Iraq

BAGHDAD, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi President Barham Salih on Tuesday called on the new prime minister-designate Adnan al-Zurfi to hold early elections and carry out comprehensive reforms to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people.

A statement by the Iraqi Presidency said that Salih asked al-Zurfi to form a new cabinet when he received the latter in his office in the Presidential Palace in central Baghdad.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq’s president designated Adnan al-Zurfi, a former regional governor with little national political profile, as prime minister, tasked with forming a government within 30 days in a bid to overcome months of unrest and political deadlock.

Zurfi, who served as governor of the predominantly Shi’ite Najaf province during the U.S. occupation after the fall of Saddam Hussein, is head of the small Nasr parliamentary group of former prime minister Haider al-Abadi, a U.S. ally.

16 Mar 2020; MEMO: Authorities in Iraq’s southern city of Karbala have declared a three-day curfew as part of effort to stem the spread of coronavirus, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The move aims to disinfect all areas in the province and maintain the safety or our people,” Kabala governor Nasif al-Khatabi told a press conference on Sunday.

Meanwhile, local authorities in the southern Saladin province imposed a lockdown as part of measures against the disease.

15 Mar 2020; MEMO: Three American troops and several Iraqi forces were wounded on Saturday in the second major rocket attack in the past week on an Iraqi base north of Baghdad, US and Iraqi officials said, raising the stakes in an escalating cycle of attacks and reprisals, Reuters reports.

BAGHDAD, March 14 (Xinhua) -- A total of four Hashd Shaabi members were killed on Saturday in two attacks by Islamic State (IS) militants in the Iraqi province of Salahudin, a provincial police source said.

In one of the attacks, the extremist IS militants attacked an outpost manned by Saraya al-Salam militia, affiliated with Hashd Shaabi, in Zour al-Tharthar area in the south of the city of Samarra, some 120 km north of the capital Baghdad, Mohammed al-Bazi told Xinhua.

BAGHDAD (AP) — At the once bustling hub of the largest anti-government protest movement in Iraq’s modern history, crowds have dwindled, and donation boxes have sprouted up. Loudspeakers resound with calls by activists for funds to keep their hard-fought revolution alive.

The six-month-old movement has faced one setback after another, from the shifting positions of a mercurial Shiite cleric to an apathetic political class and, now, fears over an outbreak of the coronavirus that Iraq’s decrepit health system has struggled to contain, with nearly 93 confirmed cases and nine deaths.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s military said five security force members and a civilian were killed early Friday in a barrage of U.S. airstrikes launched hours after a rocket attack killed and wounded American and British servicemen at a base north of Baghdad.

An Iran-backed Shiite militia group vowed to exact revenge for the U.S. strikes, potentially signalling another cycle of tit-for-tat violence between Washington and Tehran that could play out inside Iraq.

BAGHDAD, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Iraq has repatriated 112 children born to Azerbaijani families affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) militant group, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Ahmed al-Sahaf, spokesman of the ministry, said in a statement that the repatriated children had been held with their convicted mothers imprisoned in Iraq for joining the extremist IS.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s military said Thursday it opened an investigation into a rocket attack that killed three service members, including two Americans, at an Iraqi base housing coalition forces, igniting fears of an escalation in U.S.-Iran tensions after months of detente.

At least 12 coalition personnel were also wounded late Wednesday by a barrage of rockets targeting Camp Taji base, located 27 kilometers (17 miles) north of Baghdad, according to a U.S.-led coalition statement.

10 Mar 2020; MEMO: Two soldiers of the US army were killed, Monday, while participating in a mission with Iraqi forces targeting members of the terrorist organization Daesh.

The US Central Command said, in a statement posted on its website, that “two members of the US military have been killed by enemy forces while advising and accompanying Iraqi security forces.”

The statement added that the operation was aimed at “eliminating ISIS’s (Daesh) stronghold in a mountainous region, in north-central Iraq.”