Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Ellen Page to Star in Indie Iraq War Drama 'Lioness' (Exclusive)
• IS TERRITORY GAINS
• US to cut 40,000 soldiers from Army: official
• IS CALIPHATE
• US House approves closer military ties with Jordan
• Yemen's civil war isn't as bad as Iraq and Syria. Yet.
• Senators quiz military chiefs, criticize US fight against IS
• AJC Delegation Visits Cairo, Amman
• McCain suggests US 'losing' against IS
• U.S. only training 60 Syrian fighters, about 1 percent of goal
• Iraq-Syria solution will need more than bombs and boots
• Afghan official: Senior Islamic State figure killed
• Defense Budget Fight: Obama Won’t Back Down on Veto Threat
• Homegrown jihadists with Libya ties target Tunisia's democracy
• Israel says Islamic State's Sinai assault aimed to help Hamas get arms
• Britain remembers 2005 bombs with flowers and silence
• Britons mark 10th anniversary of London transit attacks
• US military chiefs face tough questioning on Islamic State
• Spanish woman arrested for recruiting girls, teens for IS
• Has the US picked a favorite ally in its fight against ISIS?
• Spain detains suspected female IS group recruiter
• Spain arrests woman for recruiting girls for Islamic State
• You Won’t Believe How Much a Cyberwar Really Costs
• Soccer- Bosnian Hadziabdic is new Iraq coach for World Cup qualifiers
• Britain commemorates those lost in 2005 London bombings
• Syrian Kurds retake northern villages from Islamic State: monitor
• Iran: Kerry Wants a Deal, Corker Wants Access, Cotton Wants a Fight
• Dream of better life in Britain fuels Calais migrant chaos
• Today in History
• HSBC fires staff for mock Islamic State execution video
• Crude oil tumbles 8 pct, points to low gas prices this fall

Ellen Page to Star in Indie Iraq War Drama 'Lioness' (Exclusive) Posted: 07 Jul 2015 04:00 PM PDT The script tells of the true story of Lance Corporal Leslie Martz, a U.S. Marine who was stationed in Iraq.

IS TERRITORY GAINS Posted: 07 Jul 2015 03:50 PM PDT Map locates the Islamic State group's area of control and territorial gains and losses in Syria and Iraq; 2c x 3 1/4 inches; 96.3 mm x 82 mm;

US to cut 40,000 soldiers from Army: official Posted: 07 Jul 2015 03:26 PM PDT The US Army plans to cut 40,000 soldiers from its ranks over the next two years to save money at home and abroad, a US defense official said Tuesday. The defense official said the Army plans to announce the cuts soon. The cutbacks will affect virtually every Army post at home and abroad, USA Today said.

IS CALIPHATE Posted: 07 Jul 2015 03:25 PM PDT Map locates the Islamic State group's area of support and control in Syra and Iraq; 3c x 4 inches; 146 mm x 101 mm;

US House approves closer military ties with Jordan Posted: 07 Jul 2015 01:50 PM PDT US lawmakers on Tuesday approved legislation that would ramp up military cooperation with Jordan, including accelerated arms sales to a Middle East ally contending with growing threats from Islamist extremism. Jordan has become a focal point in the fight against the self-described Islamic State because the Hashemite kingdom borders Syria and Iraq, two nations where large swathes of land have been claimed by IS extremists. US forces are training a small group of vetted Syrian rebels in Jordan.

Yemen's civil war isn't as bad as Iraq and Syria. Yet. Posted: 07 Jul 2015 12:50 PM PDT Yemen's war is deepening, even as the greater horrors in Syria and Iraq push it off the front pages. Iraq and Syria's wars with IS are joined at the hip, with fighters and supplies flowing both directions across their borders.

Senators quiz military chiefs, criticize US fight against IS Posted: 07 Jul 2015 12:46 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing blistering criticism from Republican senators, Defense Secretary Ash Carter acknowledged on Tuesday that the U.S. has only 60 trainees in a program to prepare and arm thousands of moderate Syrian rebels in the fight against Islamic State militants.

