Yahoo! News: Iraq

---

• Children suffering in battle for Iraq's Mosul: Amnesty
• U.N. creates team to prepare cases on Syria war crimes
• Lake Chad most neglected crisis in 2016 despite hunger on 'epic scale'
• U.N. creates team to prepare cases on Syria war crimes
• Exclusive: U.S.-supplied drones disappoint Ukraine at the front lines
• How news sites handled graphic photos of Russian ambassador’s murder
• Factbox: Trump fills top jobs for his administration
• Suspect in deadly Berlin attack is latest Tunisian jihadi
• The Terrifying Simplicity of the Berlin Attack
• Against ISIS, Jordan has a big gun: social cohesion
• Germany police hunt Tunisian asylum-seeker over Christmas market attack
• Aleppo endgame nears as evacuation resumes
• Jordan's king vows 'iron fist' response to security threats
• Germany fingers Tunisian asylum seeker in Berlin market attack
• Berlin truck attack: the investigation so far
• British soldier convicted of war crime denied bail
• Report: At least 48 journalists killed on the job in 2016
• German market attack suspect left Tunisia seven years ago: Tunisian radio
• Wounded Iraqis fill hospitals as Mosul op drags on
• Calexit embassy? Did California just get its first diplomatic post?
• DLA delivers Christmas meals to deployed service members
• 'Moscow Declaration' lays out vision for Syrian peace deal, with US on sidelines
• At rising rate, Nepalis working abroad go home in coffins
• At rising rate, Nepalis working abroad go home in coffins
• Germany hunts Tunisian suspect after IS claims truck attack
• AP Poll: US election voted top news story of 2016
• Police worldwide eye Baltimore's vast surveillance complex
• France checks on security at Christmas markets after Berlin attack
• Trauma of Islamic State rule follows Iraqi women out of Mosul
• Israeli military official says low chances of war in 2017
• French military chief: New threats require more spending
• Iranian Kurd group accuses Tehran of bombing that killed six in Iraq
• Iraqi forces in Mosul mostly in refit mode: U.S. general
• German police seek Tunisian man in hunt for market attacker
• U.N. nuclear chief set for re-election as rival steps aside: diplomats
• The oilman who brought Trump and the Bush world together
• IS 'indiscriminately' attacks civilians in Mosul: HRW
• 10 Things to Know for Today
• Kazakhstan says raids Islamist network, detains 16
• Germany hunts for attacker after IS claims truck assault

Children suffering in battle for Iraq's Mosul: Amnesty Posted: 21 Dec 2016 04:38 PM PST Children are being killed and wounded as well as witnessing horrific violence as Iraqi forces battle the Islamic State group in heavily populated Mosul, Amnesty International said on Thursday. Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to retake the country's last IS-held city more than two months ago, and have pushed the jihadists out of several neighbourhoods on Mosul's eastern side. "Children caught in the crossfire of the brutal battle for Mosul have seen things that no one, of any age, should ever see," Amnesty's Donatella Rovera said in a statement.

U.N. creates team to prepare cases on Syria war crimes Posted: 21 Dec 2016 04:28 PM PST By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted to establish a special team to "collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence" as well as to prepare cases on war crimes and human rights abuses committed during the conflict in Syria. The General Assembly adopted a Liechtenstein-drafted resolution to establish the independent team with 105 in favor, 15 against and 52 abstentions. The team will work in coordination with the U.N. Syria Commission of Inquiry.

Lake Chad most neglected crisis in 2016 despite hunger on 'epic scale' Posted: 21 Dec 2016 04:16 PM PST By Emma Batha LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The humanitarian catastrophe in Lake Chad basin, where conflict has left over 8 million people destitute with many "teetering on the brink of famine", was the most neglected crisis in 2016, according to a survey of aid agencies. Following Lake Chad in a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of 19 leading aid groups were Yemen, where children are starving, and South Sudan where U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fears genocide is about to start. Overshadowed by the wars in Syria and Iraq and the global refugee and migrant crisis, Lake Chad barely made the headlines this year, but aid organizations said the crisis was "on an epic scale" with "terrifying rates of child malnutrition".

