Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• U.S. tests for mustard agent after rocket attack near Iraq base
• Chemical agent possibly found on rocket fired at US troops in Iraq
• Investigators try to determine if accused New York bomber had help
• IS rocket fired in Iraq may have contained mustard agent
• US, Russia abandon diplomatic niceties in testy Syria debate
• Man found guilty of murder in shooting death of Army vet
• Chirac's wife hospitalised as ex-French leader remains ill
• Jordan awaits vote results as Brotherhood claims seats
• Rafale: France's versatile fighter jet
• Campaigners demand 1988 Iran massacre probe as tape emerges
• Indian ministers approve Rafale fighter jet deal
• Abandoning discretion, Iranians proclaim their role in Syrian war
• Rescued Yazidi sex slaves will face no stigma, leader says
• Iraq's finance minister dismissed amid economic crisis
• Britain's MI6 spy chief says Islamist terrorist threat is here to stay
• Who are America's 'super' gun-owners?
• UK's Tate galleries acquire replica of anti-war protest camp
• Iraqi finance minister sacked, risking economic fallout
• Iraq MPs vote to sack finance minister after graft allegations
• Iraqi forces ready by 'early October' for Mosul assault: top US officer
• Iran 'determined' to boost military after US-Israel deal
• Iran parades new weapons at time of Gulf tension with U.S.
• Missiles, tanks on show at Iran military parade
• Iraqi forces close in on town south of Mosul
• What Congress Is Actually Good at
• Watch THE CONTENDERS - 16 FOR '16: EPISODE TWO Right Now
• Protests put Asian refs on the spot
• Samantha Bee: NBC Enables Donald Trump's "Thinly Veiled Racism"
• US cousins draw long prison terms over conspiring to help IS
• France charges two with suspected jihadist links

U.S. tests for mustard agent after rocket attack near Iraq base Posted: 21 Sep 2016 04:30 PM PDT By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military is testing to see if a chemical agent may have been used in a rocket attack in Iraq by Islamic State that came within hundreds of yards (meters) of U.S. forces but injured no one, a U.S. military official said on Wednesday. The rocket fell on Tuesday in an unpopulated area near the Qayyara West base, where hundreds of U.S. forces are working to prepare an airfield ahead of Iraq's offensive to retake the city of Mosul from the radical group Islamic State, said the official, who spoke with Pentagon reporters on condition of anonymity. A group of U.S. forces inspected the fragments afterwards and took a small sample of a suspicious "tar-like, black, oily" substance, which initially tested positive for mustard agent but then tested negative in a subsequent examination, the official said.

Chemical agent possibly found on rocket fired at US troops in Iraq Posted: 21 Sep 2016 03:55 PM PDT A rocket fired by Islamic State jihadists at US forces in Iraq may have carried a chemical agent, a US defense official said Wednesday. No one was injured in Tuesday's blast near an airfield by the northern town of Qayyarah and no one showed any immediate signs of exposure to the suspected mustard agent, the official said. Several hundred US troops are working with Iraqi partners to strengthen the airfield ahead of a push on the IS stronghold of Mosul.

Investigators try to determine if accused New York bomber had help Posted: 21 Sep 2016 03:29 PM PDT By David Ingram and Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. authorities on Wednesday were looking into whether an Afghan-born American citizen charged with carrying out bombings in New York and New Jersey acted alone or had help as the city's top federal public defender sought access to the suspect. Police in New York City said they had not yet been permitted by doctors to speak to Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, who was arrested on Monday after being wounded in a gunfight with police in Linden, New Jersey. Rahami has been charged with wounding 31 people in a bombing in New York on Saturday that authorities called a "terrorist act." The Federal Bureau of Investigation released a photo of two men who found a second, unexploded pressure cooker device they say Rahami left in a piece of luggage in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood on Saturday night.

IS rocket fired in Iraq may have contained mustard agent Posted: 21 Sep 2016 03:27 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — A small rocket that landed on a military base in northern Iraq where hundreds of U.S. troops are working with Iraqi troops may have contained a mustard agent, a U.S. military official said Wednesday.