AJC Delegation Visits Cairo, Amman Posted: 07 Jul 2015 12:43 PM PDT CAIRO, July 7, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In high-level meetings days after deadly attacks in Sinai and Heliopolis, AJC expressed its solidarity with Egypt in the fight against Islamist terror. In the organization's fifth visit to Cairo since the January 2011 revolution, a delegation led by AJC President Stanley Bergman offered its condolences to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for the losses the country has suffered at the hands of Islamist terrorists, and discussed a range of strategic, political, economic and social issues. "Egypt, a vital ally of the United States, faces stiff challenges – but we come away from our latest visit to Cairo impressed by President Sisi's resolve to confront them," said Bergman, after the group's two-hour meeting in the presidential palace.

McCain suggests US 'losing' against IS Posted: 07 Jul 2015 12:41 PM PDT US Senator John McCain blasted the military strategy against the Islamic State group Tuesday, suggesting the United States was "losing" the fight and criticizing the pace of training for Syrian rebels. Several lawmakers including McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, grilled Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and the military's top general, Martin Dempsey, on topics ranging from Ukraine to the Middle East. "There is no compelling reason to believe that anything we are currently doing will be sufficient to achieve the president's long-stated goal of degrading and ultimately destroying ISIL (IS) -- either in the short-term or the long-term," McCain said at the Senate Armed Services Committee, which he chairs.

U.S. only training 60 Syrian fighters, about 1 percent of goal Posted: 07 Jul 2015 12:27 PM PDT By Phil Stewart and David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was falling far behind plans to build a Syrian opposition force to battle Islamic State, disclosing that just 60 fighters were in training after U.S. vetting thinned the number of recruits. The U.S. military launched its program in May to train up to 5,400 fighters a year in what was seen as a test of President Barack Obama's strategy of getting local partners to combat extremists and keep U.S. troops off the front lines. Obama's requirement that they target militants from Islamic State has sidelined huge segments of the Syrian opposition focused instead on battling Syrian government forces.

Iraq-Syria solution will need more than bombs and boots Posted: 07 Jul 2015 12:18 PM PDT President Obama met with top Pentagon officials Monday but failed to map out in any detail a new military strategy for defeating Islamic State. Real and important decisions remain on how deeply and widely to involve US troops on the ground and how the United States can do a more effective job of training Iraqi and Syrian forces to oppose Islamic State (known as IS, ISIL, and ISIS).

Afghan official: Senior Islamic State figure killed Posted: 07 Jul 2015 11:33 AM PDT KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's intelligence service says the second-highest figure among militants loyal to the Islamic State group in the country was killed in an airstrike.

Defense Budget Fight: Obama Won’t Back Down on Veto Threat Posted: 07 Jul 2015 11:15 AM PDT The fight between President Obama and GOP lawmakers over defense funding is boiling over as Congress returns to work this week. Unless a compromise can be worked out soon, the political conflict could paralyze the fiscal 2016 spending process this summer and once again raise the specter of a partial government shutdown. Obama has threatened to veto the congressional defense appropriations bill unless GOP leaders agree to lift spending caps on domestic programs as well as defense.

Homegrown jihadists with Libya ties target Tunisia's democracy Posted: 07 Jul 2015 10:49 AM PDT By Patrick Markey and Tarek Amara SOUSSE, Tunisia(Reuters) - In late 2013, two young Tunisians returned from a jihadi camp in Libya planning to blow themselves up among foreign tourists. Two years later, just a few months apart, three more Libyan-trained Tunisian militants succeeded in bringing bloodshed to Sousse and the capital Tunis, gunning down 60 people, mainly tourists, in the two deadliest attacks in the country's history. Hailed as the only "Arab Spring" success, Tunisia now finds its young democracy under siege from a jihadist expansion in North Africa, where militants, radicalized locally and trained in Libya, are exporting their violent ideology back home.

