Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• UN diplomat says Islamic State seeking new revenue streams
• Australia says top IS recruiter killed in US air strike in Iraq
• Slain Navy SEAL took lessons from running track into combat
• Australian Islamic State recruiter killed in U.S. airstrike in Iraq
• Iraq PM sacks commander after Green Zone breach: statement
• Slain Navy SEAL was part of US rescue squad
• Army captain sues Obama; says he lacks authority to fight IS
• U.S., allies agree to do more to combat Islamic State
• Turkish ruling party preparing to replace PM Davutoglu: officials
• Hillicans? As Trump wins, Clinton explores how to woo GOPers
• Oil turns lower after bigger-than-forecast U.S. crude build
• Iranian commander threatens to close Strait of Hormuz to US
• US wins pledge of more resources from anti-IS allies
• Navy SEAL killed in Iraq was part of rescue team
• Battles rage in Aleppo as diplomats scramble to save truce
• U.S. Navy SEAL killed in Iraq was part of 'quick reaction force'
• Relief in Yemen's Mukalla after year of Qaeda rule
• Explosions hit two oil wells in northern Iraq's Kirkuk: sources
• EU backs Turkey visa-free travel, fines for refusing refugees
• U.S., allies target Islamic State in Mosul with 10 strikes: statement
• The Peculiar Language of Soldiers
• Turkey could send ground troops into Syria in self-defense: PM
• Iraq's all-female combat unit seeks revenge on Islamic State
• Coalition vows to build up further against Islamic State
• Turkish PM under pressure as rift with Erdogan deepens
• U.S. warns of more risks in Iraq after Navy SEAL's death
• 10 Things to Know for Today
• Obama's Secret Troop Deployments Cost Taxpayers
• Islamic State seeks news blackout in Mosul as Iraqi army nears
• Kenya says arrests key member of militant group plotting attacks
• 9 Muslim Albanians jailed for recruiting for terror groups
• Quotations in the News
• Kerry warns Assad as truce talks shift to Berlin
• Sanders: Clinton team thinks race 'is over. They're wrong'
• Islamic State kills U.S. Navy SEAL in northern Iraq

UN diplomat says Islamic State seeking new revenue streams Posted: 04 May 2016 04:49 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The chair of the U.N. committee monitoring sanctions against extremists says the Islamic State group is looking to increase revenue from taxation, smuggling antiquities "and potentially kidnap for ransom" following the loss of some territory and destruction of oil facilities.

Australia says top IS recruiter killed in US air strike in Iraq Posted: 04 May 2016 04:06 PM PDT Australia's most wanted Islamic State terror suspect, who was linked to several attacks on home soil, has been killed in a US air strike in Iraq, Canberra said on Thursday. The death of Neil Prakash is considered significant by Australian and American authorities because of his highly prominent and influential role as a senior recruiter for the jihadist group. Attorney General George Brandis said Washington had told Canberra that Prakash was killed in Mosul, Iraq, on April 29.

Slain Navy SEAL took lessons from running track into combat Posted: 04 May 2016 04:04 PM PDT PHOENIX (AP) — In cross-country running, your team is only as fast as your slowest athlete. Slain Navy SEAL Charlie Keating IV took that to heart in his youth as a track star, turning around to cheer on his teammates after he crossed the finish line.

Australian Islamic State recruiter killed in U.S. airstrike in Iraq Posted: 04 May 2016 03:52 PM PDT An Australian citizen believed to be a top recruiter for the Islamic State has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, disrupting the militant group's ability to lure new fighters, the Australian government said on Thursday. Attorney-General George Brandis said the United States had advised him that Prakash, who was linked to several Australia-based attack plans and calls for lone-wolf attacks against the United States, was killed in an airstrike in Mosul on April 29.

Iraq PM sacks commander after Green Zone breach: statement Posted: 04 May 2016 03:11 PM PDT Iraq's premier sacked the commander of special forces in Baghdad's Green Zone after protesters breached the fortified area, a military statement said on Wednesday. The removal of Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed Ridha may indicate that security forces will take a harder line against demonstrators who are expected to protest later this week. Angry demonstrators, most of them supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, broke into the Green Zone and stormed parliament on Saturday in an unprecedented security breach.

Slain Navy SEAL was part of US rescue squad Posted: 04 May 2016 02:53 PM PDT A Navy SEAL who was killed by Islamic State fighters died while helping rescue a team of American troops from an unexpected firefight with the jihadists, an official said Wednesday. Charles Keating IV became the third US troop to be killed in the US-led coalition campaign against the IS group when he was struck by a bullet during a pitched battle on Tuesday. Keating, 31, from Arizona, was part of a "quick reaction force" comprised of special operations troops on a mission to support US military advisers working with local peshmerga forces, Baghdad-based US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.