U.N. creates team to prepare cases on Syria war crimes Posted: 21 Dec 2016 03:39 PM PST By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday voted to establish a special team to "collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence" as well as to prepare cases on war crimes and human rights abuses committed during the conflict in Syria. The General Assembly adopted a Liechtenstein-drafted resolution to establish the independent team with 105 in favor, 15 against and 52 abstentions. The team will work in coordination with the U.N. Syria Commission of Inquiry.

Exclusive: U.S.-supplied drones disappoint Ukraine at the front lines Posted: 21 Dec 2016 03:24 PM PST The 72 Raven RQ-11B Analog mini-drones were so disappointing following their arrival this summer that Natan Chazin, an advisor to Ukraine's military with deep knowledge of the country's drone program, said if it were up to him, he would return them. "From the beginning, it was the wrong decision to use these drones in our (conflict)," Chazin, an advisor to the chief of the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces, told Reuters. The hand-launched Ravens were one of the recent highlights of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, aiming to give Kiev's military portable, light-weight, unarmed surveillance drones that were small enough to be used widely in the field.

How news sites handled graphic photos of Russian ambassador’s murder Posted: 21 Dec 2016 03:18 PM PST In the background behind him lay the body of his victim, Russia's ambassador to Turkey. News of the assassination was alarming enough, given its rarity – thought to be the first killing of a Russian ambassador since the 1920s – as well as its links to the Syrian civil war, which has spun into a proxy conflict involving many of the world's major powers. "Why is showing the dead body of the Russian ambassador in Turkey helping me, as a viewer, understand the significance of this act better?" asks Aly Colón, the Knight chair and professor of media ethics at Washington and Lee University, in an interview with The Christian Science Monitor.

Factbox: Trump fills top jobs for his administration Posted: 21 Dec 2016 02:54 PM PST (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named Peter Navarro, an economist who has pushed a hard line on China, to head a newly formed White House National Trade Council, the transition team said in a statement. Senate confirmation is required for all the posts except national security adviser, White House chief of staff, directors of the White House National Economic Council and the White House National Trade Council, and White House strategist. The following is a list of Republican Trump's selections for top jobs in his administration: SECRETARY OF STATE: REX TILLERSON Tillerson, 64, has spent his entire career at Exxon Mobil Corp, where he rose to serve as its chairman and CEO in 2006.

Suspect in deadly Berlin attack is latest Tunisian jihadi Posted: 21 Dec 2016 02:16 PM PST The Tunisian now wanted throughout Europe has six aliases, three nationalities — and links to the same brand of Islamic extremism that has drawn at least 6,000 of his countrymen to jihadi networks. Anis ...

The Terrifying Simplicity of the Berlin Attack Posted: 21 Dec 2016 01:17 PM PST Shortly after a semi-trailer packed with steel sped through an outdoor Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, killing 12 and injuring dozens more, Germany's chancellor expressed a concern likely shared by many Germans. "We don't want to live paralyzed by fear of evil," Angela Merkel said. The fear, in this case, arose from terrorism in one of its crudest forms: a truck, a driver, and a crowd of people. An assailant had weaponized everyday life in a country of 80 million people, 44 million cars, and countless public squares. The plan involved some level of sophistication: The attacker may have researched vulnerable venues ahead of the incident, and seems to have used a gun to kill the original driver of the truck. But the nasty truth about violence so basic—requiring no training, weapons, or collaboration with a terrorist group, nothing more than access to a vehicle and the ability to drive it—is that it is extremely difficult to prevent. The less complex the terrorist plot, the harder it is to thwart.

Against ISIS, Jordan has a big gun: social cohesion Posted: 21 Dec 2016 01:14 PM PST When Islamic State militants launched a fatal attack in the center of Karak, Jordan, on Sunday, storming a centuries-old Crusader castle and overwhelming police, residents responded in a way rarely seen in this region. While waiting for nearly an hour for special forces to arrive in the southern Jordan city, and facing an indiscriminate hail of bullets from the castle's walls, dozens of ordinary citizens took up their own licensed guns, clubs, and stones in an effort to draw the IS fighters out. Recommended: How much do you know about the Islamic State?

Germany police hunt Tunisian asylum-seeker over Christmas market attack Posted: 21 Dec 2016 01:11 PM PST By Michael Nienaber and Matthias Inverardi BERLIN/DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - German police are looking for an asylum-seeker from Tunisia after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of a truck that plowed into a Berlin Christmas market and killed 12 people, officials and security sources said on Wednesday. The federal prosecutor's office offered a reward of up to 100,000 euros ($104,000) for information leading to the capture of the suspect, whom it identified as 24-year-old Anis Amri. German police commandos raided two apartments in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg late on Wednesday but did not find Amri, Die Welt newspaper reported, citing investigators.

