Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Court hearing on Trump travel ban draws more than 2.6 million listeners
• Trump immigration ruling not until Thursday at the earliest
• Driven from Iraq by Islamic State, family struggles to make it to U.S.
• Trump slams the courts, his court nominee hits back
• Trump slams courts as judges mull travel ban
• Travel to US down 6.5% after Trump travel ban: report
• Fierce fighting 20km from IS bastion in Syria: AFP reporter
• U.S. commander expects recapture soon of Islamic State strongholds
• Visa applicants seeking entry to US may have to give up passwords, says DHS chief
• Berlin Film Festival Spotlights a World Grappling With Change
• Family's return to rebuild Aleppo street points to Syria's future
• Tourism industry debating impact of Trump travel ban
• Appeals court says no ruling Wednesday on Trump travel ban
• IS bastion in Syria soon to be isolated: coalition
• What Are U.S. Forces Doing in Yemen in the First Place?
• Iraq cleric supporters demand electoral reform
• The Politically Correct Presidency of Donald Trump
• Trump's list of underreported terror doesn't back up claim
• US commander: Mosul and Raqqa should be retaken in 6 months
• Belgian alarm over spread of Saudi-backed hardline Islam
• In one Texas city where refugees are welcomed, immigration ban sows fear and confusion
• Erdogan, Trump agree joint action against Islamic State in Syria: Turkish sources
• Trump rips appeals court and says even ‘a bad student in high school’ would support his travel ban
• CIA chief to visit Turkey in sign of improving ties with US
• U.S. appeals court weighs Trump's travel ban after tough scrutiny
• Trump travel ban shows U.S. misunderstanding of anti-terror duties: Chinese state media
• Analysis: Trump paints dark picture in defense of travel ban
• US could ask visa applicants for social media passwords
• White House weighs designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group

Court hearing on Trump travel ban draws more than 2.6 million listeners Posted: 08 Feb 2017 04:08 PM PST More than 2.6 million people tuned into cable TV or went online to hear dramatic audio-only coverage of a federal appeals court hearing on U.S. President Donald Trump's temporary travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees. For more than an hour, people around the United States listened to arguments from attorneys for the U.S. government and Washington state, which sued to challenge Trump's executive order imposing the ban. The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco pressed the government's attorney on the lawfulness of Trump's Jan. 27 order, which triggered chaos and protests at U.S. airports and oversea.

Trump immigration ruling not until Thursday at the earliest Posted: 08 Feb 2017 04:04 PM PST The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will release its ruling on President Trump's immigration ban on Thursday at the earliest, and it will provide advance notice to the public.

Driven from Iraq by Islamic State, family struggles to make it to U.S. Posted: 08 Feb 2017 03:52 PM PST By Ellen Francis BEIRUT (Reuters) - Amira al-Qassab and her family flitted from one Iraqi city to another fleeing Islamic State, then waited three years in Beirut until they were cleared to move to the United States. "I didn't even unpack our clothes." Amira had taken her two youngest children out of school, the others had quit their jobs, and their suitcases had remained packed for weeks before a U.S. judge temporarily suspended the travel ban. As the family left for Michigan on Wednesday lugging 10 suitcases, they hoped to end a long road -- still fraught with fear -- to resettling as refugees in the United States.

Trump slams the courts, his court nominee hits back Posted: 08 Feb 2017 03:42 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday slammed the court that is deliberating his immigration and refugee executive order as being "so political," part of a relentless pounding of the judiciary branch that prompted a rebuke from his nominee for the Supreme Court.

Trump slams courts as judges mull travel ban Posted: 08 Feb 2017 03:20 PM PST President Donald Trump renewed his attack on the courts Wednesday, describing them as "so political" as a panel of judges weigh his executive order barring refugees and visitors from seven mainly Muslim countries. The contentious ban has been frozen by the courts and has embroiled Trump in an arm wrestle with the judicial branch, less than three weeks into his presidency. Speaking to police chiefs and sheriffs, Trump expressed "amazement" over a hearing Tuesday of three federal appeals judges, who are considering whether to reinstate the ban.

Travel to US down 6.5% after Trump travel ban: report Posted: 08 Feb 2017 02:46 PM PST Washington (AFP) - Travel bookings to the United States fell 6.5 percent in late January compared to last year in the wake of President Donald Trump's travel ban, according to a report Wednesday.

Fierce fighting 20km from IS bastion in Syria: AFP reporter Posted: 08 Feb 2017 02:20 PM PST Fierce fighting took place on Wednesday between jihadist militants and US-backed Syrian rebels just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Islamic State's self-proclaimed capital of Raqa, an AFP reporter saw. On Saturday, the rebels -- a coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) -- announced a new phase in a bid to capture Raqa, and mounted an attack from north and northeast. An AFP reporter at Bir Fawaz, 20 km north of Raqa, heard machine-gun fire all day Wednesday as SDF attacked IS positions in the neighbouring village of Maayzila.