Army captain sues Obama; says he lacks authority to fight IS Posted: 04 May 2016 02:50 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army captain sued President Barack Obama on Wednesday, alleging that he doesn't have the proper congressional authority to wage war against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.

U.S., allies agree to do more to combat Islamic State Posted: 04 May 2016 02:34 PM PDT By Phil Stewart STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday that Washington and its allies had agreed to do more in their campaign to defeat Islamic State but that more risks lay ahead. Carter made the comment following talks in Germany with defense ministers and representatives from 11 other nations participating in the alliance. "These risks will continue ... but allowing ISIL safe haven would carry greater risk for us all," he added, using an acronym for Islamic State.

Turkish ruling party preparing to replace PM Davutoglu: officials Posted: 04 May 2016 01:54 PM PDT By Orhan Coskun and Ercan Gurses ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's ruling party is set to replace Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at an extraordinary congress in the coming weeks, officials said on Wednesday, signaling the end of his term as premier and plunging the country into political uncertainty. The decision, confirmed to Reuters by five AK Party officials, came after a meeting of more than 1-1/2 hours between Davutoglu and President Tayyip Erdogan that followed weeks of increasingly public tension between the two men. Erdogan wants an executive presidency in Turkey to replace the current parliamentary system, a plan for which Davutoglu has offered only lukewarm support.

Hillicans? As Trump wins, Clinton explores how to woo GOPers Posted: 04 May 2016 12:50 PM PDT ATHENS, Ohio (AP) — With Donald Trump's remaining rivals bowing out of the race, clearing his path to the nomination, Hillary Clinton is looking for ways to woo Republicans turned off by the brash billionaire.

Oil turns lower after bigger-than-forecast U.S. crude build Posted: 04 May 2016 12:43 PM PDT By Jessica Resnick-Ault and Catherine Ngai NEW YORK (Reuters) - A bigger-than-expected build in U.S. crude inventories to fresh record highs pushed oil markets lower on Wednesday after an early rally over concerns about production cuts in Canada's oil sands region due to a wildfire. U.S. crude stocks, which have been setting record highs since January, grew 2.8 million barrels last week, government data showed, about a million barrels more than analysts' expectations. Gasoline stocks also posted a surprise increase.

Iranian commander threatens to close Strait of Hormuz to US Posted: 04 May 2016 12:14 PM PDT TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The deputy commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Iranian forces will close the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the United States and its allies if they "threaten" the Islamic Republic, Iranian state media reported Wednesday.

US wins pledge of more resources from anti-IS allies Posted: 04 May 2016 11:41 AM PDT A coalition of countries battling Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq pledged Wednesday to pour more resources into the fight, after coming under strong pressure from Washington for greater contributions. The promise came after a meeting in Stuttgart of defence ministers from countries involved in the anti-IS coalition, during which US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter drove home the message that to deal IS a body blow, "all must do more". Carter's call to step up the fight came a week after US President Barack Obama reiterated a long-standing demand for members of NATO to increase their defence spending to meet the alliance's target of two percent of output.

Navy SEAL killed in Iraq was part of rescue team Posted: 04 May 2016 11:13 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — A Navy SEAL killed during a firefight in Iraq was part of a quick reaction force that moved in to rescue U.S. military advisers from an Islamic State attack, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The attack triggered a massive coalition air response that destroyed equipment, buildings and killed up to 60 militants.

Battles rage in Aleppo as diplomats scramble to save truce Posted: 04 May 2016 09:59 AM PDT Fierce fighting raged in the war-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo and air strikes pounded rebels east of the capital Damascus on Wednesday as diplomats scrambled to salvage a collapsing truce. Intense international efforts to bring a halt to the latest surge in Syrian fighting continued, with talks between senior diplomats in Berlin and the UN Security Council set for an urgent meeting later Wednesday. The renewed violence has threatened the complete breakdown of a landmark ceasefire between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebels brokered by Moscow and Washington in late February.

U.S. Navy SEAL killed in Iraq was part of 'quick reaction force' Posted: 04 May 2016 09:58 AM PDT A U.S. Navy SEAL killed by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq on Tuesday was part of a "quick reaction force" called in after a firefight broke out involving American advisers, a U.S. military spokesman said on Wednesday. Islamic State militants breached the Kurdish forward lines at about 07:30 a.m. local time (12.30 a.m. ET) while an American team of advisers was at the village of Tel Asqof, approximately 3.5 km (2.2 miles) away, the spokesman said. The American advise and assist team called in the quick reaction force about 20 minutes later after becoming involved in a firefight with Islamic State forces, he said.