Aleppo endgame nears as evacuation resumes Posted: 21 Dec 2016 01:03 PM PST By Ellen Francis and Lisa Barrington BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appeared close to victory in Aleppo on Wednesday, but United Nations and rebel officials denied that an operation to evacuate fighters and civilians from the city had been completed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war, said Assad had control of Aleppo after the last fighters were brought out of the city and only one small position on the western outskirts remained in rebel hands. Evacuations are still ongoing." A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army rebel alliance, Osama Abu Zaid, told an Arab news channel that evacuations had been slowed by bad weather and would continue into the night.

Jordan's king vows 'iron fist' response to security threats Posted: 21 Dec 2016 12:55 PM PST AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan will respond with an "iron fist" to those threatening its security, King Abdullah II said Wednesday after a series of attacks on police and tourists this week left 14 people dead.

Germany fingers Tunisian asylum seeker in Berlin market attack Posted: 21 Dec 2016 11:57 AM PST German authorities triggered a Europe-wide manhunt Wednesday for a rejected asylum seeker suspected of involvement in a deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group. Officials said the suspect, 24-year-old Tunisian national Anis Amri, had already been under investigation for planning an attack, in a development certain to fuel public outrage. Tunisian anti-terrorism police were questioning Anis' family, a security official told AFP, as another source said he had been arrested several times in Tunisia for alleged drug use.

Berlin truck attack: the investigation so far Posted: 21 Dec 2016 11:52 AM PST A kidnapped driver, a Pakistani man held then freed and a manhunt for a Tunisian suspect: here is what we know about the probe into the truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead. On Monday the truck's driver, a 37-year-old Pole named Lukasz, headed to Berlin to deliver a load of 24 tonnes of steel beams from Italy. According to his employer Ariel Zurawski, GPS data from the vehicle showed it had been driven, but only making small movements "as if someone was learning how to drive it".

British soldier convicted of war crime denied bail Posted: 21 Dec 2016 11:01 AM PST A British soldier found guilty of murdering a wounded Taliban fighter in Afghanistan was denied bail on Wednesday as he appealed against his landmark conviction. The case of Alexander Blackman, 42, who had been identified only as "Marine A" during his trial, has fascinated and divided public opinion in Britain. On September 15, 2011, the Royal Marine shot a Taliban fighter who had been seriously injured by fire from an Apache helicopter in Helmand province.

Report: At least 48 journalists killed on the job in 2016 Posted: 21 Dec 2016 10:34 AM PST At least 48 journalists worldwide have been killed on the job in 2016 as the year winds down, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That is down from 72 journalists in 2015. The report released ...

German market attack suspect left Tunisia seven years ago: Tunisian radio Posted: 21 Dec 2016 10:11 AM PST A Tunisian man suspected in the Berlin Christmas market attack left Tunisia seven years ago as an illegal immigrant and spent time in prison in Italy, his father and security sources told Tunisia's Radio Mosaique on Wednesday. The radio reported on its website that security sources had named the suspect as Anis Amri from Oueslatia in rural central Tunisia. The father told the radio station that his son had left for Germany a year ago.

Wounded Iraqis fill hospitals as Mosul op drags on Posted: 21 Dec 2016 09:20 AM PST Mohammed Abdulrazzaq was gathering water in Mosul when shrapnel tore into his legs, making him one of a growing number of wounded from the battleground Iraqi city putting huge strains on hospitals. Iraqi forces launched a massive operation on October 17 to recapture Mosul, the country's last city held by the Islamic State group, and while they have advanced into its east, large parts remain under jihadist control.

Calexit embassy? Did California just get its first diplomatic post? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 08:32 AM PST Over the weekend, Yes California, a grassroots organization advocating for the secession of California, established in Moscow what the campaign calls its first embassy. Instead, it will be a forum for cultural outreach, as well as a vehicle to promote tourism and trade with California, Louis Marinelli, president of Yes California, told Business Insider last month.

