Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Special Report: Yemen's guerrilla war tests military ambitions of big-spending Saudis
• Islamic State gains ground in Syria's Deir al-Zor city: monitor
• Sept. 11 families upset by White House effort to derail bill
• Danish lawmakers back expanding IS fight from Iraq to Syria
• AJC Supports IsraAid Relief Efforts in Ecuador
• US sanctions head of Libya's Islamist-backed government
• Iraqi police find 2 mass graves in Islamic State-free Ramadi
• Sending more US troops to Iraq fits a 2-year pattern
• The Latest: US to press on for transition to end Syria war
• U.S. Must Act to Stop Genocide, Support Peace and Ensure Equality for Survivors
• Sierra Leone 'helped deploy ex-child soldiers to Iraq', academic says
• The Latest: Pope asks migrants to forgive indifference
• The Cost of the War Against ISIS: $7 Billion and Counting
• Denmark expands military mission against Islamic State into Syria
• French leader worried about suspension of Syria talks
• UN chief slams 'deeply worrying' attacks on refugees
• Washington seeks Gulf special force, naval cooperation
• Turkey kills 32 IS fighters in Iraq after attack on tank
• The Atlantic 's May Issue: The Money Report
• Hollande 'worried' over Syria talks, pledges Jordan support
• Who speaks for Saudi Arabia on oil, rivals and allies wonder
• Turkey wants coalition help at Syrian border as Islamic State rockets pummel town
• In Saudi visit, Obama faces 'curveball' in ties with kingdom
• Turkey kills 32 suspected Islamic State militants after attack in Iraq: CNN Turk
• Iraqi parliament fails to vote on fate of its speaker
• Iraq speaker suspends parliament 'until further notice'
• Head of German anti-Islam group on trial for hate speech
• Turkish warplanes hits Kurdish militant PKK targets in Iraq: statement
• Italy braces for summer migrant arrivals as EU solidarity wavers
• U.S. leads 18 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq, Syria: statement
• Iraq's Mosul will eventually be retaken from IS: Obama
• Syrian government says Assad's future not up for discussion
• Boko Haram still a threat months after 'technical victory'
• Quotations in the News
• Spain arrests Moroccan accused of links to Islamist militants
• US to deploy more forces to back Iraq's anti-IS war
• 10 Things to Know for Tuesday
• Obama: U.S. giving more support to Iraq as it fights Islamic State

Special Report: Yemen's guerrilla war tests military ambitions of big-spending Saudis Posted: 19 Apr 2016 03:23 PM PDT The United States would sell scores of F-15 fighters, Apache attack helicopters and other advanced weaponry to the oil-rich kingdom. The arms, both sides hoped, would fortify the Saudis against their aggressive arch-rival in the region, Iran. The biggest stumble has come in Yemen.

Islamic State gains ground in Syria's Deir al-Zor city: monitor Posted: 19 Apr 2016 02:57 PM PDT Islamic State militants seized Syrian government-controlled territory in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Tuesday, a war monitor and a news agency affiliated with the ultra-hardline Islamist group said. Islamic State took complete control of the city's industrial district after fierce clashes with Syrian government and allied forces, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The militant group captured nearly all of Deir al-Zor province, which borders Iraq, after seizing the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014.

Sept. 11 families upset by White House effort to derail bill Posted: 19 Apr 2016 01:34 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Families of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks say they are "greatly distressed" that the Obama administration is working to derail legislation giving them the right to sue the government of Saudi Arabia for any role that elements of the Saudi government may have played in the attack.

Danish lawmakers back expanding IS fight from Iraq to Syria Posted: 19 Apr 2016 01:16 PM PDT Danish lawmakers on Tuesday approved a plan to commit F-16 warplanes, a transport aircraft and 400 military personnel to expand the country's fight against the Islamic State jihadist group from Iraq to Syria. In a 90-19 vote, only three small leftist parties opposed the proposal, which was announced last month by Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen. "The brutal and ruthless terrorist organisation IS should meet a powerful response from the outside world," Rasmussen said in a statement.

