Militants bombarded Baghdad’s Green Zone with rockets on Sunday, taking advantage of the cover of a blinding dust storm to launch one of the heaviest strikes in weeks on the fortified compound. The strikes appeared to defy a renewed call for a ceasefire by Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which has seen many of his masked gunmen leave the streets of the Sadr City slum.
United States forces were drawn deeper into Iraq’s four day-old crackdown on Shi’ite militants on Friday, launching air strikes in Basra for the first time and battling militants in Baghdad. The fighting has exposed a rift within the majority Shi’ite community and put pressure on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
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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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/ 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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/ 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.