DLA delivers Christmas meals to deployed service members Posted: 21 Dec 2016 08:19 AM PST PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Service members deployed this Christmas will still enjoy a traditional holiday meal, with all the trimmings, thanks to the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support.More than 26,000 pounds of turkey and 530 gallons of nonalcoholic eggnog were delivered in time for troops in Afghanistan to enjoy their holiday meals."Wherever our nation's military are serving around the world, DLA Troop Support is committed to providing quality, nutritious and delicious meals to them," said Anthony Amendolia, with DLA Troop Support's Subsistence supply chain. ...

'Moscow Declaration' lays out vision for Syrian peace deal, with US on sidelines Posted: 21 Dec 2016 08:16 AM PST Leaders of Russia, Turkey, and Iran held talks in Moscow on Tuesday in the first step toward brokering a peace deal in Syria, emerging with a declaration of principles that they said should govern any agreement backed by the three countries. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said afterward that the trio's plans for a Syria-wide ceasefire – excluding the self-proclaimed Islamic State and al-Qaeda's Syrian branch – stood a better chance than previous negotiations. "The format you see today is the most efficient one," Mr. Lavrov said, according to the Associated Press, referring to the group of countries involved in the talks.

At rising rate, Nepalis working abroad go home in coffins Posted: 21 Dec 2016 08:04 AM PST KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A tiny young woman crouches just outside the airport, crying softly into her thin shawl. It's cold, but her sleeping toddler is warm in her arms.

At rising rate, Nepalis working abroad go home in coffins Posted: 21 Dec 2016 08:02 AM PST A tiny young woman crouches just outside the airport, crying softly into her thin shawl. It's cold out, but her sleeping toddler is heavy and warm in her arms. Travelers swarm around: Himalayan trekkers ...

Germany hunts Tunisian suspect after IS claims truck attack Posted: 21 Dec 2016 08:01 AM PST German police launched a manhunt Wednesday for a rejected asylum seeker suspected of involvement in a deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group. Officials said asylum office papers believed to belong to the Tunisian man with alleged links to the radical Islamist scene were found in the cab of the 40-tonne lorry used in the attack that killed 12 people. "There is a new suspect we are searching for -- he is a suspect but not necessarily the assailant," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters, saying a Europe-wide search was underway.

AP Poll: US election voted top news story of 2016 Posted: 21 Dec 2016 07:56 AM PST The turbulent U.S. election, featuring Donald Trump's unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton in the presidential race, was the overwhelming pick for the top news story of 2016, according to The Associated ...

Police worldwide eye Baltimore's vast surveillance complex Posted: 21 Dec 2016 06:57 AM PST For up to 10 hours a day, a Cessna propeller plane circled the city of Baltimore, secretly monitoring about 600,000 people, capturing their movements and transmitting the data to private security analysts.

France checks on security at Christmas markets after Berlin attack Posted: 21 Dec 2016 06:49 AM PST France is carrying out "preventive arrests" and checking on deployment of concrete barriers at Christmas markets amid fears of a strike by Islamist militants following Monday's Berlin attack. A government spokesman said organisers of Christmas markets had been contacted to verify all security measures, including baggage checks, in the light of Monday's Berlin attack when a truck careered into a market killing 12 people. Fears of attacks by Islamist militants are running high in France, where more than 230 people have been killed in assaults in the past two years and emergency rule has been in place for over a year.

Trauma of Islamic State rule follows Iraqi women out of Mosul Posted: 21 Dec 2016 06:39 AM PST By Stephen Kalin KHAZIR, Iraq (Reuters) - One wrong word to an Islamic State fighter in Mosul last year was all it took to set in motion a harrowing chain of events for an Iraqi woman who became so traumatized that she trembled in fear even after escaping the group's control. "I made the mistake of telling them my husband had been a victim of terrorism," she said in an interview on Tuesday at a government-run camp in Khazir, east of Mosul. Islamic State, which is putting up fierce resistance to a U.S.-backed offensive to retake Mosul, the group's last major stronghold in Iraq, has been accused of massacre, enslavement and rape since it swept across large swathes of the country's north and west in 2014.

Israeli military official says low chances of war in 2017 Posted: 21 Dec 2016 05:38 AM PST TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Middle East regional chaos has weakened Israel's enemies and created a low probability of war involving the country in 2017, a senior Israeli military officer said on Wednesday.

