2015年12月11日星期五

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Yahoo! News: Iraq


Turks keeping troops in Iraqi camp, Baghdad turns to U.N.

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 04:57 PM PST

Turkish President Erdogan makes a speech during his meeting with mukhtars at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey,By Daren Butler and Ahmed Rasheed ISTANBUL/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan declared on Friday he would not bow to Iraqi demands he withdraw Turkish troops from a camp close to the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, and Baghdad said it would ask the U.N. Security Council to order them to leave. A row over the deployment has soured relations between Ankara and Baghdad, which denies having agreed to it. Ankara says the troops were sent as part of an international mission to train and equip Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State.


Turkey's Erdogan says Iraqi appeal to Security Council 'not honest'

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 04:57 PM PST

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that a complaint lodged by Iraq's government to the U.N. Security Council about the presence of Turkish forces in the country was not an honest step. "They can resort to the U.N. Security Council, that is their natural right, but this is not an honest step," Erdogan said in an interview with Al Jazeera. Baghdad wants the Security Council to order Turkey to withdraw its troops from a camp near the Islamic State-held city of Mosul.

Iraqi prime minister calls for withdrawal of Turkish troops

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 04:37 PM PST

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and President of Iraq'a northern Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, shake hands before a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Wednesday defended his country's deployment of additional forces to Iraq last week, saying it was an "act of solidarity" with Iraq's fight against the Islamic State group. Turkey has stationed troops at a base outside of the Iraqi city of Mosul since last year as part of a training mission coordinated with the Iraqi government in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Yasin Bulbul, Presidential Press Service, Pool )BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops from northern Iraq in a national address Friday night, insisting no foreign forces are needed to fight the Islamic State group in his country.


US vows stepped up fight on Islamic State group

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 04:00 PM PST

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter walks out to welcome British Defense Minister Michael Fallon to the Pentagon in Washington, DC on December 11, 2015The United States will intensify its efforts to destroy the Islamic State extremist group in Syria and Iraq, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter pledged Friday. The White House is, however, under growing pressure to do more, with President Barack Obama's administration criticized by opponents for what they say is a lack of discernable progress in eliminating the extremists. "We are taking a number of steps... and we intend to take more to strengthen the execution of our strategy and hasten the defeat of ISIL," said Carter, speaking at a news conference in Washington alongside Michael Fallon, his British counterpart and ally in the bid to defeat the IS group.


Obama going to Pentagon to discuss anti-IS campaign

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 02:44 PM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will look for ways to gather more intelligence and strike key Islamic State targets when he visits the Pentagon next week.

Why America isn't winning its wars

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 02:27 PM PST

Recommended: How much do you know about the Islamic State? "We are not postured as a [Defense] department, intellectually or organizationally, for these highly asymmetric and largely unconventional long-term challenges," Vickers said in congressional testimony.

Syria's Assad says he will not negotiate with armed groups

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 01:54 PM PST

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaks during a TV interview in DamascusBy John Davison and Dmitry Solovyov BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared on Friday that he would not negotiate with armed groups, appearing to scupper peace talks that Russia and the United States hope to bring about next month. Washington helped broker an agreement reached on Thursday by more than 100 members of Syria's opposition parties and more than a dozen rebel fighting groups ranging from Islamists to Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups - but not Islamic State - to send a joint team to meet the government under U.N. auspices next month. The initiative is driven at least partly by their focus on defeating a common enemy in the form of Islamic State, which has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and is increasingly ordering or inspiring attacks on the West and Russia.


House sets up task force to investigate intelligence

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 01:50 PM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are establishing a special task force to investigate allegations that U.S. Central Command's top intelligence officials pressured analysts to discard parts of their reports that reflected poorly on the war effort in Iraq and Syria.

Putin says Russia backs Free Syrian Army alongside Assad troops

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 01:35 PM PST

Russian President Putin addresses the audience during an annual meeting at the Defence Ministry in MoscowBy Dmitry Solovyov and Jack Stubbs MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday Russia is supporting the opposition Free Syrian Army, providing it with air cover, arms and ammunition in joint operations with Syrian troops against Islamist militants. Putin said last month the Russian air force had hit several "terrorist" targets identified by the Free Syrian Army.


Obama to discuss Islamic State fight at Pentagon

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 12:45 PM PST

US President Barack Obama has ruled out putting infantry boots on the ground in Syria, saying it would be counterproductive to the fight against the Islamic State groupFacing intense scrutiny about his counterterror policy, President Barack Obama will huddle with top security brass and deliver an address at the Pentagon Monday, hoping to underscore his role as commander-in-chief. The White House said Obama will hold the meeting of his National Security Council and give remarks, just days after he gave an Oval Office primetime address on the terror threat that received a mixed response from Americans. No major policy changes are expected, but Obama will again try to convince a skeptical public that his administration is charting the correct course in tackling the Islamic State group.