Relief in Yemen's Mukalla after year of Qaeda rule Posted: 04 May 2016 09:53 AM PDT Ten days after Gulf-backed forces drove Al-Qaeda out of the Yemeni port city of Mukalla, the signs of their harsh year-long rule are still everywhere for relieved residents to see. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took advantage of the chaos of fighting between pro-government forces and Iran-backed rebels to expand its control in southern Yemen, seizing Mukalla in April last year. AQAP ruled with an iron fist over the city of 200,000 people, capital of the vast desert province of Hadramawt.

Explosions hit two oil wells in northern Iraq's Kirkuk: sources Posted: 04 May 2016 08:42 AM PDT Explosions at two oil wells near territory controlled by Islamic State in northern Iraq halted production on Wednesday as firefighters worked to put out the flames, oil officials and security sources said. It was not immediately clear who had laid the charges at Khabbaz oilfield, 20 km (12 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, in a region under control of the Kurdish peshmerga forces. The field has a maximum production capacity of 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) but was producing around 10,000 bpd before the attack, said officials from the state-run North Oil Company that operates the reservoir.

EU backs Turkey visa-free travel, fines for refusing refugees Posted: 04 May 2016 08:37 AM PDT The EU on Wednesday gave conditional backing to visa-free travel for Turks under a migrant deal and unveiled new asylum rules including fines for countries that refuse their share of refugees. In its latest bid to tackle the biggest migration crisis since World War II, the European Commission proposed making countries pay a "solidarity contribution" of 250,000 euros ($290,000) per refugee they decline to take. Turkey has threatened to tear up a March agreement to take back migrants from Greece if the EU fails to keep its promise to allow nearly 80 million Turkish citizens to travel without visas to Europe.

U.S., allies target Islamic State in Mosul with 10 strikes: statement Posted: 04 May 2016 08:30 AM PDT The United States and its coalition partners on Tuesday launched 22 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq, including 10 near the key city of Mosul, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement released on Wednesday. The coalition is working alongside Iraqi forces to try and retake Mosul from the militant group's control. The strikes there hit an Islamic State headquarters and nine Islamic State units of fighters as well as various weaponry, including a heavy machine gun, three large machine guns, two weapons caches, and four mortar systems, the coalition said.

The Peculiar Language of Soldiers Posted: 04 May 2016 07:24 AM PDT JERUSALEM—"We have two flowers and one oleander. We need a thistle." Listening to the Israeli military frequencies when I was an infantryman nearly two decades ago, it was (and still is) possible to hear sentences like these, the bewildering cousins of sentences familiar to anyone following America's present-day wars. "Vegas is in a TIC," says a U.S. infantryman in Afghanistan in Sebastian Junger's book War. What does it all mean?

Turkey could send ground troops into Syria in self-defense: PM Posted: 04 May 2016 07:15 AM PDT Turkey is ready to send ground forces into Syria to tackle Islamic State militants if need be, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, as two more rockets fired by the group struck a border town. President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would respond to all rockets fired by Islamic State and vowed that the jihadists would suffer greater losses if they continued their aggression. Turkey has argued the case for ground troops in Syria in the past, although it has always said it would not mount a unilateral incursion unless its national security was threatened.

Iraq's all-female combat unit seeks revenge on Islamic State Posted: 04 May 2016 06:36 AM PDT By Emily Wither NAWARAN, Iraq (Reuters) - When Islamic State swept into the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar in 2014, a few young Yazidi women took up arms against the militants attacking women and girls from their community. "They took eight of my neighbors and I saw they were killing the children," Asema Dahir told Reuters last month at a checkpoint near a front line north of Mosul. Dressed in military fatigues, the 21-year-old is now part of an all-female unit in the Kurdish peshmerga forces, which have played an important role in pushing back Islamic State in northern Iraq.

Coalition vows to build up further against Islamic State Posted: 04 May 2016 05:36 AM PDT STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — An international coalition leading the military campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq agreed Wednesday to accelerate their contributions but did not publicly specify what those would be. The group also called on Iraqi leaders to reconcile political differences.

