Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Ang Lee's 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' Gets Release Date
• Australian police arrest five teenagers over alleged terror plot
• Five abducted Shiites beheaded in Afghanistan: officials
• Car bomb kills three outside U.S. consulate in Iraq's Kurdish capital
• Most senior Baathist general to evade US in Iraq reported killed. Does it matter?
• Tunisia blocks more than 12,000 would-be jihadists: minister
• Iraq testing body of suspected Saddam VP
• Iraqi officials believe Saddam's top deputy killed
• Elusive Saddam henchman Douri feared until last moment
• Obama urges Gulf nations to help with chaos in Libya
• Iraqi convicted in terror case wants conviction thrown out
• U.S. confirms vehicle bomb attack on its consulate in Erbil
• Car bomb near US consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan kills 3: officials
• DPTV's Award-Winning Series, Beyond the Light Switch, Returns With Episode 3 in Time for Earth Day
• IS issuing photo IDs in Syria's Raqa: monitor, activists
• Former president defiant as humanitarian toll mounts in Yemen war
• Saddam aide, Iraqi insurgent leader al-Douri reported killed
• Thousands flee fighting in Iraq's Ramadi: UN
• Army shutting down wounded warrior transition care units
• Wave of bombings kills 40 people in Iraqi capital
• U.S., allies target Islamic State with 21 air strikes: statement
• 'Isis' among names removed from UN list of hurricane names
• Blast, gunfire heard in central Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan: Reuters witness
• ISLAMIC STATE
• Factbox: Ezzat al-Douri, Saddam's loyal lieutenant, believed killed
• Obama to host Gulf leaders in May
• Americans with illegal Iraq War souvenirs go unprosecuted
• Gun advocates lash out at Tim McGraw over Sandy Hook benefit concert
• Iraq massacre site turns into 'shrine' of anti-IS war
• Higher sales brewing for India's tea exporters as drought grips Kenya
• 10 Things to Know for Friday

Ang Lee's 'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' Gets Release Date Posted: 17 Apr 2015 04:36 PM PDT Newcomer Joe Alwyn is starring in the project along with Garrett Hedlund.

Australian police arrest five teenagers over alleged terror plot Posted: 17 Apr 2015 04:33 PM PDT Australian police arrested five teenagers in the country's second-largest city on Saturday over an alleged terrorist plot to target police officers, authorities said. The five teenagers were arrested in an operation in suburban Melbourne carried out early in the morning by Victorian state police and the Australian Federal Police. "It is alleged the men were undertaking preparations for planning a terrorist act in Australia, which included targeting police officers," the statement said. Australia has recently sent hundreds of soldiers to Iraq to help train forces fighting the Islamic State.

Five abducted Shiites beheaded in Afghanistan: officials Posted: 17 Apr 2015 02:40 PM PDT Militants have beheaded five Shiites who were recently abducted in southeastern Afghanistan, officials said Friday, highlighting a growing pattern of insurgent assaults on ethnic minorities. The ethnic Hazaras were kidnapped on Wednesday in the restive province of Ghazni after they travelled out of their home district to shop for cattle. All five were beheaded," district governor Ramin Ali Hedayat told AFP, claiming that insurgents linked to the Islamic State group were behind the killings. "Their demands were not met so they beheaded the Hazaras," Mohammad Ali Ahmadi told AFP without offering any more details.

Car bomb kills three outside U.S. consulate in Iraq's Kurdish capital Posted: 17 Apr 2015 02:32 PM PDT By Isabel Coles ERBIL (Reuters) - A car bombing claimed by the Islamic State killed three people on Friday outside the U.S. consulate in Erbil, in a relatively rare attack in the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region. No U.S. personnel were hurt in the blast, according to the U.S. State Department, which said a "vehicle-borne improvised explosive device" exploded right outside the entrance to the heavily fortified compound. Iraq's Kurdish region is an important partner for the U.S.-led coalition in its campaign to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State group, which overran large parts of Iraq last summer and threatened to reach Erbil.

Most senior Baathist general to evade US in Iraq reported killed. Does it matter? Posted: 17 Apr 2015 01:28 PM PDT Douri's name was one to conjure with before the US invasion - he was one of the organizers of the massacres in the Shiite south and the Kurdish north that followed Iraq's defeat in Kuwait in 1991 - and since. He reemerged last year in alliance with the Islamic State at the time insurgents overran the city of Mosul.