AJC Supports IsraAid Relief Efforts in Ecuador Posted: 19 Apr 2016 12:54 PM PDT NEW YORK, April 19, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC is partnering with IsraAid, the Israeli humanitarian relief organization, to provide emergency assistance in Ecuador, struck by a devastating earthquake."We mourn with the people of Ecuador who lost loved ones and pray for the recovery of the many injured and their severely damaged communities," said Dina Siegel Vann, director of AJC's Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs. ...

US sanctions head of Libya's Islamist-backed government Posted: 19 Apr 2016 12:27 PM PDT The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday on the head of Libya's Islamist-backed government in Tripoli, accusing him of threatening stability in Libya and undermining the new U.N.-brokered unity government. ...

Iraqi police find 2 mass graves in Islamic State-free Ramadi Posted: 19 Apr 2016 12:15 PM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi police on Tuesday unearthed two mass graves in the western city of Ramadi, with bodies of about 40 people killed by Islamic State militants during the militant Sunni group's reign of terror in the city, officials said.

Sending more US troops to Iraq fits a 2-year pattern Posted: 19 Apr 2016 11:54 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's decision to send still more American troops to Iraq, and to put military advisers closer to the front lines against the Islamic State, fits a pattern of ever-deepening involvement in a country whose war Obama exited with supposed finality in December 2011.

The Latest: US to press on for transition to end Syria war Posted: 19 Apr 2016 11:37 AM PDT BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria as escalating violence in the north has prompted opposition representatives to suspend participation in U.N.-sponsored peace talks (all times local):

U.S. Must Act to Stop Genocide, Support Peace and Ensure Equality for Survivors Posted: 19 Apr 2016 11:00 AM PDT WASHINGTON, April 19, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In addition to helping stop the genocide of Christians and others now taking place in the Middle East, the United States must act to prevent its recurrence and to assure the future of the affected communities, according to testimony offered to members of Congress by Carl Anderson, CEO of the Knights of Columbus. "Their future affects not only the fates of Christianity and other minority religions in Iraq and Syria," said Carl Anderson, testifying before Congress' Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on April 19. In the wake of Secretary of State John Kerry's March 17 declaration that a genocide is taking place, Anderson, whose organization produced a nearly 300-page report for the State Department on the ongoing genocide, recommended that U.S. policymakers follow up on the designation by focusing on five key areas.

Sierra Leone 'helped deploy ex-child soldiers to Iraq', academic says Posted: 19 Apr 2016 10:50 AM PDT By Tom Esslemont LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Sierra Leone's government helped British private security service firms recruit former child soldiers to work as guards in Iraq from 2009, said a Danish academic who has spent years investigating the issue. By 2009, with Iraq in chaos, impoverished Sierra Leone was looking for a way to engage its workforce, said Maya Mynster Christensen, a researcher at the Danish Institute Against Torture who made repeated trips to the West African country. "From a Sierra Leone government perspective the recruitment was supposedly quite a good deal because it could take the local troublemakers and send them to Iraq for a couple of years," the anthropologist told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The Latest: Pope asks migrants to forgive indifference Posted: 19 Apr 2016 10:48 AM PDT ISTANBUL (AP) — The Latest on Europe's efforts to cope with the influx of migrants (all times local):

The Cost of the War Against ISIS: $7 Billion and Counting Posted: 19 Apr 2016 10:37 AM PDT The war against the Islamic State has now cost American taxpayers more than $7 billion, a figure that could increase dramatically as the U.S. prepares to send 200 more troops to Iraq to help fight the extremist network. As of March 15, the price tag for 568 days of war was $6.8 billion, with an average cost of $11.5 million per day, according to a Defense Department report released on Tuesday.