Turkish PM under pressure as rift with Erdogan deepens Posted: 04 May 2016 04:41 AM PDT By Orhan Coskun and Nick Tattersall ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's drive to tighten his grip on power has triggered an open rift with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, raising questions about the premier's future and troubling allies dependent on the NATO member's stability. The political uncertainty comes as Europe looks increasingly to Turkey for help in curbing a migration crisis and as Washington draws on Ankara's support in fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. At home, Turkey itself faces attacks by Kurdish militants and spillover of Syian violence.

U.S. warns of more risks in Iraq after Navy SEAL's death Posted: 04 May 2016 04:36 AM PDT STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter cautioned on Wednesday of risks ahead in the campaign against Islamic State as he confirmed the identity of a Navy SEAL killed during attack by the militant group in northern Iraq on Tuesday.

10 Things to Know for Today Posted: 04 May 2016 03:04 AM PDT Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

Obama's Secret Troop Deployments Cost Taxpayers Posted: 04 May 2016 03:00 AM PDT Shockingly, that huge troop total doesn't count our presence in key countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and other theaters of the war on terror. Take Iraq, for example. In October, a Pentagon representative said that U.S. troops "are not in a combat role in Iraq'' -- but the exact same week, Col. Steve Warren, a military spokesman actually located in Baghdad, said the exact opposite.

Islamic State seeks news blackout in Mosul as Iraqi army nears Posted: 04 May 2016 02:44 AM PDT By Stephen Kalin MAKHMOUR, Iraq (Reuters) - For Iraqis living in the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, news is dwindling about the U.S.-backed army massing to the south for an assault on the city that could begin this year. Soon after Iraqi forces established a foothold in the Makhmour area in February, about 60 km (40 miles) from the northern city, the jihadists began restricting access to television for its 1 million-strong population, according to residents. With limited and erratic access to internet and mobile networks, civilians in Mosul have depended on satellite TV for their primary source of news from the outside world since Islamic State captured the city two years ago.

Kenya says arrests key member of militant group plotting attacks Posted: 04 May 2016 12:37 AM PDT By Humphrey Malalo NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police have arrested a suspected key member of an Islamist militant group that was plotting attacks similar to one in 2013 on the Westgate shopping mall that killed at least 67 people, authorities said on Tuesday. Militant attacks mostly by al Shabaab militants from neighbouring Somalia have increased in recent years in Kenya, which has a large Muslim population concentrated mostly along its Indian Ocean coast. President Uhuru Kenyatta sent troops into Somalia in 2011 to join African Union military operations against al Shabaab that have driven it out of its major territorial strongholds but not ended its ability to carry out selective, deadly attacks.

9 Muslim Albanians jailed for recruiting for terror groups Posted: 04 May 2016 12:25 AM PDT TIRANA, Albania (AP) — An Albanian court has sentenced nine Muslims to jail terms ranging from seven to 18 years for inciting terror, recruiting and sending more than 70 men to join rebel groups in Syria.

Quotations in the News Posted: 04 May 2016 12:01 AM PDT "Ted Cruz — I don't know if he likes me or he doesn't like me — but he is one hell of a competitor." — Donald Trump after he all but clinched the Republican presidential nomination with a resounding victory in Indiana that knocked Cruz out of the race.

Kerry warns Assad as truce talks shift to Berlin Posted: 03 May 2016 11:08 PM PDT US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Syria's Bashar al-Assad of "repercussions" if his regime flouts a new truce being negotiated, as talks to halt the violence shifted to Berlin Wednesday. "If Assad does not adhere to (the new ceasefire), there will clearly be repercussions and one of them may be the total destruction of the ceasefire and they go back to war," Kerry told reporters after returning from an earlier round of talks in Geneva. "I don't think that Russia wants that.

Sanders: Clinton team thinks race 'is over. They're wrong' Posted: 03 May 2016 07:39 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that his primary bid against Hillary Clinton was far from over, pointing to his victory in Indiana and strength in upcoming races as a sign of his durability in the presidential campaign.

Islamic State kills U.S. Navy SEAL in northern Iraq Posted: 03 May 2016 07:16 PM PDT By Phil Stewart and Andrea Shalal STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) - Islamic State militants killed a U.S. Navy SEAL in northern Iraq on Tuesday after blasting through Kurdish defenses and overrunning a town in the biggest offensive in the area for months, officials said. The elite serviceman was the third American to be killed in direct combat since a U.S.-led coalition launched a campaign in 2014 to "degrade and destroy" Islamic State and is a measure of its deepening involvement in the conflict. "It is a combat death, of course, and a very sad loss," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters during a trip to Germany.

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