Israel says Islamic State's Sinai assault aimed to help Hamas get arms Posted: 07 Jul 2015 10:36 AM PDT By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel accused Hamas on Tuesday of supporting last week's assaults by Islamic State affiliates on Egyptian forces in the Sinai in hope of freeing up arms smuggling to the Gaza Strip. The remarks followed Israeli allegations that Hamas members provided training and medical treatment for the Sinai insurgents - charges dismissed by the Palestinian Islamist group as a bid to further fray its troubled ties with Cairo. Egypt said more than 100 insurgents and 17 of its soldiers were killed in Wednesday's simultaneous assaults, carried out against military checkpoints around the North Sinai towns of Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah.

Britain remembers 2005 bombs with flowers and silence Posted: 07 Jul 2015 10:09 AM PDT Britons laid flowers at the sites of the 2005 London suicide bombings and held a nationwide minute of silence for the 52 victims on Tuesday on the tenth anniversary of the attacks. Prime Minister David Cameron led the tributes by placing a wreath at a memorial in Hyde Park and petals were released from the dome of St Paul's Cathedral during a service there. The Hyde Park ceremony began at exactly 8:50am (0750 GMT) -- the time the first of four homegrown jihadists detonated his device on London's transport system on July 7, 2005.

Britons mark 10th anniversary of London transit attacks Posted: 07 Jul 2015 09:42 AM PDT LONDON (AP) — Britons paused in silence, laid flowers and lit candles Tuesday to mark the 10th anniversary of suicide bombings on London's transit system in the worst terror attack on British soil and a day of pain seared into London's collective memory.

US military chiefs face tough questioning on Islamic State Posted: 07 Jul 2015 09:24 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Tuesday defended President Barack Obama's strategy to defeat Islamic State group militants amid criticism from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain.

Spanish woman arrested for recruiting girls, teens for IS Posted: 07 Jul 2015 09:20 AM PDT MADRID (AP) — Spanish police on Tuesday arrested a woman suspected of recruiting pre-teen girls and teenagers to send to areas controlled by the Islamic State armed group in Syria.

Has the US picked a favorite ally in its fight against ISIS? Posted: 07 Jul 2015 09:09 AM PDT After two days of intensified, US-led coalition air strikes in northern Syria, Syrian Kurdish fighters have recaptured more than 10 villages held by the Islamic State near Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. With the aid of smaller Syrian rebel groups, the People's Protections Units (YPG) have defeated Islamic State in several attacks in recent weeks. Since the YPG nearly expelled the Islamic State from the Syrian town of Kobane in January, the Kurdish militia has proved itself to be an important ally for the US-led alliance in its attempts to overthrow Islamic State groups in Syria and Iraq.

Spain detains suspected female IS group recruiter Posted: 07 Jul 2015 07:07 AM PDT Spanish police arrested Tuesday a woman on the Canary Islands suspected of recruiting girls and teenagers for the Islamic State group, the interior ministry said. The woman, who was arrested on Arrecife on the island of Lanzarote, "maintained direct contact with Daesh operatives in Syria," it said in a statement, using an acronym for the IS group. Islamic State jihadists control swathes of Syria and Iraq, where they have committed highly publicised atrocities including mass kidnappings and executions.

Spain arrests woman for recruiting girls for Islamic State Posted: 07 Jul 2015 07:01 AM PDT Spanish police on Tuesday arrested a woman in the Canary Islands on suspicion of recruiting adolescent girls to join Islamic State in Syria, the interior ministry said. Once the girls reached Syria they were sexually exploited and made to do domestic and hospital work, it said. The woman, who was arrested on the holiday resort island of Lanzarote, had direct contact with a member of Islamic State in Syria who gave her information on how to recruit and send women to that country, the ministry said.

You Won’t Believe How Much a Cyberwar Really Costs Posted: 07 Jul 2015 07:00 AM PDT On Monday, the Italian company Hacking Team, which produces secret cyber weapons for law-enforcement and government clients around the world, became the victim of an embarrassing public disclosure: more than 400 gigabytes of internal data made its way online in a widely shared torrent file. The group Reporters Without Borders has labeled Hacking Team "an enemy of the Internet," for the surveillance tools and malware products it provides, with little transparency or accountability, to governments. Hacking Team purports to sell its services to "law enforcement" but invoices reveal a wide assortment of unsavory clients, including the governments of Russia and Sudan, despite a UN arms embargo against the latter and contrary to previous assertions from company's president, Christian Pozzi.

