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/ 29 February 2008
Iraq’s presidency council has cleared the way for the long-delayed execution of Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as ”Chemical Ali”, to be carried out, Iraqi officials said on Friday. The execution of Majeed has been delayed for months by a legal wrangle over who has the authority to green light the hangings.
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/ 25 January 2008
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki declared ”final war” on al-Qaeda on Friday after dozens of people including a police chief were killed in bomb attacks blamed on the jihadists in Mosul city. Iraqi forces were moving towards Mosul, 370km north of Baghdad, for a major assault that would become a ”decisive battle”, Maliki told a gathering in the central shrine city of Karbala.
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/ 14 January 2008
The United States military said on Monday it had killed 60 militants during a week-long, US-led offensive in northern Iraq against al-Qaeda, a resilient foe that has resisted previous attempts to drive it from the region. The US military, which has declared al-Qaeda the single greatest threat to Iraq’s security, launched the offensive on January 8.
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/ 18 December 2007
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit overshadowed by a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, called on Iraqi leaders on Tuesday to urgently implement a national reconciliation roadmap. Turkish troops crossed overnight into the Iraqi Kurdish province of Dahuk, about 200km from the city of Kirkuk, where Rice’s plane first touched down.
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/ 3 November 2007
Turkey stepped up pressure on the United States to help curb attacks by Kurdish rebels from northern Iraq as a conference on Saturday of Iraq’s neighbours and major powers sought to lower cross-border tensions. The ”neighbours’ conference”, hosted by Turkey, was meant to focus on security inside Iraq but instead it is overshadowed by tensions between Turkey and Iraq.
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/ 22 October 2007
Iraqi Kurdish rebels said on Monday they were ready to lay down their arms if Turkey stopped targeting the rebels and abandoned plans for an incursion into Iraq, according to a rebel website. ”We are ready for a ceasefire if the Turkish army stops attacking our positions, drops plans for an incursion and resorts to peace,” said a statement.
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/ 22 October 2007
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Monday that Kurdish rebels would announce a unilateral ceasefire later in the day amid Turkish threats to launch an incursion against them in northern Iraq. ”The PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] has decided to declare a ceasefire from their side tonight,” Talabani told reporters at Sulaimaniyah Airport in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region.
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/ 17 October 2007
The Turkish Parliament Wednesday voted to allow military strikes against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, despite stiff United States opposition and appeals from Baghdad for time to purge the rebels. A government motion seeking a one-year authorisation for one or more incursions into Iraq was approved.
The Iraqi government wants United States security firm Blackwater to pay -million in compensation to each of the families of 17 people killed in a shooting. The figure was roughly in line with compensation paid by the Libyan government to the families of the 270 people killed in the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing.
Iraq has vowed to punish United States security firm Blackwater after a probe found that its guards were not provoked when they opened ”deliberate” fire in Baghdad three weeks ago, killing 17 civilians. The US embassy was tight-lipped on Monday on whether those involved in the September 16 killings would be handed over for prosecution.
The United States company at the centre of the scandal over the role of private security guards in Iraq brushed aside accusations that it was a cowboy outfit on Tuesday, even as details emerged about a incident in which an allegedly drunken member was involved in a fatal shooting.
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/ 25 September 2007
An Iraqi man stands with his hands up in surrender, surrounded by an American soldier, Iraqi security forces, a militiaman, an al-Qaeda fighter and a faceless thug. ”Hands up! Legs up! Head down!” they all bark at him as the cartoon takes a satirical swipe at how poorly ordinary Iraqis are treated.
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/ 24 September 2007
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, showed an unexpected streak of stubbornness on Sunday in his stand-off with the United States over the Blackwater shootings, insisting that action had to be taken against the private security firm. Al-Maliki said Blackwater posed ”a serious challenge to the sovereignty of Iraq and cannot be accepted”.
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/ 23 September 2007
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met ministers from world powers and neighbouring countries on Saturday after telling the United Nations secretary general he could guarantee security for a broader UN role in Iraq. Ministers from Iraq, its neighbours and world powers met at UN headquarters.
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/ 18 September 2007
The United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, apologised to the Iraqi government on Monday in an attempt to prevent the expulsion of all employees of the security firm Blackwater USA. The ministry of interior on Monday took the decision to expel Blackwater after eight Iraqi civilians were killed and 13 wounded in Baghdad.
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/ 15 September 2007
The movement of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Saturday it would withdraw from the Shi’ite bloc that leads the Iraqi government, in a new blow to the faltering political process. ”The Sadr bloc will hold a press conference in Najaf this evening [Saturday] where it will announce its decision to withdraw from the Shi’ite alliance,” Sadr spokesperson Saleh al-Obeidi said.
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/ 14 September 2007
The killing of one of his key Iraqi allies on the day he announced a troop pull-out from Iraq came as a stark reminder to United States President George Bush of just how precarious the situation still is in Iraq. Political analysts believe the country will unravel even further, hastened by Bush’s decision to withdraw 21 500 combat troops by next July.
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/ 13 September 2007
Al-Qaeda has revived, extended its influence, and has the capacity to carry out a spectacular strike similar to the September 11 attacks on the United States, one of the world’s leading security think tanks warned on Wednesday. There is increasing evidence ”that ‘core’ al-Qaeda is proving adaptable and resilient, and has retained an ability to plan and coordinate large-scale attacks.
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/ 10 September 2007
The top United States commander in Iraq on Monday said the number of US troops in Iraq could be cut by next summer to roughly 130 000, its level before this year’s ”surge” of 30 000 forces. General David Petraeus also strongly endorsed US President George Bush’s decision to add forces this year.
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/ 10 September 2007
Iraq’s embattled Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave an upbeat assessment of the situation in his country on Monday, saying civil war had been prevented and boasting that violence had dropped 75% in the restive provinces of Baghdad and Anbar.
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/ 9 September 2007
Iraq’s Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Sunday his government had made progress on all fronts and urged neighbouring countries to work together to stop what he called ”evil” from destabilising the region. Senior Democrats in the United States have slammed Maliki’s performance, with some even calling for his replacement.
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/ 4 September 2007
United States President George Bush paid a surprise visit to a US military base in Iraq on Monday, in a piece of stagecraft intended to bolster support in Congress for the administration’s war strategy, only days before a crucial report on the success of the American troop ”surge”.
United States President George Bush on Tuesday ramped up the war of words between the US and Iran, accusing Tehran of threatening to place the Middle East under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust and revealing that he had authorised US military commanders in Iraq to ”confront Tehran’s murderous activities”.
Local authorities began evacuating hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from the Iraqi city of Karbala on Tuesday as a battle raged between Iraqi security forces and gunmen near two of Shi’ite Islam’s holiest shrines. A senior security source in Baghdad said 25 people had been killed, mostly police officers.
Gunmen battled Iraqi security forces on Tuesday near two of Shi’ite Islam’s holiest shrines in the city of Kerbala, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had gathered for a religious festival. A senior security source in Baghdad said 25 people had been killed, mostly police officers.