French military chief: New threats require more spending Posted: 21 Dec 2016 05:19 AM PST PARIS (AP) — France's military chief is urging the country's next president to ratchet up defense spending to better confront Islamic extremists and authoritarian states that increasingly rely on military muscle.

Iranian Kurd group accuses Tehran of bombing that killed six in Iraq Posted: 21 Dec 2016 04:35 AM PST An Iranian Kurdish armed opposition group accused Iran on Wednesday of a bombing that killed five of its fighters and an Iraqi Kurdish policeman in northern Iraq. A twin explosion late on Tuesday hit the offices of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in Koy Sanjaq, east of Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region. After the first blast, a second, larger one went off as members of the group and police rushed to the spot, PDKI central committee member Asso Hassan Zadeh told Reuters.

Iraqi forces in Mosul mostly in refit mode: U.S. general Posted: 21 Dec 2016 04:25 AM PST By Stephen Kalin ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi forces battling to retake Islamic State's last major stronghold - Mosul - have entered a planned operational refit, a top U.S. general in the international coalition backing Baghdad said, the first significant pause of the campaign. Several thousand Iraqi federal police were redeployed from the southern outskirts last week to reinforce the eastern front. This sets the conditions for continued progress by ISF (Iraqi security forces) and their plan and their operation to liberate Mosul," U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Matthew Isler, deputy commander for the coalition's air forces told Reuters by phone from Baghdad on Wednesday.

German police seek Tunisian man in hunt for market attacker Posted: 21 Dec 2016 03:28 AM PST By Madeline Chambers BERLIN (Reuters) - German police are looking for a Tunisian man after finding an identity document under the driver's seat of the truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people, on Monday evening, news website Spiegel Online reported. "We want to raise the police presence and strengthen the protection of Christmas markets.

U.N. nuclear chief set for re-election as rival steps aside: diplomats Posted: 21 Dec 2016 03:18 AM PST By Francois Murphy and Shadia Nasralla VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog's chief, Yukiya Amano, will secure a third term in office since his most likely challenger has chosen not to run against him, according to diplomats who follow the Vienna-based agency. Amano, a 69-year-old career diplomat from Japan, has headed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 2009. "There will be no other candidate," a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity, adding that Amano enjoys broad support.

The oilman who brought Trump and the Bush world together Posted: 21 Dec 2016 03:03 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Throughout the presidential campaign, the Bush family and many of its Republican allies turned their backs on Donald Trump. Now, they're finding common cause with Trump over his pick to lead the State Department: Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who has long orbited their same political, philanthropic and business worlds.

IS 'indiscriminately' attacks civilians in Mosul: HRW Posted: 21 Dec 2016 02:53 AM PST The Islamic State group is "indiscriminately" attacking civilians who refused to retreat along with the jihadists in the Iraqi city of Mosul, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday. Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to retake the last IS-held city in Iraq more than two months ago, and have pushed the jihadists out of several neighbourhoods on Mosul's eastern side. "Fighters with the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) have indiscriminately attacked civilian areas in eastern Mosul with mortar rounds and explosives, and deliberately shot at fleeing residents," HRW said.

10 Things to Know for Today Posted: 21 Dec 2016 02:51 AM PST Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

Kazakhstan says raids Islamist network, detains 16 Posted: 21 Dec 2016 01:04 AM PST Kazakhstan's state security service has detained 16 suspected members Takfir wal-Hijra Islamist group, it said on Wednesday, accusing them of "inciting religious hatred". The National Security Committee said in a statement it had carried out raids in four provinces of the Central Asian nation in order to "neutralize the cells of religious extremist organization Takfir wal-Hijra". The Islamist group, established in Egypt in the 1960s, has been banned in Kazakhstan since 2014.

Germany hunts for attacker after IS claims truck assault Posted: 21 Dec 2016 12:52 AM PST German police on Wednesday stepped up their hunt for the driver of a truck that ploughed through a Berlin Christmas market, in a deadly assault claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group. "We can't rule out that the perpetrator is on the run," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told public broadcaster ZDF. Twelve people were killed when the Polish-registered articulated truck, laden with steel beams, slammed into the crowded holiday market on Monday, smashing wooden stalls and crushing victims.

You are subscribed to email updates from Iraq News Headlines - Yahoo! News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States