Iraq

BAGHDAD, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The United States is returning more than 17,000 ancient artifacts looted and smuggled out of Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003, including a 3,500-year-old clay tablet bearing part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Iraq said on Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of antiquities disappeared from Iraq after the 2003 invasion that toppled leader Saddam Hussein. Many more were smuggled or destroyed by the iconoclastic Islamic State group, which held a third of Iraq between 2014 and 2017 before it was defeated by Iraqi and international forces.

BAGHDAD, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Four people were killed and six others wounded in twin attacks by militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group in western and eastern Iraq, security sources said on Saturday.

In the western province of Anbar, the militants attacked a policeman's house outside the town of Heet, some 160 km west of Baghdad at about 2:00 a.m. local time (2300 GMT), Maj. Abdul-Sattar al-Dulaimi of the provincial police told Xinhua.

BAGHDAD, July 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two rockets were fired early Thursday against Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone which houses the US embassy, without causing any casualties or damage, an Iraqi security source said.

The dawn attack came as Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi was flying home from Washington after White House talks in which President Joe Biden announced an end to US combat operations in Iraq.

One rocket landed in a parking lot inside the Green Zone and a second one hit a nearby empty area, said the sources.

BAGHDAD, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi National Dialogue Front announced on Wednesday its withdrawal from the parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 10.

It is the third political group, after Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc and the Iraqi Communist Party, that has decided to withdraw from the upcoming Iraqi elections.

BAGHDAD, Jul 25 (NNN-NINA) – “The Americans have nothing to do with human rights. It is a concept they use to seek interests,” said Bedu al-Hamad, a former Iraqi detainee, who was jailed by the U.S. army for more than two years.

Al-Hamad, 59, who was head of the reconstruction committee of the Municipal Council of the town of Duluiyah, Salahuddin province, spent 26 months and 20 days in U.S. detention, despite not having committed any crimes.

25 July 2021; MEMO: Iraq has signed an agreement allowing the cash-strapped Lebanese government pay for 1 million tonnes of heavy fuel oil a year in goods and services, helping Lebanon ease its acute power shortage, the two sides said on Saturday, reported Reuters.

Lebanon is in the throes of an economic meltdown threatening its stability. It has all but run down foreign reserves and faces a growing shortage of fuel, medicine and other basic goods. Most Lebanese face power cuts for many hours a day.

24 July 2021; MEMO: The Iraqi Resistance Coordination Committee, which consists of four Shia groups affiliate with Iran, pledged on Friday to fight any foreign soldiers in the country, Anadolu Agency reported.

This came just hours after the launch of the fourth round of strategic dialogue in Washington, during which Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein stated that his country requires the US arming and training programme.

22 July 2021; MEMO: The United States and Iraq are expected to formalise the end of Washington's combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year and continue the transition toward training and advising Iraqi forces, US officials said on Thursday, reports Reuters.

There are currently 2,500 US troops in Iraq focusing on countering the remnants of Daesh. The move is not expected to have a major impact since the United States has already moved toward focusing on training Iraqi forces.

BAGHDAD, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Two soldiers were killed and three wounded in an attack by militants of the extremist Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq's Salahudin province in the north of Baghdad, a provincial police source said on Wednesday.

The attack took place late on Tuesday night when IS militants attacked an army base in the rugged area of Mteibijah in the eastern part of the province, leaving two soldiers killed and three wounded, Col. Mohammed al-Bazi told Xinhua

20 July 2021; MEMO: At least 22 people were killed and 47 others injured in an explosion in Iraq's capital Baghdad on Monday, the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, health officials said.

The blast took place in the al-Wuhaylat public market, Sadr City district during rush hour. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi ordered the authorities to initiate an investigation, and bring the perpetrators to account.