that the site, on the Tigris river about 30 kilometres (18 miles) southeast of Mosul, was completely levelled. "Whenever we are able in a piece of land to remove the signs of idolatry and spread monotheism, we will do it," one militant says at the end of the video.

Exclusive: Iraq's leader to seek arms, with deferred payment, on U.S. visit Posted: 11 Apr 2015 01:22 PM PDT By Arshad Mohammed and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister will seek President Barack Obama's help to acquire billions of dollars in drones and other U.S. arms to fight Islamic State during a U.S. visit next week but wants to defer payment for the purchases, a senior Iraqi official said. Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi is grappling with an insurgency by militants from Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that emerged from the chaos in Iraq and neighboring Syria and seized much of northern and central Iraq last year.

Fort Riley suicide bombing plot: Was an FBI sting operation necessary? Posted: 11 Apr 2015 10:42 AM PDT Kansas resident John T. Booker, 20, was charged Friday for planning a suicide attack on the Fort Riley military base on Friday. Authorities arrested Mr. Booker, who also goes by the name Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, outside of the Army post as he attempted to arm a 1,000-pound bomb, according to prosecutors. He was not aware the bomb was inert, as the situation was part of an extensive FBI sting operation that resulted in Booker's arrest. "The perimeter of Fort Riley was never penetrated, there was never any concern on our part that he would get onto the fort and, unbeknownst to him, the materials that were used to make up this bomb were inert," U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said, reported NPR.

Reuters Iraq bureau chief threatened, denounced over story Posted: 11 Apr 2015 10:00 AM PDT The Baghdad bureau chief for Reuters has left Iraq after he was threatened on Facebook and denounced by a Shi'ite paramilitary group's satellite news channel in reaction to a Reuters report last week that detailed lynching and looting in the city of Tikrit. The threats against journalist Ned Parker began on an Iraqi Facebook page run by a group that calls itself "the Hammer" and is believed by an Iraqi security source to be linked to armed Shi'ite groups. The April 5 post and subsequent comments demanded he be expelled from Iraq. One commenter said that killing Parker was "the best way to silence him, not kick him out." Three days later, a news show on Al-Ahd, a television station owned by Iranian-backed armed group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, broadcast a segment on Parker that included a photo of him.

Attacks kill 9 in and around Iraq's capital Posted: 11 Apr 2015 09:38 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say a series of attacks have killed nine people in and around the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

White House Brief: Things to know about Hillary Clinton Posted: 11 Apr 2015 09:32 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Some things to know about Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was expected to announce Sunday that she was entering the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign:

Ambassador: US handed Cambodia to 'butcher' 40 years ago Posted: 11 Apr 2015 07:38 AM PDT PARIS (AP) — Twelve helicopters, bristling with guns and U.S. Marines, breached the morning horizon and began a daring descent toward Cambodia's besieged capital. The Americans were rushing in to save them, residents watching the aerial armada believed. But at the U.S. Embassy, in a bleeding city about to die, the ambassador wept.

U.S., allies conduct air strikes in Syria and Iraq: U.S. military Posted: 11 Apr 2015 07:24 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces have targeted Islamic State militants with eight air strikes in Syria and nine in Iraq since early on Friday, the U.S. military said on Saturday. In Syria, the air strikes hit Islamic State positions near Al Hasakah and Kobani, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement. In Iraq, they hit Islamic State positions near Bayji, Mosul and Fallujah, among other places, it said. (Reporting by Sandra Maler; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

10 things you may not know about Hillary Rodham Clinton Posted: 11 Apr 2015 06:03 AM PDT Hillary Rodham Clinton has been in the public spotlight for nearly all her adult life. Opponents say there's still dirt to dig up on Mrs. Clinton, who's expected to formally announce her 2016 presidential candidacy Sunday at noon. All of this will be prodded and parsed over the coming months, with likely emphasis on things like her scrubbed email server, the terrorist attack on the US diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, and whether or not Americans are ready for another political dynasty (an issue that applies to Republicans Jeb Bush and Rand Paul as well). • Clinton's parents Hugh and Dorothy Rodham were Republicans, as was their only daughter (she has two younger brothers).