Tunisia blocks more than 12,000 would-be jihadists: minister Posted: 17 Apr 2015 01:22 PM PDT Tunisian authorities have prevented more than 12,000 would-be jihadists from leaving the country over the past two years, Interior Minister Najem Gharsalli said on Friday. Speaking to a parliamentary committee examining an anti-terror bill, he said his ministry had prevented "12,490 Tunisians from leaving Tunisian territory to travel to combat zones" in Iraq, Libya and Syria since March 2013. Since a popular uprising ousted long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisia has been targeted by jihadist violence, which has killed dozens of police and soldiers.

Iraq testing body of suspected Saddam VP Posted: 17 Apr 2015 01:09 PM PDT Iraq is to test the body of a man killed on Friday by pro-government forces to determine if it is that of Saddam Hussein's long-fugitive deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri. Killing him would be a significant victory for Baghdad, but Duri has previously been reported dead only to resurface in audio and video messages.

Iraqi officials believe Saddam's top deputy killed Posted: 17 Apr 2015 12:59 PM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — He was the last member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle still on the run, depicted with his distinctive red moustache as the "king of clubs" on the U.S. military's deck of cards of most-wanted Iraqi regime fugitives.

Elusive Saddam henchman Douri feared until last moment Posted: 17 Apr 2015 12:39 PM PDT Ezzat al-Douri, the right-hand man to late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein who was reportedly killed, rose from an ice block seller as a boy to one of the country's most feared men. The governor of Iraq's Salahuddin province said on Friday that Douri, who was Saddam's last man standing after the U.S. invasion, was killed in a military operation. Born in 1942, Douri was a top official in Saddam's Baath Party and has been declared dead several times before. The mere sight of Douri, a wiry man with a red moustache who often wore a military beret, terrified Iraqis who endured what was known as the Republic of Fear.

Obama urges Gulf nations to help with chaos in Libya Posted: 17 Apr 2015 12:17 PM PDT President Barack Obama on Friday urged Gulf nations to help calm the chaotic political situation in Libya, saying that outside military action would not be enough to help reduce tensions in the war-ravaged North African country. After a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the White House, Obama said a political solution was needed in the oil-rich Mediterranean state, where two rival governments are fighting for control. "We're going to have to encourage some of the countries inside of the Gulf who have, I think, influence over the various factions inside of Libya to be more cooperative themselves," Obama told reporters. "In some cases, you've seen them fan the flames of military conflict, rather than try to reduce them." Obama is set to meet with leaders from Saudi Arabia and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Washington on May 13 and 14 to discuss a host of crises in the Middle East.

Iraqi convicted in terror case wants conviction thrown out Posted: 17 Apr 2015 11:52 AM PDT LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An Iraqi man convicted of terrorism charges in Kentucky is asking a federal judge to change his conviction and prison sentence because he says he was misrepresented by his court-appointed attorney.

U.S. confirms vehicle bomb attack on its consulate in Erbil Posted: 17 Apr 2015 11:47 AM PDT The U.S. State Department on Friday confirmed that a vehicle bomb exploded outside the American consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region, but that no U.S. personnel were injured. Marie Harf, a department spokeswoman, said there has been no claim of responsibility yet for the attack. A second State Department official said the bomb was detonated "directly outside an entry point on the perimeter of the U.S. consulate." The official said it was not clear what kind of vehicle was involved in the attack.

Car bomb near US consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan kills 3: officials Posted: 17 Apr 2015 11:29 AM PDT A car bomb blast near the US consulate in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region killed three people and wounded five on Friday, Kurdish officials said. A spokeswoman in Washington said that all consulate staff had been accounted for and that "there are no reports of injuries to Chief of Mission personnel or local guards". "The initial toll is three killed and five wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded here near the US consulate," said Jalal Habib, the mayor of Ainkawa, where the explosion occurred. The police spokesman for Arbil, the contiguous Kurdish capital, said it was unclear if the car bomb was detonated by a suicide attacker but he gave the same toll.