Soccer- Bosnian Hadziabdic is new Iraq coach for World Cup qualifiers Posted: 07 Jul 2015 06:34 AM PDT Bosnian Dzemal Hadziabdic has been appointed the new coach of Iraq, the country's football association said on Tuesday. Hadziabdic, who coached in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates for more than a decade, will lead Iraq in their joint qualifying campaign for the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 Asian Cup, the Iraq FA added on their website (www.Ifa.iq). Hadziabdic, who played for the former Yugoslavia and Swansea City in the 1970s and 80s, takes over from Akram Salam, who left the Iraq post after a 4-0 loss to Japan in a friendly last month.

Britain commemorates those lost in 2005 London bombings Posted: 07 Jul 2015 06:15 AM PDT Another remembrance service took place at St. Paul's Cathedral, and the country held a national minute of silence for the victims of the July 7, 2005, attack. "Today the country comes together to remember the victims of one of the deadliest terrorist atrocities on mainland Britain," Mr. Cameron said in a statement.

Syrian Kurds retake northern villages from Islamic State: monitor Posted: 07 Jul 2015 03:55 AM PDT Syrian Kurdish fighters have recaptured more than 10 villages seized by Islamic State north of its de facto capital of Raqqa city, aided by U.S.-led coalition air strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Tuesday. Intensified air strikes across northern Syria and clashes on the ground have killed at least 78 Islamic State fighters since Sunday night, the Britain-based Observatory said. The strikes are some of the most sustained since they began in September, according to U.S. officials who say they are aimed at curbing the militants' ability to operate out of Raqqa and to prevent it from fighting back against Kurdish advances.

Iran: Kerry Wants a Deal, Corker Wants Access, Cotton Wants a Fight Posted: 07 Jul 2015 03:30 AM PDT With so much at stake from a geopolitical and economic standpoint, the betting is that negotiators will finalize their April 2 tentative agreement by Tuesday or Wednesday and then roll the dice that the U.S. Congress and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will green light the document. On Friday night, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister and Kerry's negotiating counterpart, declared in a You Tube video that "We have never been closer to a lasting outcome,"  while urging the U.S. and its negotiating partners to show even more flexibility going into the home stretch.

Dream of better life in Britain fuels Calais migrant chaos Posted: 07 Jul 2015 02:18 AM PDT By Pierre Savary and William James CALAIS/LONDON (Reuters) - Like many migrants drawn to the French port of Calais, Ali, a 22-year-old Iraqi, is convinced his life will be better if he can make it across the 30 km (20 mile) stretch of sea separating him from Britain. "I know people in London, they can help me and it will be a new life," Ali said, speaking on the outskirts of a Calais migrant slum. "It cannot be worse than in France." Dislocated by war, political turmoil and poverty, 3,000 migrants like Ali are living in makeshift camps in and around Calais, hoping to find a way to the other side.

Today in History Posted: 06 Jul 2015 09:00 PM PDT Today is Tuesday, July 7, the 188th day of 2015. There are 177 days left in the year.

HSBC fires staff for mock Islamic State execution video Posted: 06 Jul 2015 08:50 PM PDT British bank HSBC fired six staff after they filmed a mock Islamic State-style execution video during a team-building day out and posted footage online, a spokesman confirmed on Tuesday. The bank described the video, showing staff members in balaclavas holding a fake knife over a kneeling man in an orange jumpsuit, as "abhorrent". "This is an abhorrent video and HSBC would like to apologise for any offence caused." The employees filmed the video on an HSBC team-building day at a go-karting centre in Birmingham and posted it on Instagram before deleting it, according to newspaper The Sun, which published the video on its website.

Crude oil tumbles 8 pct, points to low gas prices this fall Posted: 06 Jul 2015 01:57 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — A slew of global economic and geopolitical factors are working to pummel the price of oil and set up U.S. drivers for very low gasoline prices later this year.

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