| IRAQ GREEN ZONE Posted: 30 Apr 2016 01:15 PM PDT Map shows the Green Zone in Baghdad and locates the Iraqi parliament and U.S. Embassy; 2c x 3 inches; 96.3 mm x 76 mm; |
| Protesters storm parliament in Iraq's Green Zone Posted: 30 Apr 2016 01:11 PM PDT  Thousands of angry protesters broke into Baghdad's fortified Green Zone area on Saturday and stormed the Iraqi parliament building after lawmakers again failed to approve new ministers. Jubilant crowds, most of them supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, invaded the main session hall, shouting slogans glorifying their leader and claiming that they had rooted out corruption. The capital was already on high alert for a major Shiite pilgrimage, participants in which were targeted in a bombing that killed 23 on Saturday, but extra security measures were taken after protesters stormed the Green Zone.
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| Iraq forces in major offensive on IS-held town Posted: 30 Apr 2016 01:10 PM PDT  Iraqi forces launched a final assault Saturday to retake the Turkmen majority town of Bashir from the Islamic State jihadist group, Kurdish authorities said. Pressure for an operation to retake the town had grown in March after IS launched a chemical attack from Bashir on the nearby town of Taza that killed at least three children. "Bashir village is surrounded and 80 percent has been cleared," the Kurdistan Region Security Council said on social media.
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| Sadr followers dig in inside Baghdad's Green Zone, political crisis deepens Posted: 30 Apr 2016 12:53 PM PDT  By Stephen Kalin and Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Hundreds of supporters of Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stormed parliament inside Baghdad's Green Zone on Saturday and camped out nearby after Sadr denounced politicians' failure to reform a political quota system blamed for rampant corruption. The protesters, who had gathered outside the heavily fortified central district housing government buildings and many foreign embassies, crossed a bridge over the Tigris River chanting: "The cowards ran away!" in apparent reference to departing lawmakers. The initial breach was mostly peaceful, but around sunset security forces fired teargas and bullets into the air in an effort to stop more protesters from entering.
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| Moqtada al-Sadr: Iraq's powerful unpredictable cleric Posted: 30 Apr 2016 12:46 PM PDT  Moqtada al-Sadr is the scion of an influential clerical family who raised a rebellion after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and has now reinvented himself as a reform champion. Sadr, who has a grey-streaked, bushy black beard and wears the black turban of a "sayyid" or descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, gained widespread popularity in the months after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Sadr's intervention revitalised a moribund pro-reform protest movement, but it has also positioned him to wield a level of direct political influence that he has not had in years.
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| UK strikes in Syria, Iraq kill 1,000 IS fighters: Ministry of Defence Posted: 30 Apr 2016 12:23 PM PDT  British air strikes have killed nearly 1,000 fighters of the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq in the past 18 months, according to new Ministry of Defence figures. Figures released under Freedom of Information laws revealed 974 militants were killed in Royal Air Force (RAF) strikes in Iraq between September 2014, when the British bombing campaign began, and last month. Another 22 were killed in Syria between January and March this year, following the decision by the British parliament to extend the mission to Syria in December.
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| Iraqi protesters pour into Green Zone, storm parliament Posted: 30 Apr 2016 11:08 AM PDT  Anti-government protesters tore down walls and poured into the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified Green Zone on Saturday, where they stormed parliament in a major escalation of a political crisis that has ...
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| The Latest: Iraq PM says situation in Baghdad under control Posted: 30 Apr 2016 10:32 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — The Latest on anti-government protests in Iraq (all times local):
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| Protesters start leaving Iraq parliament: AFP photographer Posted: 30 Apr 2016 10:20 AM PDT Baghdad (AFP) - Iraqi protesters, most of them supporters of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, were leaving the parliament building they stormed earlier on Saturday, an AFP photographer reported. |
| Germany to ask European Commission to allow extension of border controls Posted: 30 Apr 2016 06:19 AM PDT  Germany will ask the European Commission to allow an extension of temporary border controls within the Schengen zone of passport-free travel beyond mid-May, Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere said on Saturday. Germany and some other European Union members have introduced temporary border checks to control or halt record flows of migrants fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere and traveling to western Europe via the Balkans. Germany took in more than one million migrants last year.
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| Turkish airstrikes target Kurdish rebels overnight Posted: 30 Apr 2016 03:44 AM PDT ISTANBUL (AP) — The Turkish military says it conducted overnight airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey. |
| IS claims responsibility for Baghdad bombing that killed 21 Posted: 30 Apr 2016 03:43 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a bombing Saturday east of Baghdad, according to a statement posted on an IS-affiliated website. The attack killed at least 21 people and wounded at least 42 others, according to Iraqi police and hospital officials. The IS statement described the attack as a three-ton truck bombing.
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| Bomb attack on Shi'ite pilgrims in Baghdad kills at least 19: sources Posted: 30 Apr 2016 03:24 AM PDT  A suicide bomber driving a car killed at least 19 people and wounded 48 others on Saturday in an attack claimed by Islamic State on a group of Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims in a southeastern suburb of Baghdad, Iraqi police sources said. A second explosion near a Shi'ite militia checkpoint in the capital's Dora district killed two and wounded three others, police sources said. Amaq news agency, which supports Islamic State, said a fighter in the Nahrawan district had driven a truck loaded with three tonnes of explosives into the gathering of Shi'ite pilgrims.
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| Turkish warplanes hit PKK targets in southeast Turkey, northern Iraq: sources Posted: 30 Apr 2016 01:53 AM PDT  The Turkish army carried out air strikes in rural parts of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, targeting logistics posts used by Kurdish militants, security sources said on Saturday. Twenty jets took off from Diyarbakir air base late on Friday and bombed sites used by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants for food and weapons support in Hakurk, Avasin and Qandil in northern Iraq, the sources said. Two separate rounds of air bombardments were carried out in Sirnak province near the Iraq border after receiving an intelligence tip-off, the sources said.
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| Bomb attack on pilgrims kills 23 in Iraq as hundreds protest Posted: 29 Apr 2016 05:03 PM PDT  A car bomb targeting Shiite pilgrims killed at least 23 people near Baghdad on Saturday, as hundreds protested in the capital for reforms and parliament made another attempt to reshuffle the cabinet. Iraq has been hit by weeks of political turmoil surrounding Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's efforts to change the government. Both Washington and the United Nations have warned the crisis could distract from the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, which carries out frequent bombings against civilians.
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| Unpredictable and Deadly: North Sinai’s Insurgency Posted: 29 Apr 2016 05:00 PM PDT  Welcome to one of the most unruly, dangerous and unreported places on the planet.
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