DPTV's Award-Winning Series, Beyond the Light Switch, Returns With Episode 3 in Time for Earth Day Posted: 17 Apr 2015 11:01 AM PDT The energy demands to help fuel our busy lives are impacting our economic and environmental security and, in some cases, jeopardizing the lives of our military men and women on the frontline. In the third installment of Detroit Public Television's (DPTV) award-winning series, Beyond the Light Switch airing on April 22 at 9 p.m., producers travel from coast to coast to learn about and document the shifts in thinking taking place in the U.S. military, in business and in communities and the new ideas and products that could help reduce our energy use by relying on alternative sources of electrification. Host David Biello, energy and environment editor at Scientific American, talks to soldiers who have been on the frontline in Iraq about the dangers they faced while transporting diesel fuel to forward operating bases. What we try to do with the Light Switch series, and I think we're succeeding, is taking all these important fragments of energy news that seem disconnected and connect them for the viewer," said Beyond the Light Switch producer, Ed Moore.

IS issuing photo IDs in Syria's Raqa: monitor, activists Posted: 17 Apr 2015 10:55 AM PDT The Islamic State group is now issuing photo identity cards in Syria's Raqa province, but only to males, along with a range of administrative documents, a monitor and activists said Friday. The Britain-based group published a photo it said was provided by civilian sources showing a laminated card printed with the black and white flag of the Islamic State. An activist with the anti-IS "Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently" group confirmed that IS had begun issuing identity documents. IS is requesting "that people who do not have identity papers register at the civil registry in the city as a first step towards getting an identity card," activist Mohamed Saleh told AFP via the Internet.

Former president defiant as humanitarian toll mounts in Yemen war Posted: 17 Apr 2015 10:43 AM PDT By Mohamed Mokashaf ADEN (Reuters) - Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Friday he would not leave the country, dismissing reports in the Gulf Arab media that he was seeking a safe exit as Saudi Arabian war planes bomb troops loyal to him and their Houthi militia allies. The United Nations, meanwhile, said about 150,000 people had been driven from their homes by three weeks of air strikes and ground fighting and more than 750 people killed. The Iran-allied Houthis, a Shi'ite Muslim movement from northern Yemen, have formed an alliance of convenience with Saleh, who is widely believed to be plotting behind the scenes to make a comeback on Yemen's tumultuous political scene. The person who can say to Ali Abdullah Saleh 'leave your country' has not been and will not be born," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Saddam aide, Iraqi insurgent leader al-Douri reported killed Posted: 17 Apr 2015 10:11 AM PDT By Saif Sameer and Isabel Coles BAGHDAD/ERBIL (Reuters) - Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri, former right-hand man to late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and a leader of Iraq's Sunni insurgency, has been reported killed by Iraqi forces and Shi'ite militias. Douri was killed in a military operation, Raed al-Jubouri, the governor of Salahuddin province, told Reuters. Baghdad has mistakenly announced al-Douri's death several times before, but this time photos are circulating showing a man with features and red hair like his. His killing, if confirmed, would be a big blow to the Sunni insurgency, an alliance of former Baathist officers and Islamic State.

Thousands flee fighting in Iraq's Ramadi: UN Posted: 17 Apr 2015 10:03 AM PDT Thousands of civilians have fled escalating fighting between pro-government forces and jihadists in the Iraqi city of Ramadi over the past week, the United Nations said on Friday. The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) said 4,250 families had fled their homes in the Ramadi area since April 8. The fighting so far has centred around the provincial capital Ramadi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, and the Garma area farther east. Government forces, which controlled only small pockets of the centre of Ramadi and some neighbouring areas, attacked but lost more ground in a fierce IS counteroffensive.

Army shutting down wounded warrior transition care units Posted: 17 Apr 2015 09:54 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — For the second time in two years, the U.S. Army is shutting down a number of the specialized medical units that were set up at military bases around the country to help care for severely wounded warriors returning from battle.

Wave of bombings kills 40 people in Iraqi capital Posted: 17 Apr 2015 09:50 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of bombings ripped through Baghdad on Friday, mainly targeting public places and killing at least 40 people, Iraqi officials said.

U.S., allies target Islamic State with 21 air strikes: statement Posted: 17 Apr 2015 08:56 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies have launched 21 air strikes targeting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria since early Thursday, the Combined Joint Task Force leading the operations said on Friday. The coalition staged 13 of the strikes across Iraq, including two near Ramadi that according to the task force hit a unit of Islamic State fighters and destroyed a heavy machine gun, a vehicle and an excavator. Other strikes hit near Mosul, Falluja and Sinjar, among other cities, it said. ...

'Isis' among names removed from UN list of hurricane names Posted: 17 Apr 2015 08:42 AM PDT GENEVA (Reuters) - 'Isis' has been removed from the official list of names of future hurricanes as it was now deemed inappropriate because of the eponymous militant group, the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday. As the name of an ancient goddess of Egypt, Isis had been on the WMO list of names for hurricanes in the eastern North Pacific in 2016, WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis said.