From Iraq village to Rome prison, Holy Doors swing open for Catholic Jubilee

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 12:06 PM PST

Pope Francis opens a "Holy Door" at St Peter's basilica to mark the start of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, on December 8, 2015 at the VaticanFrom a village church in Iraq to a prison in Rome, "Holy Doors" have been opened around the world at the start of the Vatican's Jubilee year, offering Catholics forgiveness for their sins. Pope Francis opened the Holy Door in Saint Peter's Basilica on Sunday, kicking off a series of ceremonies to open doors pilgrims can walk through in a year set aside for pardons. Traditionally, Catholics were expected to make a pilgrimage to Rome for the Jubilee.


Obama's 'ISIL czar' has long history tackling Mideast crises

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 11:47 AM PST

FILE - In this April 1, 2015, file photo, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, right, speaks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, and Robert Malley, left, Senior Director for Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf States, National Security Council during a break outside the hotel at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel as the Iran nuclear talks continue, in Lausanne, Switzerland. President Barack Obama's new WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's new "ISIL czar," Robert Malley, has a long and sometimes controversial history at the center of U.S. policymaking in the Middle East. He's now taking on one of the toughest jobs in Washington: getting the struggling campaign against Islamic State militants on track while Obama refuses to entertain any wholesale strategy change.


Diplomatic pressure forces Syria opposition to table

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 11:23 AM PST

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin (R) during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on October 20, 2015With international pressure growing for a political solution to Syria's war, opposition groups appear to have resigned themselves to the idea that Bashar al-Assad cannot be removed by force. Syrian political and armed opposition factions agreed Thursday at unprecedented talks in Riyadh to negotiate with Assad, but insisted he must step down before any political transition begins. Assad said his government was "ready today to start the negotiations with the opposition", but suggested that he would refuse to talk to the armed groups.


Sweden opens first tent camp, as migrant flow plunges

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 10:52 AM PST

A temporary camp that will house about 200 asylum seekers at Revinge outside the city Lund in southern Sweden, a sight unseen in the Scandinavian nation since the Balkans war in the early 1990sSweden has begun housing migrants in heated tents in wintry conditions due to a lack of available housing, despite a sharp drop in asylum seekers, the Migration Agency section chief said Friday. "The first asylum seekers have moved into the 17 temporary tents" raised in Revinge in southern Sweden, Rebecca Bichis told AFP. Images of the camp of white tents, erected on a grassy field in the tranquil countryside, were striking, a sight unseen in the Scandinavian nation since the Balkan wars in the early 1990s when Sweden also took in many refugees.


Top Iraq Shiite cleric criticises Turkish deployment

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 10:47 AM PST

A Turkish tank in Turkey's Suruc district near the Syrian borderIraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Friday criticised the deployment of Turkish troops and tanks to the country's north that Baghdad says took place without its approval. Top Turkish officials said a deal had been reached with Baghdad over the forces, which were sent to a base near the city of Mosul, but Iraq reiterated demands that Ankara's troops be withdrawn and called on the United Nations to take action. No country should "send its soldiers to the territory of another state under the pretext of supporting it in fighting terrorism without the conclusion of an agreement... between the governments of the two countries," Sistani said in remarks delivered by a representative at weekly Friday prayers.


Obama to make statement from Pentagon on Monday: White House

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 10:18 AM PST

U.S. President Obama speaks about counter-terrorism during an address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will make a statement from the Pentagon briefing room on Monday after discussions with national security officials, the White House said on Friday. Responding to reporters' questions, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he knew of no specific announcement on any changes to U.S. strategy in countering Islamic State militants who overran parts of Syria and Iraq last year. (Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)


U.S. confidence in protection from attack lowest in over a decade

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 10:15 AM PST

Flowers and candles are displayed at a makeshift memorial after last week's shooting in San Bernardino, CaliforniaBy Frank McGurty NEW YORK (Reuters) - Confidence in the U.S. government to protect its citizens from militant attacks has fallen to its lowest in more than a decade after a pair of suspected militant Islamists gunned down 14 people at a holiday party in California, a poll released on Friday found. Only 55 percent of respondents said they had "a fair amount" or "a great deal" of confidence that authorities could protect the country from further attacks, according to data collected by Gallup on Dec. 8-9, just days after the San Bernardino massacre.


AP PHOTOS: Editor selections from the Middle East for 2015

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 10:08 AM PST

FILE - In this Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015 file photo, Lebanese activists hold up a makeshift shield as they are sprayed by riot police using water cannons during a protest against the ongoing trash crisis, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanese riot police fired several rounds of tear gas and water cannons for the second consecutive day in downtown Beirut Sunday as they battled protesters with batons and stones _ a marked escalation of mass demonstrations against an ongoing trash crisis. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)As 2015 comes to a close, The Associated Press is looking back at the year's events as seen by photojournalists in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan.


