Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Iraq makes swift territorial gains against IS in Mosul
• Twenty years after Diana campaign, new landmine crisis plagues Iraq and Syria
• Airport shooting highlights nexus between mentally ill, cops
• Iraqi forces fight on at Mosul university, find chemicals: officers
• Iraqi forces advance at Mosul University, take areas along Tigris: officials
• Military's shift away from oil clashes with Trump's promises
• IS launches new assault on besieged eastern city in Syria
• Five shows to stream this week: Unfortunate events, con men, Iranian horror film
• Iraqi Christians: Will they go home?
• Iraq forces retake Mosul university
• Austria's far-right Freedom Party calls for ban on 'fascistic Islam'
• Iraqi minister trying to improve relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia: report
• Amid primary care struggle, field hospital opens near Mosul fighting
• Islamic State attacks Syria's Deir al-Zor city, dozens dead: monitor
• A fresh effort at Afghan peacemaking, How serious is the departure of Britain’s EU ambassador?, Solving Gambia’s crisis may require force, Let’s avoid another cold war, The changing face of Turkey’s fight against Islamic State
• On Mosul frontlines, Islamic State's local fighters direct the battle
• Play seeks to exorcise Austrian truck tragedy horrors
• Turkey arrests two Uighurs over nightclub attack
• Today in History

Iraq makes swift territorial gains against IS in Mosul Posted: 14 Jan 2017 04:11 PM PST MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi forces have won a string of swift territorial gains in Mosul in the fight against the Islamic State group after months of slow progress, with a senior officer on Saturday laying claim to a cluster of buildings inside Mosul University and another edge of a bridge.

Twenty years after Diana campaign, new landmine crisis plagues Iraq and Syria Posted: 14 Jan 2017 04:03 PM PST By Astrid Zweynert LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Twenty years after Princess Diana's iconic visit to a minefield in Angola, the world faces a new landmine crisis in Syria and Iraq on a scale not seen for decades, campaigners said on Sunday. The Mines Advisory Group said it had cleared and destroyed more than 9,000 newly laid landmines in both countries in the past six months in areas formerly occupied by the Islamic State militant group. Jane Cocking, the group's chief executive, said at least $100 million of additional funding will be needed per year to tackle both newly laid land mines and those still in the soil from previous conflicts in more than 60 countries.

Airport shooting highlights nexus between mentally ill, cops Posted: 14 Jan 2017 03:54 PM PST FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Just weeks before a gunman opened fire at Fort Lauderdale's airport, authorities said he walked into an FBI office in Alaska, telling agents the government was controlling his mind and that he was having terroristic thoughts. It's a daily occurrence for law enforcement agencies and authorities say the difficulty is in assessing whether people are reporting a credible threat, whether or whether they need medical help.

Iraqi forces fight on at Mosul university, find chemicals: officers Posted: 14 Jan 2017 01:07 PM PST Iraqi special forces battled Islamic State militants inside the Mosul University campus on Saturday in a second day of fierce clashes in the complex and also discovered chemicals used to try to make weapons, officers said. As they unfurled a map of the area, a suspected Islamic State drone flew overhead and they shot at it. The Iraqi forces also found chemical substances IS had used to try to make weapons, CTS commander Sami al-Aridhi said.

Iraqi forces advance at Mosul University, take areas along Tigris: officials Posted: 14 Jan 2017 01:07 PM PST By Isabel Coles and John Davison MOSUL, Iraq/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi special forces drove back Islamic State militants in the Mosul University campus on Saturday, while elite police units took over large areas along the east bank of the Tigris river, military officials said. The head of Iraq's Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) said security forces were close to seizing the entire east bank of the Tigris, which bisects Mosul north to south.

Military's shift away from oil clashes with Trump's promises Posted: 14 Jan 2017 11:39 AM PST TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (AP) — At a sprawling desert base, a Marine recharged his radio's batteries simply by walking, while nearby fellow troops examined a rocket artillery system and a drone — both powered by the sun.

IS launches new assault on besieged eastern city in Syria Posted: 14 Jan 2017 11:34 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic State militants launched their biggest assault in a year on government-held areas of the contested city of Deir el-Zour Saturday, attacking from several fronts and triggering intense fighting in the eastern region bordering Iraq, the Syrian government and opposition activists said.

Five shows to stream this week: Unfortunate events, con men, Iranian horror film Posted: 14 Jan 2017 10:15 AM PST How are you going to get through this week? By following our guide to the finest films and TV shows available to stream, of course. On the list this week: 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events' gets another shot at the screen, and more.

Iraqi Christians: Will they go home? Posted: 14 Jan 2017 10:00 AM PST It is Raghad Abada's first glimpse of her hometown since August 2014, when she and her husband gathered their children, grabbed a few documents, and fled for their lives ahead of the Islamic State (IS) invasion. The road is blocked by a charred sedan and trailer, remnants of the defenses IS militants had used against the Iraqi Army, so Mr. Karomi stops the car. Recommended: How much do you know about the Islamic State?

