Iraq

29 June 2020; MEMO: Iraqi authorities said Sunday 13 doctors have succumbed to coronavirus in the country since February, Anadolu reports.

A further 775 doctors have contracted the virus, Abdulalameer al-Shimmary, head of Iraq’s Doctors’ Association, told Anadolu Agency.

“All doctors are doing their utmost efforts to provide services to patients at the available resources,” he said.

28 June 2020; MEMO: Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades threatened on Friday the new Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi over the detention of brigades’ leaders, Al-Watan Voice reported.

26 June 2020; MEMO: Iraq’s counterterrorism agencies carried out a raid last night on the headquarters of the Iranian-supported Hezbollah Brigades, one of the most powerful factions of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) in southern Baghdad. At least 13 of the group’s members are believed to have been arrested, although there have been contradictory, unconfirmed accounts of what happened and of the number of those detained.

BAGHDAD, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Wednesday held talks with top Iraqi leaders over bilateral relations and cooperation in Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Iraqi President Barham Salih met Safadi and his accompanying delegation, and the two sides discussed the Arab and regional situations, as well as coordinating their stances in order to mitigate the regional crises, said a statement by the media office of the presidency.

BAGHDAD, June 23 (NNN-NINA) – A Katyusha rocket landed near Baghdad International Airport on Monday, without causing casualty, the Iraqi military said.

The attack took place in the evening, when unknown militants fired the rocket from a village in Abu Ghraib in western Baghdad, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a statement.

19 June 2020; MEMO: The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq accused the Iraqi government and Shabak militia Thursday of torturing prisoners in jails in Nineveh governorate, Anadolu reports.

“Detainees in the government’s and militia’s prisons in Iraq are subjected to heinous crimes that go against human nature,” the association’s general secretariat said in a statement.

BAGHDAD, June 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Rockets hit Baghdad’s Green Zone, home to the US embassy, on Thursday, the fifth such attack in 10 days, security sources inside the high-security district said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Like previous attacks, there was no claim of responsibility.

Since October, at least 32 attacks have targeted American interests in Iraq that the US has blamed on Iran-backed factions among Iraq’s security forces.

16 June 2020; MEMO: The Iraqi Joint Operations Command yesterday denounced Turkey’s “violations” of its air space, after 18 Turkish warplanes bombed alleged sites belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Sinjar and Makhmour on Sunday evening.

The Iraqi Command said in a statement that 18 Turkish aircrafts violated Iraqi airspace heading towards Sinjar, Makhmour, Gwer and Erbil, reaching the district of Sharqat at a depth of 193 kilometres from the Turkish border.

BAGHDAD, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Eight people were killed and six others wounded on Sunday in an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a provincial police source said.

The attack took place in the early hours of the day when IS militants attacked a village near the town of Khanaqin, some 165 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Mohammed al-Shimmary told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attack sparked fierce clash between the attackers and local policemen, backed by armed villagers, al-Shimmary said.

BAGHDAD, June 11 (NNN-NINA) – Two Katyusha rockets were fired, on Wednesday, at the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, said a source from the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

The attack took place before midnight, when the two rockets landed in the Green Zone, which houses some of the main Iraqi government offices and the U.S. embassy, the source said.

There were no immediate reports about casualties, but sirens were heard in the zone, the source said.