Denmark expands military mission against Islamic State into Syria Posted: 19 Apr 2016 10:25 AM PDT Denmark said on Tuesday it will expand its mission against Islamic State into Syria as well as Iraq, as part of a U.S.-led coalition now operating in the region. Parliament approved deploying seven F-16 fighters, a C-130J transport aircraft and military personal, including special operations forces and support staff, for the Syria campaign. Denmark took part in coalition air strikes from October 2014 to October 2015 in Iraq, but not in Syria.

French leader worried about suspension of Syria talks Posted: 19 Apr 2016 10:07 AM PDT AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — French President Francois Hollande expressed concern over the suspension of Geneva peace talks on ending Syria's civil, saying Tuesday the development was "very worrying."

UN chief slams 'deeply worrying' attacks on refugees Posted: 19 Apr 2016 09:56 AM PDT UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday denounced rising attacks on migrants and refugees, calling for "political will" to resolve the root causes of Europe's worst migration crisis in decades. "The continuing increase in anti-migrant and anti-refugee rhetoric and violent attacks against these communities... across all Europe is deeply worrying," Ban told a press conference in The Hague. Europe is currently grappling with its worst migrant crisis since World War II. Over one million people crossed clandestinely from Turkey to Greece in 2015 and more than 150,000 have made the trip since the start of this year.

Washington seeks Gulf special force, naval cooperation Posted: 19 Apr 2016 09:46 AM PDT The United States is seeking greater special forces and naval cooperation with the Gulf states to counter Iran's "destabilising activities" in the region, a senior American official said. Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, who arrived in the Saudi capital on Tuesday, will meet his Gulf counterparts on Wednesday. The following day he is expected to join President Barack Obama at a summit with monarchs of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states.

Turkey kills 32 IS fighters in Iraq after attack on tank Posted: 19 Apr 2016 09:34 AM PDT The Turkish army killed 32 suspected fighters from the Islamic State group in northern Iraq on Tuesday following an attack on one of its tanks, Turkish media reported. Turkish troops destroyed a building used by IS, killing 10 jihadists, and then killed another 22 who tried to flee the scene, the Anatolia news agency said. Dogan news agency said the tank crew was unhurt and that they had fired back in response, shelling the building from which the fire came and causing it to collapse, killing 10 jihadists.

The Atlantic 's May Issue: The Money Report Posted: 19 Apr 2016 09:28 AM PDT Neal Gabler on "The Secret Shame of the Middle Class;" plus: the violent aftermath of ISIS; the case for loan sharks; how Islam created Europe; what real socialists think about Bernie Sanders

Hollande 'worried' over Syria talks, pledges Jordan support Posted: 19 Apr 2016 09:27 AM PDT French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday that the Syrian opposition's decision to suspend participation in peace talks was "worrying", as he offered to support Jordan in dealing with refugees fleeing the five-year conflict. Speaking a day after Syria's main opposition announced its formal participation in peace negotiations in Geneva was on hold, Hollande said he was concerned a ceasefire that has dramatically reduced fighting across Syria might not last. There will be no hope," Hollande said after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Who speaks for Saudi Arabia on oil, rivals and allies wonder Posted: 19 Apr 2016 09:16 AM PDT By Rania El Gamal, Vladimir Soldatkin and Dmitry Zhdannikov MOSCOW/DOHA (Reuters) - As far as Venezuelan oil minister Eulogio Del Pino is concerned, his counterpart Ali al-Naimi, the world's most influential oil official for the past two decades, is no longer the voice of authority for Saudi Arabia. Del Pino is still trying to find who is. As prospects for the first deal between OPEC and non-OPEC in 15 years faded on Sunday due to last-minute demands from Saudi Arabia, ministers gathered in Qatar appealed to Naimi to save the agreement, Del Pino said.