Iraq forces retake Mosul university Posted: 14 Jan 2017 08:54 AM PST Iraqi forces on Saturday retook Mosul's university from the Islamic State jihadist group, the latest key advance in efforts to recapture the eastern side of the city, officers said. "We can say that the university has been liberated," Maan Saadi, a major general in the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), told AFP.

Austria's far-right Freedom Party calls for ban on 'fascistic Islam' Posted: 14 Jan 2017 08:44 AM PST The head of Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPO) on Saturday called for a law banning "fascistic Islam" and Muslim symbols, comparable to an existing law banning Nazi symbols, saying Islam could wipe out European society. Austria needs "a law which prohibits fascistic Islam", Heinz Christian Strache told several thousand supporters at the party's new year meeting in Salzburg. "Let us put an end to this policy of Islamization... otherwise we Austrians, we Europeans will come to an abrupt end," Strache said, in an apparent reference to the course pursued by the coalition government.

Iraqi minister trying to improve relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia: report Posted: 14 Jan 2017 08:16 AM PST Iraq's foreign minister said he had carried messages between Iran and Saudi Arabia in a continuing attempt to curb a feud involving its two neighbors, Iran's state broadcaster IRIB reported on Saturday. Relations between the two regional rivals worsened after hundreds of people, many of them Iranians, died in a crush at the 2015 Muslim haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Iran blamed the disaster on organizers' incompetence, and boycotted last year's haj.

Amid primary care struggle, field hospital opens near Mosul fighting Posted: 14 Jan 2017 06:17 AM PST By Girish Gupta NEAR MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Civilians and soldiers wounded as Iraqi forces attempt to retake Mosul from Islamic State are receiving treatment in a high-tech field hospital about 20 km from the frontlines. Treating shrapnel, bullet and bomb wounds, the facility - complete with emergency rooms, intensive care units and a fully-stocked pharmacy - was set up by U.S. relief organization Samaritan's Purse after Christmas in a patch of desert about half an hour's drive from clashes in eastern Mosul. It has shaved considerable time off the journey to the Kurdish city of Erbil, the nearest place with fixed healthcare facilities, and more than 100 patients have already been treated.

Islamic State attacks Syria's Deir al-Zor city, dozens dead: monitor Posted: 14 Jan 2017 05:57 AM PST Islamic State militants launched their biggest attack in months on government-held areas of the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday, leaving dozens of dead, a war monitor said. At least six large explosions rocked the city since dawn as the militants clashed with the army and allied forces, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. Syrian government warplanes hit back against Islamic State positions, the Observatory and state media said.

A fresh effort at Afghan peacemaking, How serious is the departure of Britain’s EU ambassador?, Solving Gambia’s crisis may require force, Let’s avoid another cold war, The changing face of Turkey’s fight against Islamic State Posted: 14 Jan 2017 03:00 AM PST "The gathering in Moscow [recently] – the third in the series of consultations between Russia, China and Pakistan – underlines growing concern about the spillover effect of the Afghan crisis in the region...," writes Zahid Hussain. "Like other foreign policy issues, there is complete confusion over the Afghan policy in the soon-to-be installed Trump administration. There has been some breaking of the ice with the recent telephonic contact between Afghan leaders and Pakistan's new army chief.

On Mosul frontlines, Islamic State's local fighters direct the battle Posted: 14 Jan 2017 02:23 AM PST By Stephen Kalin MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - As Iraqi government forces advanced towards his eastern Mosul neighborhood in November, a group of Islamic State militants stormed Abu Rami's home, put a gun to his head and told him and his family to get out immediately. The militants, including a local man whose name he knew, brought with them a bearded comrade clutching a sniper rifle whom Abu Rami suspects was Russian or Chechen. When Abu Rami returned 11 days later, the fighting had ended and the militants had slipped away, but his two-storey house was destroyed by an air strike.

Play seeks to exorcise Austrian truck tragedy horrors Posted: 14 Jan 2017 12:54 AM PST The gruesome discovery of 71 dead migrants in the summer of 2015 in an abandoned truck on a motorway near the Austrian town of Parndorf still haunts locals. "The intention was to perceive this drama through art and to raise some aspects that neither journalists nor politicians have raised so far," the play's director Peter Wagner said. The discovery of the truck in August 2015 on the A4 motorway coming in from Hungary, at the height of a massive influx of migrants into Europe, was indeed horrific.

Turkey arrests two Uighurs over nightclub attack Posted: 14 Jan 2017 12:46 AM PST Turkey has arrested two Chinese nationals of Uighur origin in connection with a mass shooting in a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year's Eve claimed by the Islamic State group, media reports said. The suspects, named as Omar Asim and Abuliezi Abuduhamiti, were arrested on charges of "being members of a terrorist organisation", of "purchasing unlicensed firearms" and "being accomplices to the murder of 39 people", state-run Anadolu Agency cited a prosecutor as saying. The killer, reportedly known by the code name Ebu Muhammed Horasani, slipped into the night after mowing down 39 revellers at the Reina nightclub just 75 minutes into 2017.

Today in History Posted: 13 Jan 2017 09:01 PM PST Today in History

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