Blast, gunfire heard in central Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan: Reuters witness Posted: 17 Apr 2015 08:41 AM PDT ERBIL (Reuters) - A blast and gunfire were heard in central Erbil on Friday, a Reuters witness said, as photographs on social media suggested the explosion happened near the U.S. consulate in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The blast occurred in the city's Christian quarter Ankawa which is home to many foreign nationals. Photographs posted online showed burning and smoke in front of the consulate. Such attacks are relatively rare in Erbil which has escaped the worst of the violence that is a daily occurrence in much of Iraq. There was no immediate official word on the incident. ...

ISLAMIC STATE Posted: 17 Apr 2015 08:10 AM PDT Map shows location of fighting across Iraq.; 2c x 6 inches; 96.3 mm x 152 mm;

Factbox: Ezzat al-Douri, Saddam's loyal lieutenant, believed killed Posted: 17 Apr 2015 07:21 AM PDT A prominent former aide to the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and a leader of Iraqi insurgents, Ezzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has been killed by Iraqi forces and Shi'ite militias, the governor of Salahuddin province told al-Arabiya television. The former lieutenant of Saddam was believed to be mastermind of the insurgency waged by the Islamic State and former Baathist figures against the current Shi'ite-led government. Baghdad has announced al-Douri's death several times before, but this time photos were circulating showing a man with similar features and red hair like al-Douri's. Here are some facts about al-Douri. * After Saddam Hussein was toppled and before al Qaeda and later Islamic State rose to prominence, al-Douri led an insurgency against Baghdad's Shi'ite-led government, organizing and leading major attacks against symbols of the new rule.

Obama to host Gulf leaders in May Posted: 17 Apr 2015 07:18 AM PDT US President Barack Obama will welcome the six leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council kingdoms in mid-May for talks on Iran's nuclear program and the conflicts in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. The meeting was announced in early April by Obama, who is seeking to reassure Gulf states following a framework accord reached on Tehran's contested nuclear program earlier in the month. Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia fears its regional rival Iran, which has a Shiite government, will continue to develop an atomic bomb after the sanctions that are strangling Iran's economy are lifted.

Americans with illegal Iraq War souvenirs go unprosecuted Posted: 17 Apr 2015 06:43 AM PDT HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) — American military members, contractors and others caught with culturally significant artifacts they brought home from the Iraq war are going largely unprosecuted, even as swords, artifacts and other items looted from Saddam Hussein's palaces are still turning up for sale online and at auctions.

Gun advocates lash out at Tim McGraw over Sandy Hook benefit concert Posted: 17 Apr 2015 06:11 AM PDT Country music star Tim McGraw is taking heat from gun advocates after he agreed this week to headline a July 17 concert in Hartford, Conn., to benefit Sandy Hook Promise, a group that seeks to protect children from gun violence.

Iraq massacre site turns into 'shrine' of anti-IS war Posted: 17 Apr 2015 03:55 AM PDT On the Tigris River waterfront where jihadists executed hundreds of captured Iraqi army recruits last year, bloodstains are gradually being covered by streaks of candle wax dripping down the quay. A symbolic tombstone has been laid where Islamic State group fighters carried out their assembly-line slaughter, shooting the young mostly Shiite men in the head before tipping them into the river one by one. Two weeks after troops and militia retook Tikrit, the main site of the "Speicher massacre" -- named after the military base near which the victims were seized -- is fast becoming a pilgrimage destination. Every day, dozens of Iraqi fighters visit the narrow quay of the river police building, located inside the sprawling palace complex that now executed dictator Saddam Hussein built in his hometown.

Higher sales brewing for India's tea exporters as drought grips Kenya Posted: 17 Apr 2015 01:17 AM PDT By Rajendra Jadhav MUMBAI (Reuters) - Lagging rains, output and demand were just some of the things worrying Bidyananda Barkakoty, a small tea garden owner in a northeastern Indian state, until about a month ago. A recent dry spell in distant Kenya has since given him a reason to smile. Barkakoty is hoping the crop-damaging drought in top tea exporter Kenya will open a window of opportunity for Indian planters like him as rains improve output prospects at home. Industry sources are projecting a rise of about a tenth in exports this year from India, the world's No. 2 tea producer.

10 Things to Know for Friday Posted: 16 Apr 2015 06:02 PM PDT Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday:

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