Turkey wants coalition help at Syrian border as Islamic State rockets pummel town Posted: 19 Apr 2016 08:49 AM PDT By Orhan Coskun and Tulay Karadeniz ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey may call on the U.S.-led coalition to take stronger action in its fight against Islamic State along its border with Syria, Turkish officials said on Tuesday, as the border town of Kilis came under rocket fire for a second straight day. Turkish forces returned fire into an Islamic State-controlled region of Syria after three rockets hit Kilis, a security official said. As part of the U.S.-led coalition, NATO member Turkey is fighting Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq.

In Saudi visit, Obama faces 'curveball' in ties with kingdom Posted: 19 Apr 2016 08:35 AM PDT DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — When President Barack Obama arrives in the Saudi capital on Wednesday, he'll face an increasingly assertive leadership still heavily dependent on U.S. weapons and military might that nonetheless has little trust in him and essentially believes it's been thrown a curveball.

Turkey kills 32 suspected Islamic State militants after attack in Iraq: CNN Turk Posted: 19 Apr 2016 08:09 AM PDT Turkish armed forces on Tuesday killed 32 suspected Islamic State militants in the Bashiqa area of northern Iraq in response to an attack on a Turkish tank at a military camp there, broadcaster CNN Turk reported. CNN Turk said Turkish soldiers had killed 10 Islamic State militants during an operation that destroyed a building, and had killed another 22 militants as they fled. NATO member Turkey has soldiers stationed at the Bashiqa camp near the city of Mosul, which it says are training local forces to fight Islamic State.

Iraqi parliament fails to vote on fate of its speaker Posted: 19 Apr 2016 07:50 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi lawmakers on Tuesday failed to vote on the fate of the parliament speaker, prolonging the country's simmering political crisis amid the fight to dislodge Islamic State extremists from vast areas in northern and western Iraq.

Iraq speaker suspends parliament 'until further notice' Posted: 19 Apr 2016 07:46 AM PDT Embattled Iraqi parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi Tuesday announced the suspension of parliament sessions "until further notice" after a week of turmoil during which lawmakers brawled and sought to sack him. The political crisis comes as Iraq battles the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran large areas in 2014, and contends with a serious economic crisis caused by low oil prices and years of mismanagement and corruption. "I announce the suspension of sessions... of the Iraqi parliament until further notice," Juburi said in a statement.

Head of German anti-Islam group on trial for hate speech Posted: 19 Apr 2016 06:05 AM PDT The founder of Germany's xenophobic and anti-Islamic Pegida movement went on trial Tuesday on hate speech charges for allegedly branding refugees "cattle" and "scum" on social media. Lutz Bachmann, founder of the far-right "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" movement, was charged in October with inciting racial hatred through a series of widely-shared Facebook posts. The trial was held under tight security in Dresden in the former communist east, the birthplace of Pegida, which bitterly opposes Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal migration policy that brought more than one million asylum seekers to Germany last year.

Turkish warplanes hits Kurdish militant PKK targets in Iraq: statement Posted: 19 Apr 2016 05:52 AM PDT Turkish warplanes struck targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq on Monday, the military said in a statement on Tuesday. Thousands of militants and hundreds of civilians and soldiers have been killed since the PKK resumed its fight for Kurdish autonomy last summer, ending a 2-1/2-year ceasefire and shattering peace efforts. Turkish warplanes have frequently struck PKK targets since the conflict revived, mainly hitting the group's bases in northern Iraq.

Italy braces for summer migrant arrivals as EU solidarity wavers Posted: 19 Apr 2016 05:40 AM PDT By Steve Scherer ROME (Reuters) - Italy is bracing for an expected rush of boat migrants this summer as the European Union's failed relocation programme ratchets up pressure on the country's shelter system, a top immigration official said. Mario Morcone, the official in charge of managing Italy's immigration system, told Reuters that arrivals were up slightly this year over 2015, when more than 150,000 migrants came by boat, mostly from Libya. As of Monday, about 25,000 boat migrants had come to Italy, compared with just under 24,000 during the same period last year, an increase of 4.7 percent, according to the Interior Ministry.

