Hundreds of angry protesters burned tyres and blocked roads across Lebanon on Tuesday after Najib Mikati was named Lebanon’s prime minister.
Lebanon faces a political impasse after Hezbollah and its allies toppled the government over a United Nations-backed tribunal.
No image available
/ 1 November 2009
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s biggest opposition group, will not attempt to challenge the ruling party in the 2011 presidential election.
Suspected al-Qaeda militants blew up two minarets of a revered Shi’ite mosque in the Iraqi city of Samarra on Wednesday, targeting a shrine bombed last year in an attack that unleashed a wave of sectarian killing. Fearing renewed bloodshed, Iraq’s government imposed an indefinite curfew in Baghdad as Shi’ite and Sunni political and religious leaders called for calm.
Gunmen attacked the home of a police chief north of Baghdad on Friday, killing 14 people including his wife and brothers, and kidnapping his four children, police sources said. South of the capital, a minibus packed with weapons and exlosives blew up at a bus terminal in a market in the town of Qurna.
Thousands of American troops searched on Sunday for three US soldiers missing in Iraq after an ambush in which al-Qaeda said it seized ”crusader” forces. The self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, a group led by al-Qaeda, said in an internet posting it was holding soldiers who survived an attack south of Baghdad.
Iraq signalled that world powers and neighbouring states, including Washington and its adversaries Iran and Syria, had agreed in Baghdad it was in everyone’s interest to stop sectarian violence spreading in the region. But while the United States is increasing its number of troops in Iraq, Iran called for the withdrawal of all US forces on grounds they fuelled violence.
No image available
/ 6 February 2007
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered Iraq’s military commanders on Tuesday to speed up preparations for a United States-backed crackdown in Baghdad after a string of attacks killed hundreds of people in recent days. Addressing Iraqi generals, Maliki said: ”I call on you to quickly finish the preparations so that we don’t disappoint people.”
No image available
/ 25 January 2007
Bombs killed at least 28 people in Baghdad on Thursday, but Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed his new crackdown in Baghdad would leave militants nowhere to hide. In a speech to Parliament, Maliki urged politicians on all sides to support his security plan, backed by about 17 000 United States reinforcements, which is seen by many as a last chance to stem sectarian violence in the capital.
No image available
/ 21 January 2007
United States forces suffered one of their costliest days in Iraq on Saturday when 19 troops were killed, including 12 on a helicopter and five in a clash in a Shi’ite holy city that the US military blamed on militiamen.