U.S. commander expects recapture soon of Islamic State strongholds Posted: 08 Feb 2017 02:12 PM PST By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top American commander in Iraq believes U.S.-backed forces will recapture Islamic State's two major strongholds - the cities of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq - within the next six months, his spokesman said on Wednesday. The spokesman, Air Force Colonel John Dorrian, confirmed reported remarks by U.S. Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend.

Visa applicants seeking entry to US may have to give up passwords, says DHS chief Posted: 08 Feb 2017 01:45 PM PST The Trump administration has vowed to introduce "extreme vetting" of individuals coming from certain Muslim-majority countries. According to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, that could include demanding their social media passwords. On Tuesday, Mr. Kelly appeared before the US House's Homeland Security Committee, fielding questions from lawmakers about the new administration's immigration policies, including its plans to aggressively vet arrivals from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.

Berlin Film Festival Spotlights a World Grappling With Change Posted: 08 Feb 2017 01:19 PM PST At a recent meeting with journalists to discuss this year's Berlin International Film Festival, Diester Kosslick pointed to "Django," a film about the persecution of Roma jazz guitarist Django Rheinhardt in Nazi-occupied Paris, as proof of how the festival resonates with today's political currents. "Film culture, film festivals and people working in culture generally must stand up against these tendencies," Kosslick, director of the festival, told members of Berlin's Foreign Press Association in Germany's capital. Running Feb. 9-19, the Berlin International Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, is in its 67 th year.

Family's return to rebuild Aleppo street points to Syria's future Posted: 08 Feb 2017 01:14 PM PST By Angus McDowall ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - The Batash family are working with their bare hands to clear debris from Aleppo's al-Mouassassi Street, rebuilding their wrecked neighborhood after years of fighting that came to an end in December. Heyam Batash, 56, has sores on her fingers from scrubbing clothes in freezing water, her sons Ayad and Youssef forage firewood from wrecked houses and her grandchildren fetch bread from a charity-run bakery nearby. Syria's civil war has not only unleashed carnage across the country but shredded its social fabric, dividing those who backed different sides, scattering families and communities, and ruining millions of lives.

Tourism industry debating impact of Trump travel ban Posted: 08 Feb 2017 12:44 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's travel ban is not only being debated in the courts, it's also being debated by the travel industry.

Appeals court says no ruling Wednesday on Trump travel ban Posted: 08 Feb 2017 12:28 PM PST An appeals court weighing whether to reinstate President Donald Trump's executive order closing US borders to refugees and nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries said it did not plan to hand down its ruling on Wednesday. "The court will not be issuing a decision today," said David Madden, spokesman for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, adding that an advance notice of 30 to 90 minutes would be given when a decision is imminent. A panel of three judges held a contentious hearing in the matter on Tuesday, with the lawyer representing the Trump administration insisting the controversial ban was justified for national security reasons.

IS bastion in Syria soon to be isolated: coalition Posted: 08 Feb 2017 12:28 PM PST Islamic State's self-proclaimed capital, the Syrian city of Raqa, will soon be isolated from the rest of the world, a spokesman for the US-led coalition fighting the jihadist group. "What we would expect is that within the next few weeks the city will be nearly completely isolated," Dorrian said. The coalition has been gradually tightening a vice on IS in Iraq and Syria.

What Are U.S. Forces Doing in Yemen in the First Place? Posted: 08 Feb 2017 11:38 AM PST Several days ago, press reports revealed that U.S. special-operations troops had conducted a raid in Yemen. Impoverished, violent, and bitterly divided, Yemen has hitherto had a place on the roster of countries that the United States periodically bombs without being graced with the presence of U.S. forces on the ground. As long as this arrangement persisted, few Americans paid attention to events in this far corner of the "war on terror." After all: Whoever was killed and maimed by U.S. ordnance falling from the skies, it wasn't our guys.

Iraq cleric supporters demand electoral reform Posted: 08 Feb 2017 11:20 AM PST Hundreds of supporters of Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demonstrated in Baghdad on Wednesday to demand electoral reform ahead of a planned provincial vote in September. The protesters, who have been demanding deep political reform since last year, argued that the current rules were tailored for Iraq's leading parties, which they accuse of corruption and nepotism. "We came here to demand that the electoral law be amended and the members of the electoral commission replaced," said Naim Toma, a 43-year-old taxi driver who lives in Sadr City, a Shiite district in northern Baghdad.

The Politically Correct Presidency of Donald Trump Posted: 08 Feb 2017 10:36 AM PST To a remarkable degree, the president discusses the world as he would prefer it to be, rather than as it is—and insists that others do the same.