U.S. leads 18 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq, Syria: statement Posted: 19 Apr 2016 04:33 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies staged 17 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and one in Syria on Monday in the coalition's latest operation against the militant group, the U.S military said in a statement. The strikes in Iraq near eight cities were concentrated near Mosul, where seven strikes hit an Islamic State improvised explosive devices factory, three tactical units and three supply caches, among other targets, the Combined Joint Task Force said in the statement released on Tuesday. ...

Iraq's Mosul will eventually be retaken from IS: Obama Posted: 19 Apr 2016 02:40 AM PDT US President Barack Obama said he expects Iraq's second city Mosul to be retaken from the Islamic State group "eventually". Obama's comments in an interview with CBS News on Monday came on the same day that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Washington would send Apache attack helicopters and more troops to Iraq. "As we see the Iraqis willing to fight and gaining ground, let's make sure that we're providing them more support," Obama said.

Syrian government says Assad's future not up for discussion Posted: 19 Apr 2016 01:09 AM PDT The Syrian government's chief negotiator said President Bashar al-Assad's future was not up for discussion at peace talks, underlining the bleak prospects for reviving U.N.-led negotiations postponed by the opposition. Bashar Ja'afari, speaking to Lebanese TV station al Mayadeen, also said his team was pushing for an expanded government as the solution to the war - an idea rejected by the opposition fighting for five years to topple Assad. Ja'afari was reiterating the Syrian government's position as spelt out last month ahead of the latest round of talks, indicating no shift on the part of Damascus as it continues to enjoy firm military backing from Russia and Iran.

Boko Haram still a threat months after 'technical victory' Posted: 19 Apr 2016 12:28 AM PDT MAROUA, Cameroon (AP) — Here on the front line against Boko Haram, no one boasts of having "technically" won the war.

Quotations in the News Posted: 19 Apr 2016 12:01 AM PDT "My expectation is that by the end of the year we will have created the conditions whereby Mosul will eventually fall." — President Barack Obama in an interview with CBS after the U.S. agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send eight Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group.

Spain arrests Moroccan accused of links to Islamist militants Posted: 18 Apr 2016 11:48 PM PDT Spanish police arrested a Moroccan man on the island of Mallora early on Tuesday on suspicion of having close links to Islamist militants, the Interior Ministry said in statement. The man, who was not named, is also accused of recruiting fighters to join forces in Syria and Iraq and of being in charge of commissioning potential attacks in Spain and across Europe, the ministry said. Spain has detained 19 people with reported connections to Islamist militants since the start of the year.

US to deploy more forces to back Iraq's anti-IS war Posted: 18 Apr 2016 08:00 PM PDT The United States will send Apache attack helicopters and more troops to Iraq, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in Baghdad Monday, as the coalition weighs retaking second city Mosul from the Islamic State group. President Barack Obama hailed the 2011 withdrawal of American troops from Iraq as a major accomplishment of his presidency, but the US has been steadily drawn back into the country since IS jihadists overran swathes of territory in 2014. Washington heads an international coalition that is carrying out strikes against IS and also providing training and other assistance to forces fighting the jihadists in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

10 Things to Know for Tuesday Posted: 18 Apr 2016 06:08 PM PDT Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:

Obama: U.S. giving more support to Iraq as it fights Islamic State Posted: 18 Apr 2016 06:01 PM PDT President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Monday that the United States is providing more support to Iraq as its military moves to take back territory from Islamic State, and he expects the city of Mosul will be retaken eventually. "As we see the Iraqis willing to fight and gaining ground, let's make sure that we are providing them more support," Obama said in an interview with CBS News. U.S. officials announced in Baghdad on Monday the United States will deploy about 200 additional troops, mostly as advisers for Iraqi troops as they advance toward Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still under Islamic State control.

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