Iraq

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi doctor Tariq Al-Sheibani remembers little else beyond cowering on the ground as a dozen relatives of a patient, who had just died of COVID-19, beat him unconscious.

About two hours later the 47-year-old director of Al-Amal Hospital in the southern city of Najaf woke up in a different clinic with bruises all over his body.

“All the doctors are scared,” said Sheibani, speaking at his home in Kufa a few weeks after the Aug. 28 attack. “Every time a patient dies, we all hold our breath.”

22 Sep 2020; MEMO: Protesters in southern Iraq yesterday closed the Dhi Qar oil company and prevented employees from entering the building, Anadolu news agency reported.

The agency quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the protesters burned tyres, and set up roadblocks on the main street leading to the company’s entrance to demand employment opportunities for locals in oil installations in the province.

21 Sep 2020; MEMO: A railway will be built between Iraq’s Mosul and Turkey, according to the governor of Mosul on Sunday, Anadolu reports.

A team of engineers with the support of Turkish companies will start laying a new modern rail line between the two countries in the coming days, Najim al-Jubouri said in a statement to Al Sabaah, a semi-official Iraqi newspaper.

20 Sep 2020; MEMO: Iraqi President Barham Salih said Saturday that he seeks to enforce the rule of law at the highest level of government.

“The reform process requires the provision of a favorable political climate by holding early elections away from the monopoly of weapons and manipulation so that the people can decide their own future,” he told a conference organized by the Iraqi National Wisdom Movement on violence against women.

20 Sep 2020; MEMO: A senior Iraqi official announced on Friday that Iraq has decided to compensate 90,000 civilians harmed by the “liberation battles” in the Nineveh governorate, in the north of the country.

This came in a statement made by Mohammed Mahmoud, director of the sub-committee for compensating people affected by war operations in the Nineveh Governorate, to Anadolu Agency.

BAGHDAD, Sept 19 (NNN-NINA) – A roadside bomb exploded on Friday, near a convoy of trucks, carrying equipment belonging to the U.S.-led coalition forces in Salahudin province, in the north of Baghdad.

The explosion took place in the evening, when a convoy of vehicles of an Iraqi company, contracted with the international coalition in Iraq, was moving in al-Ishaqi area, some 100 km north of Baghdad, leaving a soldier wounded, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.

16 Sep 2020; MEMO: An improvised explosive device has targeted a British diplomatic vehicle near the heavily guarded Green Zone in the Iraqi capital Baghdad yesterday, Anadolu news agency reported.

The agency quoted a local security source as saying that the British diplomatic vehicle was on route from Baghdad International Airport to the Green Zone when the explosive device went off badly damaging the vehicle.

10 Sep 2020; MEMO: Iraq’s Cabinet has approved loans granted by Saudi Arabia and China this week, further deepening its relations with the two states.

In the weekly Iraqi cabinet meeting on Tuesday, chaired by Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, it was agreed to approve the financial conditions for two loans granted by the Saudi Fund for Development.

08 Sep 2020; MEMO: Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi yesterday ordered an investigation into a recent missile attack on Baghdad International Airport.

“Under the direction of the Prime Minister, the Joint Operations Command is opening an investigation to determine the party responsible for firing three Katyusha rockets at Baghdad International Airport,” the military’s Security Media Cell said in a statement.

The US ambassador to Iraq, Matthew H. Tueller, said yesterday that his country does not intend to maintain a permanent military presence in Iraq, adding that there are a lot of misunderstandings concerning the relationship between the international coalition against Daesh led by the United States and the Iraqi government.

Tueller told reporters in Baghdad that the international coalition and Iraq have achieved a lot in the war against Daesh over the past five years, saying: “We always hear from the Iraqi partners that the partnership with America must continue.”