US, Russia abandon diplomatic niceties in testy Syria debate Posted: 21 Sep 2016 01:17 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States and Russia abandoned diplomatic niceties Wednesday in a fractious public debate over Syria, blaming each other for spoiling the country's cease-fire and offering only temporary patches to stem the bloodshed. Secretary of State John Kerry called for all warplanes to halt flights over aid routes, while Russia's chief diplomat spoke of a possible three-day pause in fighting.

Man found guilty of murder in shooting death of Army vet Posted: 21 Sep 2016 01:09 PM PDT BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man has been found guilty of gunning down a former Army sniper who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chirac's wife hospitalised as ex-French leader remains ill Posted: 21 Sep 2016 12:44 PM PDT The family of Jacques Chirac said Wednesday his wife Bernadette had also been hospitalised "suffering" from exhaustion, and quashed rumours that the 83-year-old former French president had died. "President Chirac is being treated for a lung infection and I want to pay homage to the exceptional quality of the medical teams," Chirac's son-in-law Frederick Salat-Baroux told AFP. Salat-Baroux, husband of Chirac's daughter Claude, then later Wednesday announced that his mother-in-law Bernadette, also 83, had also been admitted to the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris.

Jordan awaits vote results as Brotherhood claims seats Posted: 21 Sep 2016 11:23 AM PDT Jordan's electoral commission on Wednesday began announcing the results of its general election with the influential Muslim Brotherhood set to return to parliament as a significant opposition force. A senior Brotherhood official said preliminary results indicated it was on course to win at least 16 seats in the 130-seat chamber, after the Islamists boycotted two previous polls in protest at the electoral system and alleged voting fraud. Almost 24 hours after polls closed, the kingdom's electoral commission had only announced preliminary results for three out of 23 constituencies.

Rafale: France's versatile fighter jet Posted: 21 Sep 2016 10:58 AM PDT France's Rafale multi-role fighter jet, the subject of a major deal approved Wednesday by an Indian government committee, is a versatile plane that is currently being used for bombing missions over Syria and Iraq. The deal under which French defence group Dassault will sell 36 Rafales to India for a reported $8.8 billion (7.9 billion euros) is the biggest in the plane's history. The Rafale initially struggled to attract foreign buyers before Egypt bought 24 of the jets in 2015 and Qatar purchased 24 the same year.

Campaigners demand 1988 Iran massacre probe as tape emerges Posted: 21 Sep 2016 10:40 AM PDT A new campaign group on Wednesday called for a UN probe into the 1988 massacres in Iran after the release of a decades-old audio tape shed fresh light on the alleged atrocities. From August 1988 to February 1989, Iranian authorities executed nearly 5,000 political prisoners, according to Amnesty International. The executions received limited attention at the time, in part because of a media blackout imposed Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who had taken charge of the country in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Indian ministers approve Rafale fighter jet deal Posted: 21 Sep 2016 10:29 AM PDT An Indian cabinet committee gave its approval Wednesday to a long-delayed deal to buy 36 fighter jets from France's Dassault, as the country looks to bolster its military in the face of China's growing clout. A senior Indian defence ministry official said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet committee on security had given its green light to the multi-billion dollar Rafale jet purchase at a meeting in New Delhi and the defence ministers of both France and India would ink the agreement on Friday. In a brief statement, the presidency said that Le Drian's visit had been "agreed in principle with Prime Minister Modi" when he met French President Francois Hollande at the G20 summit in China earlier this month.

Abandoning discretion, Iranians proclaim their role in Syrian war Posted: 21 Sep 2016 10:22 AM PDT By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Babak Dehghanpisheh DUBAI/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Abandoning a long-standing reticence, Iranians are increasingly candid about their involvement in Syria's war, and informal recruiters are now openly calling for volunteers to defend the Islamic Republic and fellow Shi'ites against Sunni militants. With public opinion swinging behind the cause, numbers of would-be fighters have soared far beyond what Tehran is prepared to deploy in Syria, according to former fighters who spoke to Reuters, and commanders quoted by Iranian media. ...