Syrian Kurds battle Islamic State in northeast Posted: 11 Apr 2015 05:59 AM PDT At least two dozen Islamic State fighters have been killed in northeastern Syria in a battle with Kurdish forces supported by U.S.-led air strikes, a Kurdish official and a group monitoring the war said on Saturday. Ten members of the Kurdish YPG militia were also killed in the fighting in Hasaka province, a strategically important region that borders Turkey and Iraq and where Islamic State has recently lost ground, said Nasir Haj Mahmoud, a Kurdish official, speaking by phone. "Daesh is trying to open new front," Mahmoud said, using an Arabic term for Islamic State. He said the death toll among Islamic State fighters was as high as 41, and the dead included foreign fighters.

IS in Egypt claims soldier's execution-style killing Posted: 11 Apr 2015 01:00 AM PDT Egyptian jihadists who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group have posted a video online appearing to show them shooting dead an Egyptian soldier and beheading another captive. The video, uploaded overnight on social networks, shows an individual telling the camera that he is an Egyptian soldier who was captured in an ambush on an army outpost in North Sinai on April 2. Attacks claimed by jihadists that day killed 15 soldiers and two civilians near the regional capital of El-Arish, the deadliest assault for months despite a massive army campaign against insurgents on the Sinai Peninsula. A security official said the soldier's body was retrieved a day after the El-Arish attack.

Kansas man arrested in bomb plot in support of Islamic State: prosecutor Posted: 11 Apr 2015 12:33 AM PDT By Lindsay Dunsmuir and Kevin Murphy WASHINGTON/KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - A Kansas man was arrested on Friday as part of an FBI sting operation in which he was plotting a suicide car bombing at Fort Riley army base in support of the Islamic State militant group, prosecutors said. John T. Booker, Jr., 20, of Topeka, had arrived at the Kansas base with two undercover FBI agents to detonate what he did not realize was an inert bomb, prosecutors said. Booker was charged with three criminal counts including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to Islamic State fighters, who have captured parts of Iraq and Syria over the past year and have sympathizers in several countries. A second Topeka man, Alexander Blair, 28, was arrested and charged on Friday with failing to report a felony.

Middle East political rivalries stoke dangerous sectarianism Posted: 10 Apr 2015 11:01 PM PDT Across the Middle East, fierce rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran is heightening sectarian tensions, even in conflicts that analysts say are primarily political. Riyadh and Tehran adhere to different branches of Islam and have often backed members of their own sect in regional conflicts. Saudi officials have cast their intervention in Yemen, against rebels who adhere to a branch of Shiite Islam, as a fight of "good versus evil". Iran meanwhile this week accused Riyadh of committing "genocide" with its military operation.

Today in History Posted: 10 Apr 2015 09:02 PM PDT Today is Saturday, April 11, the 101st day of 2015. There are 264 days left in the year.

Kansas man arrested in bomb plot in support of Islamic State Posted: 10 Apr 2015 05:42 PM PDT By Lindsay Dunsmuir and Kevin Murphy WASHINGTON/KANSAS CITY (Reuters) - A Kansas man was arrested on Friday as part of an FBI sting operation in which he was plotting a suicide car bombing at Fort Riley army base in support of the Islamic State militant group, prosecutors said. John T. Booker, Jr., 20, of Topeka, had arrived at the Kansas base with two undercover FBI agents to detonate what he did not realize was an inert bomb, prosecutors said. Booker was charged with three criminal counts including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to Islamic State fighters, who have captured parts of Iraq and Syria over the past year and has sympathizers in several countries. A second Topeka man, Alexander Blair, 28, was arrested and charged on Friday with failing to report a felony.

35 dead as Syria forces repel IS attack on airport: monitor Posted: 10 Apr 2015 05:07 PM PDT Pro-government forces repelled an attack on a key Syrian military airport by Islamic State group affiliated militants, losing 20 fighters but killing almost as many jihadists, a monitor said Saturday. "Militants who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group attacked the outskirts of the Khalkhalah military airport in Sweida province on Friday," said Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad maintained control over the airport and its surrounding areas despite losing 20 fighters. Syria's official news agency SANA said the army had "blocked attempts from IS terrorists to infiltrate" areas near the airport.

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