Iraq

BAGHDAD, July 20 (Xinhua) -- At least 28 people were killed and 66 others wounded in a bomb explosion at a crowded market in eastern Baghdad on Monday, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

The huge explosion ripped through the popular market in Sadr City, a suburb district of Baghdad, destroying several nearby shops and stalls and damaging surrounding buildings on the eve of the Eid al-Adha festival, the source said.

BAGHDAD, July 15 (Reuters) - The Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Thursday he will not take part in elections in October and withdrew his support from the government, distancing himself from the state at a time when deadly hospital fires have angered Iraqis.

One of the most influential figures in Iraq, Sadr led a political bloc that emerged as the biggest in the 2018 parliamentary election, with 54 seats in the 329 seat legislature, and his movement has big sway.

BAGHDAD (AP) — The death toll from a catastrophic blaze that erupted at a coronavirus hospital ward in southern Iraq the previous day rose to 58 on Tuesday, Iraqi medical officials said.

Two health officials said more than 100 people were also injured in the fire that torched the coronavirus ward of al-Hussein Teaching Hospital in the city of Nasiriyah on Monday.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran’s expeditionary Quds Force commander brought one main directive for Iraqi militia faction leaders long beholden to Tehran, when he gathered with them in Baghdad last month: Maintain calm, until after nuclear talks between Iran and the United States.

But he was met with defiance. One of the six faction leaders spoke up in their meeting: They could not stay quiet while the death of his predecessor Qassim Soleimani and senior Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a U.S. drone strike went unavenged.

08 July 2021; MEMO: US diplomats and troops in Iraq and Syria were targeted in three rocket and drone attacks over the past 24 hours, officials said yesterday, including at least 14 rockets hitting an Iraqi air base hosting US forces, wounding two American service members, Reuters reports.

While there were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks, analysts believe they were part of a campaign by Iranian-backed militias.

BAGHDAD, July 7 (Reuters) - At least 14 rockets hit western Iraq's Ain al-Asad air base, host to U.S. and other international forces, on Wednesday, slightly wounding three people, a coalition spokesman said.

U.S. Army Colonel Wayne Marotto, spokesman for the U.S.-led international military coalition, tweeted that the rockets landed on the base and its perimeter.

The United States accuses Iranian-backed militia groups of launching regular rocket attacks against its troops in Iraq. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's attack.

BAGHDAD (AP) — The leader of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia has vowed to retaliate against America for the deaths of four of his men in a U.S. airstrike along the Iraq-Syria border last month, saying it will be a military operation everyone will talk about.

Abu Alaa al-Walae, commander of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad that the electoral victory of Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi as president will strengthen Iran-backed militant groups throughout the Middle East for the next four years.

04 July 2021; MEMO: Iraq backs a proposal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies to extend a pact on output curbs until December 2022, Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said on Sunday, adding he expected oil prices to remain at $70 per barrel or above until then, reports Reuters.

03 July 2021; MEMO: The Iraqi Ministry of Defence announced on Friday thwarting an attack intended to target a military base at Baghdad International Airport, Anadolu Agency reported.

"Based on precise information, the Federal Police thwarted an attack attempt that would have targeted one of the military bases in the west of Baghdad with eight grad rockets," the Defence Ministry disclosed in a statement.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A widespread power outage hit Iraq on Friday as temperatures reached scorching levels, affecting millions of Iraqis including in affluent areas in the capital and stirring concerns of widespread unrest.

Iraq’s grid was generating just over 4,000 Megawatts according to Ministry of Electricity data on Friday morning, less than the 20,000 MW the grid generates on average. The cuts have impacted Baghdad and southern provinces in particular.