Rescued Yazidi sex slaves will face no stigma, leader says Posted: 21 Sep 2016 10:07 AM PDT By Lin Taylor LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Yazidi women who have been raped, enslaved or married off to Islamic State militants in Iraq will be welcomed back into the community, the leader of the minority group said on Wednesday, in a gesture to help remove the stigma of rape. Speaking at an event in London, Prince Tahseen Saeed Ali urged the international community to rescue Yazidi women and children still enslaved by Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

Iraq's finance minister dismissed amid economic crisis Posted: 21 Sep 2016 09:53 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's parliament dismissed the finance minister after a no-confidence vote on Wednesday, a move that risks further upsetting the country's already precarious economic situation.

Britain's MI6 spy chief says Islamist terrorist threat is here to stay Posted: 21 Sep 2016 09:51 AM PDT By Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - The Islamist terrorist threat to the West will endure for years to come because simply taking back territory from Islamic State will not solve the deeper global fractures which have fostered militants, Britain's foreign intelligence chief has said. In his first public comments outside Britain, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service said globalization, the information revolution, a deepening sectarian divide in the Middle East and failed states would ensure that terrorism remained a threat. When asked by the Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan at a panel discussion in Washington whether the apex of the Islamist terrorist trajectory had been reached, MI6 chief Alex Younger said: "Regrettably this is an enduring issue which will certainly be with us for our professional lifetime." "I would have to forecast that whilst it is wholly desirable to remove territory you will have a persistent threat representing some of the deep fault lines that still exist in our world," he said.

Who are America's 'super' gun-owners? Posted: 21 Sep 2016 09:17 AM PDT America may hold a reputation as a country of gun owners, but a new survey shows that roughly half of the nation's weapons are owned by just three percent of the population. Three percent of Americans own eight or more firearms, a cumulative 133 million of the country's 265 million weapons, according to an unpublished survey from Harvard University and Northeastern University, whose results were reported by the Guardian and The Trace on Monday. While many gun owners are staunch in their defense of what they consider their Second Amendment right to protect themselves, some experts say that the fear that motivates many to accumulate weapons can be dangerous in its own right.

UK's Tate galleries acquire replica of anti-war protest camp Posted: 21 Sep 2016 08:06 AM PDT LONDON (AP) — A replica of an anti-war protest camp that stood outside Britain's Parliament for a decade has been acquired by the country's most visited group of art museums, the Tate.

Iraqi finance minister sacked, risking economic fallout Posted: 21 Sep 2016 07:20 AM PDT By Saif Hameed and Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament sacked Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari on Wednesday over corruption allegations, a move that risks further destabilizing the major OPEC producer's fragile economy as it struggles with a massive budget deficit. Zebari, a prominent Kurdish figure who had served as Iraq's foreign minister for more than a decade, has recently led high-level negotiations for a loan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and with international lenders for a Eurobond. Iraq's economy, which relies almost exclusively on oil revenue, has been battered by a drop in crude prices and the costs associated with the war against Islamic State, which seized a third of the country in 2014.

Iraq MPs vote to sack finance minister after graft allegations Posted: 21 Sep 2016 07:12 AM PDT Iraq's parliament voted on Wednesday to remove the country's finance minister, who was questioned over corruption allegations last month, lawmakers said. The removal of Hoshyar Zebari, who has served in every government since 2003, comes as Iraq faces a major budget shortfall that it is to help address with funding from the International Monetary Fund. Of 249 parliament members in attendance, 158 voted to sack Zebari, who became finance minister in 2014 after a long career at the helm of the country's foreign ministry, two MPs told AFP.

Iraqi forces ready by 'early October' for Mosul assault: top US officer Posted: 21 Sep 2016 06:59 AM PDT Iraqi security forces will be ready by next month for an assault on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, the top general in the US military said Wednesday. "We assess today that the Iraqis will have in early October all the forces marshaled, trained, fielded, equipped that are necessary for operations in Mosul," General Joe Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a military event in Washington. Iraqi forces have been moving northwards from Baghdad for almost two years, gradually retaking areas over which IS declared its "caliphate" in June 2014.

Iran 'determined' to boost military after US-Israel deal Posted: 21 Sep 2016 04:45 AM PDT TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's chief of staff of the armed forces said Wednesday a $38 billion aid deal between the United States and Israel makes Iran more determined to strengthen its military.

