Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Three simultaneous explosions rocked Baghdad late Tuesday, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, Iraqi officials said, in the first apparent coordinated attack since anti-government protests erupted nearly two months ago.

It was not immediately clear who has behind the bombings, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group. Iraq declared victory over the extremists nearly two years ago, but they still maintain a presence in parts of the country and carry out sporadic attacks.

BAGHDAD, Nov 25 (NNN-NINA) – Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mohammed al-Hakim, hailed relations between China and Iraq, describing the bilateral ties as “excellent.”

Al-Hakim made the remarks during a meeting with Chinese Ambassador, Zhang Tao, where he praised the stable and developed Iraqi-Chinese relations, said a statement by the Chinese embassy in Iraq.

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Security forces opened fire on protesters in Baghdad and several cities in southern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens of others, police and medical sources said, the latest violence in weeks of unrest.

Anti-government protests erupted in early October and have swollen into the largest demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. A Reuters tally of the dead as given by security and medical sources shows at least 339 people have been killed.

24 Nov 2019; MEMO: Iraq’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, called on Friday for the politicians in the country to accelerate the reformation of election laws, The New Khalij reported.

Al-Sistani stressed that the reformation of election laws is the only method of ending the turmoil, which has been ongoing in Iraq for weeks.

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence worked to reassure the United States’ Kurdish allies in an unannounced trip to Iraq on Saturday, the highest-level American trip since President Donald Trump ordered a pullback of U.S. forces in Syria two months ago.

Flying in a C-17 military cargo aircraft, Pence landed in Irbil, capital of Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region, to meet with Iraqi Kurdistan President Nechirvan Barzani.

BAGHDAD/BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Security forces reopened the entrance to Iraq’s main Gulf port on Friday after forcibly dispersing protesters who had been blocking it, as the country’s top cleric warned nothing but speedy electoral reforms would resolve unrest.

Employees were able to enter the Umm Qasr commodities port near Basra for the first time since it was blocked on Monday, port sources told Reuters, but normal operations had not yet resumed, the sources said.

BAGHDAD (AP) — The images are both haunting and inspiring, transforming a once dreary, grim underpass into a vivid, colorful wall of art.

“We want a nation, not a prison,” says one painting that depicts a man bursting free from behind bars. “Plant a revolution, and you will harvest a nation,” reads another showing a hand flashing the victory sign over protesters heads.

Some of the messages are less sentimental. “Look at us, Americans, this is all your fault,” declares one.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas in renewed clashes with anti-government protesters in central Baghdad on Friday, killing three people, while Iraq’s top Shiite religious leader warned its government to heed calls for sweeping political reforms.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Waves of violent protests have engulfed Baghdad and Iraq’s southern provinces, with demonstrators chanting for the downfall of a political establishment that they say doesn’t prioritize them.

Fueling the unrest is anger over an economy flush with oil money that has failed to bring jobs or improvements to the lives of young people, who are the majority of those taking to the streets. They say they have had enough of blatant government corruption and subpar basic services.

13 Nov 2019; MEMO: Iraqi security personnel yesterday joined anti-establishment protests in the southern city of Karbala to express solidarity with the “legitimate demands” of the demonstrators.