IS claims northern Syria suicide bombings that killed 26

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 09:55 AM PST

BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Friday for triple suicide bombings in northern Syria that killed at least 26 people and wounded 90, underscoring its ability to launch attacks in areas that it has lost to rival groups.

The Latest: Peskov: Russia not giving arms to Syrian rebels

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 09:27 AM PST

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks with Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov at a meeting with top military officials in the National Defense Control Center in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. President Vladimir Putin said that a Russian military action in Syria is aimed at protecting Russia from extremists based there. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)MOSCOW (AP) — The latest news related to Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with top military officials in Moscow. All times local:


Mauritius says investigating Islamic State video

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 09:03 AM PST

By Jean Paul Arouff PORT LOUIS (Reuters) - Mauritius is investigating an Islamic State video which purports to show a Mauritian man urging people from the tiny Indian Ocean island to travel to the Middle East and join the Islamist group, a senior official said on Friday. Police commissioner Mario Nobin appealed for calm after the first-ever Mauritius-related Islamic State video was published on the Internet this week. Nobin said Mauritius was already on heightened alert following the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris when Islamic State gunmen killed about 130 people in suicide bombs and shootings.

Finland court jails Iraqi twins suspected of IS killings

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 08:57 AM PST

An unidentified suspect is brought into court at Tampere District Court in Tampere, Finland Friday Dec. 11, 2015. Finnish police said they have arrested two Iraqi brothers believed to have been members of the Islamic State group in Iraq and suspected of fatally shooting "11 unarmed and defenseless prisoners" in June 2014. (Anni Reenpaa/Lehtikuva via AP) FINLAND OUTTALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Finnish court on Friday jailed 23-year-old twin brothers from Iraq for four months pending trial on suspicions they were Islamic State militants who fatally shot 11 unarmed soldiers in Iraq in June 2014.


Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric says government should not tolerate infringement of sovereignty

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 07:32 AM PST

Iraqi security forces stand guard with their military vehicle outside the Turkish embassy in BaghdadIraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on the government on Friday to show "no tolerance" of any infringement of the country's sovereignty, after Turkey deployed heavily armed troops to northern Iraq. Sistani's spokesman, Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Karbala'i, did not explicitly name Turkey, but a row over the deployment has badly soured relations between Ankara and Baghdad, which denies having agreed to it.


ISIS prompts dramatic shift in Millennials' view of US intervention

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 07:21 AM PST

For perhaps the first time in their voting lives, a majority of Millennials support sending ground troops to fight in the Middle East. The dramatic shift became most pronounced in the wake of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, in which gunmen and suicide bombers trained by the radical militant group known as the Islamic State killed 130 people, according to surveys of Millennials ages 18-29 conducted by Harvard's Institute of Politics (IOP). Before the Paris attacks, IOP's poll results showed about half of young Americans supporting US boots on the ground: 48 percent supported the concept, while 48 percent opposed it.

Special Report: How Saddam's men help Islamic State rule

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 06:53 AM PST

File photo of a fighter of ISIL holding a flag and a weapon on a street in MosulBy Isabel Coles and Ned Parker MALA QARA, Iraq (Reuters) - Mohannad is a spy for Islamic State. One man he informed on this year – a street trader defying a ban on selling cigarettes – was fined and tortured by Islamic State fighters, according to a friend of Mohannad's family. The teenager is one cog in the intelligence network Islamic State has put in place since it seized vast stretches of Iraq and neighboring Syria.


Neutral Finland to boost Iraq, Lebanon missions to help France

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 06:38 AM PST

Finland said on Friday it would boost its involvement in a training mission in Iraq and in a U.N.-led operation in Lebanon to help relieve French forces following the Paris attacks last month by Islamic State militants. France made an unprecedented call for military help from its European Union partners under the bloc's Lisbon Treaty following the attacks, which killed 130 people. EU member Finland is officially neutral and not in NATO.

Erdogan says Turkey will not withdraw troops from camp in north Iraq

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 06:17 AM PST

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey will not withdraw troops from a camp close to the Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, despite strong objections from Baghdad. The deployed soldiers are not combat troops, but have been sent to protect soldiers providing training to Iraqi and Kurdish forces, Erdogan told reporters at a news conference that was broadcast live by TRT. Turkey is "determined" to continue the training, he added. (Reporting by Daren Butler; Writing by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by David Dolan)

Finnish court holds twins in custody over Iraq massacre

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 06:04 AM PST

An Iraqi soldier guards the site of a mass grave at the Speicher military base in Tikrit, where hundreds of Shiite recruits were executed by Islamic State jihadists in 2014"The Tampere district court has remanded in custody, upon the National Bureau of Investigation's (NBI) request, two men who are suspected of 11 murders with terrorist intent," the NBI said in a statement after the court's hearing. Friday's proceedings were held behind closed doors, but the NBI's Chief Inspector Jari Raty told AFP afterwards that the suspects pleaded not guilty. The NBI suspects the pair, 23-year-old twins from Iraq whose names have not been disclosed, of shooting dead 11 unarmed captives during a massacre in the Iraqi city of Tikrit in June 2014.