Iran parades new weapons at time of Gulf tension with U.S. Posted: 21 Sep 2016 04:05 AM PDT By Babak Dehghanpisheh BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran marked the anniversary of its 1980 invasion by Iraq by showing off its latest ships and missiles and telling the United States not to meddle in the Gulf. At a parade in Tehran on Wednesday, shown on state TV, the military displayed long-range missiles, tanks, and the Russian-supplied S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system. U.S. officials say there have been more than 30 close encounters between U.S. and Iranian vessels in the Gulf so far this year, over twice as many as in the same period of 2015.

Missiles, tanks on show at Iran military parade Posted: 21 Sep 2016 04:01 AM PDT Iran showed off missiles, warplanes, tanks and marching troops on Wednesday in a display of military strength in the face of growing regional tensions. The Islamic republic used the 36th anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war to parade arms including 16 ballistic missiles through Tehran. A new missile with multiple warheads, called Zolfaghar, was also on show with a threat directed at Iran's arch-rival Israel written on the side of the truck transporting it.

Iraqi forces close in on town south of Mosul Posted: 21 Sep 2016 03:54 AM PDT By Ghazwan Hassan TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's military closed in on Wednesday on the center of Shirqat, a northern town held by Islamic State seen as a stepping stone in the campaign to recapture the jihadists' stronghold of Mosul. The army, backed by local police and Sunni Muslim tribal fighters, have taken 12 nearby villages since launching the operation on Tuesday morning, said Ali Dawdah, the mayor of Shirqat currently based in Erbil. Five security personnel and one civilian have been killed in the battle for Shirqat, where they face hazards including roadside bombs, mortars and snipers, said the mayor and a source in the Salahuddin Operations Command which oversees military operations in the area.

What Congress Is Actually Good at Posted: 21 Sep 2016 01:30 AM PDT Let's be honest: It's fun to mock Congress as a pack of self-serving, short-sighted, do-nothing clowns incapable of legislating their way out of a paper bag. It's fun because, in so many regards, it's true. Particularly when it comes to funding the government, dysfunction rules--to the point where it's considered a miracle when lawmakers pass even two or three appropriations bills through regular order before the process devolves into a mishmash of standoffs, continuing resolutions, omnibuses, and/or "minibuses."

Watch THE CONTENDERS - 16 FOR '16: EPISODE TWO Right Now Posted: 21 Sep 2016 01:00 AM PDT Check out the second episode, featuring Howard Dean and Pat Buchanan, right here.

Protests put Asian refs on the spot Posted: 20 Sep 2016 09:14 PM PDT A rash of complaints about controversial decisions has put Asia's football referees on the spot despite strenuous efforts to raise standards. Japan and Thailand both lodged official protests after key decisions went against them in this month's World Cup qualifiers, while standards are mixed at club level. Japan were incensed after Takuma Asano's shot crossed the line against the United Arab Emirates, but went unnoticed by Qatari ref Abdulrahman Al Jassim.

Samantha Bee: NBC Enables Donald Trump's "Thinly Veiled Racism" Posted: 20 Sep 2016 09:00 PM PDT "We were just done with these gossamer-light interviews of this person and the continued normalization of deplorable," said the TBS late-night star. "We'd just had it."

US cousins draw long prison terms over conspiring to help IS Posted: 20 Sep 2016 06:23 PM PDT An American soldier and his cousin were sentenced to jail terms of up to 30 years over a plot to attack a suburban Chicago military base and cause mass fatalities. The men pleaded guilty in December 2015 to conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group. Hasan Edmonds, 24, was a soldier in the US Army National Guard when he began communicating online in January with an FBI agent pretending to be an Islamic State fighter in Libya.

France charges two with suspected jihadist links Posted: 20 Sep 2016 05:23 PM PDT Two men allegedly linked to French extremist Rachid Kassim have been charged with "associating with terrorists", Paris prosecutors said Wednesday. The men, aged 30 and 39, were arrested last Friday in the eastern towns of Dole and Roanne -- the hometown of Kassim, seen as one of the most dangerous French-speaking propagandists for the Islamic State group. Kassim, 29, is suspected of using the encrypted Telegram app to direct attacks on France from IS-controlled territory in Iraq or Syria.

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