Trump's list of underreported terror doesn't back up claim Posted: 08 Feb 2017 10:20 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House list of what it calls underreported terrorist attacks did not support President Donald Trump's claim that the media are downplaying a "genocide" carried out by the Islamic State group. But it did shine new light on the difficulty in defining the scope, source and motives behind the violence carried out in the name of radical Islam.

US commander: Mosul and Raqqa should be retaken in 6 months Posted: 08 Feb 2017 10:08 AM PST CAMP TAJI, Iraq (AP) — Forces fighting the Islamic State group should be able to retake the IS-held cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria within the next six months, according to the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Belgian alarm over spread of Saudi-backed hardline Islam Posted: 08 Feb 2017 10:06 AM PST Belgium's terror monitoring centre has expressed concerns about the spread of Saudi- and Gulf-backed fundamentalist Islam in the country's mosques, according to an official report published in local media Wednesday. The OCAM national crisis centre said the austere Sunni doctrine of Wahhabism preached in an increasing number of Belgian mosques was getting financial support from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, according to the report quoted in Flemish-language daily De Standaard. Belgium has been on high alert since three suicide bombers attacked Zaventem Airport and the Brussels metro system in March 2016, killing 32 people.

In one Texas city where refugees are welcomed, immigration ban sows fear and confusion Posted: 08 Feb 2017 09:25 AM PST Evelyn Lyles, a longtime volunteer with Amarillo's refugee community, poses inside a community center she established at the Astoria Park Apartments. AMARILLO, Texas — Evelyn Lyles has been retired for four years, but she's never worked harder.

Erdogan, Trump agree joint action against Islamic State in Syria: Turkish sources Posted: 08 Feb 2017 08:40 AM PST By Tulay Karadeniz and Humeyra Pamuk ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in an overnight phone call on joint action against Islamic State in the Syrian towns of Raqqa and al-Bab, both held by the militants, Turkish presidency sources said on Wednesday. U.S.-Turkish differences during former President Barack Obama's administration impeded the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State, and closer coordination could mean faster progress towards freeing swathes of northern Syria from IS. Erdogan now hopes that relations with Washington, strained by the presence in the United States of a cleric he blames for an attempted military coup last year and by U.S. support for Kurdish militia in Syria, can be reset under Trump.

Trump rips appeals court and says even ‘a bad student in high school’ would support his travel ban Posted: 08 Feb 2017 08:28 AM PST President Trump attacked what he described as the "disgraceful" hearing on his refugee and travel ban in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Speaking Wednesday to the winter conference of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a group of police chiefs and sheriffs, Trump expressed dismay that the court case is "going on for so long" and argued that even people without knowledge of the law can see that his ban is legal. On Jan. 27, Trump signed an executive order blocking citizens from seven predominantly Muslim nations from entering the U.S. The order largely affected citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

CIA chief to visit Turkey in sign of improving ties with US Posted: 08 Feb 2017 07:31 AM PST ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — In a sign of improving ties, Turkish officials said Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and responded "positively" on two key Turkish demands that had soured Ankara's relations with the Obama administration.

U.S. appeals court weighs Trump's travel ban after tough scrutiny Posted: 08 Feb 2017 06:06 AM PST A federal appeals court is expected to rule on President Donald Trump's U.S. travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries as soon as Wednesday, one day after questioning whether the order unfairly targeted people over their religion. The temporary ban faced tough scrutiny on Tuesday by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is weighing a challenge to the order. During a more than one-hour oral argument, the panel pressed a government lawyer over whether the Trump administration's national security argument was backed by evidence that people from the seven countries posed a danger.

Trump travel ban shows U.S. misunderstanding of anti-terror duties: Chinese state media Posted: 08 Feb 2017 05:53 AM PST U.S. President Donald Trump's order temporarily banning visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries shows that his administration does not understand its counterterrorism duties, Chinese state media said on Wednesday. Trump's Jan. 27 order, which he says is necessary for national security, sought to bar entry by travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and by all refugees for 120 days, except for refugees from Syria, who face an indefinite ban. China's government has offered mild criticism of the ban, saying immigration policy was a sovereign right but "reasonable concerns" must be considered.

Analysis: Trump paints dark picture in defense of travel ban Posted: 08 Feb 2017 04:55 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The more Donald Trump tries to build support for his refugee and immigration ban, the darker the world seems to get.

US could ask visa applicants for social media passwords Posted: 07 Feb 2017 10:49 PM PST US embassies could ask visa applicants for passwords to their own social media accounts in future background checks, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Tuesday. "We're looking at some enhanced or some additional screening," Kelly told a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee. "We may want to get on their social media, with passwords," he said.

White House weighs designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group Posted: 07 Feb 2017 07:39 PM PST U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is considering a proposal that could lead to potentially designating Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The officials said several U.S. government agencies have been consulted about such a proposal, which if implemented would add to measures the United States has already imposed on individuals and entities linked to the IRGC.

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