Iraqi PM asks foreign ministry to lodge complaint over Turkey at U.N. Security Council

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 05:51 AM PST

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has instructed the foreign ministry to lodge a formal complaint at the UN Security Council over an incursion by Turkish troops in the north of the country. In a statement on his website, Abadi asked that the Security Council order Turkey to withdraw its troops from Iraq immediately. (Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Putin’s Outrageous Defense Spending Puts Russia Back in the USSR

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 05:30 AM PST

Putin's Outrageous Defense Spending Puts Russia Back in the USSROne of the prevailing narratives about the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980s was that the Kremlin destroyed its own economy from within by dedicating scarce resources to the arms race with the United States. Not all historians of the period agree on that explanation, but many believe that military spending to the exclusion of other investment at least contributed to, if not directly caused, the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Alexashenko wrote in an op-ed published Thursday in the Moscow Times that in a time of particular economic peril, the Kremlin is once again going down that same road.


Ex-UK PM Blair says he urged Gadhafi to quit Libya in 2011

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 04:58 AM PST

In this image taken from TV former British Prime Minister Tony Blair gestures while appearing in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee at the House of Commons in London Friday Dec. 11, 2015 where he is giving evidence on Britain's foreign policy towards Libya. Blair, prime minister from 1997 to 2007, was instrumental in ending Libyan leader Gadhafi's international isolation in return for giving up nuclear and chemical arms programs. (PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUTLONDON (AP) — Tony Blair telephoned Moammar Gadhafi and tried to persuade him to leave Libya as the Arab Spring erupted in February 2011, the former British prime minister revealed Friday.


Russia says Iraq is extremely important partner in fighting terrorism: RIA

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 04:51 AM PST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia sees Iraq as an extremely important partner in the fight against terrorism, RIA news agency cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Friday. (Reporting by Polina Devitt; editing by Jack Stubbs)

U.S., allies conduct 25 strikes against Islamic State: U.S. military

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 04:32 AM PST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies staged 25 air strikes against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria on Thursday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement. In Iraq, 21 strikes near 10 different cities destroyed several fighting locations, buildings and other targets. Four strikes in Syria hit tactical units and wounded Islamic State fighters, according to the statement released on Friday. (Reporting by Megan Cassella)

Syrian antiquities chief says Turkey refuses to return looted art

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 03:37 AM PST

Syria's antiquities chief Abdulkarim gestures during a Reuters interview in ViennaBy Shadia Nasralla VIENNA (Reuters) - Syria's antiquities chief has accused Turkey of refusing to return looted objects from ancient heritage sites in Syria or to provide information about them, allegations denied by the Turkish government. Damascus and Ankara have been at odds since the start of a rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, with Turkey supporting armed groups fighting Assad's government. More recently, Islamic State militants have declared a caliphate in territory they hold across Syria and Iraq and have destroyed monuments they consider pagan and sacrilegious.


Islamic State influence rising in Syria: Russian defense minister

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 02:55 AM PST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The influence of Islamic State is increasing in Syria, where militants control around 70 percent of the country, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday. The number of IS fighters in Iraq and Syria numbers around 60,000, and there is a threat of violence spilling over into post-Soviet Central Asia, said Shoigu, speaking at the ministry's annual collegium event. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Tunisia reopens Libya border

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 02:50 AM PST

Tunisia police stand guard in front of the closed border between Tunisia and Libya on November 26, 2015 in Ras JdirTunisia has reopened its border with Libya, 15 days after it shut the frontier following a suicide bombing in Tunis claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, the interior ministry said Friday. "The border with Libya was opened Thursday at midnight," ministry spokesman Walid Louguini told AFP. The crossing points of Ras Jedir and Wazen-Dhehibe were open on Friday amid extra security, according to an AFP journalist.


Oil price drops further on forecast of weaker demand

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 02:22 AM PST

PARIS (AP) — The price of oil is falling further after the International Energy Agency forecast a decline in demand.

Turkey foreign minister calls on Russia for calm, says patience not unlimited

Posted: 11 Dec 2015 01:31 AM PST

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey is calling on Russia for calm, but its patience is not unlimited, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday. In a live interview on NTV, Cavusoglu also said that the recent additional deployment of troops to Iraq was made after an increase in the security threat. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk)

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