Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — The United Nations chief on Wednesday praised Iraq for repatriating citizens detained in neighboring Syria on suspicion of ties to the Islamic State group and pledged international support for the country’s efforts to regain stability and security.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres spoke to reporters during a rare visit to Baghdad, his first in six years, ahead of this month’s 20-year anniversary of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

BAGHDAD (AP) — An international archeological mission has uncovered the remnants of what is believed to be a 5,000-year-old restaurant or tavern in the ancient city of Lagash in southern Iraq.

The discovery of the ancient dining hall — complete with a rudimentary refrigeration system, hundreds of roughly made clay bowls and the fossilized remains of an overcooked fish — announced in late January by a University of Pennsylvania-led team, generated some buzz beyond Iraq’s borders.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Nearly 20 years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid wants the world to know his country now is at peace, democratic and intent on rebuilding economic life while maintaining a government that serves the whole country and the region.

BAGHDAD, Feb 24 (NNN-NINA) – Iraq has arrested five “terrorists,” who were charged with crimes including killing, imprisoning and torturing citizens, in the country’s northern province of Salahudin, an official source said yesterday.

During several preemptive operations, the Interior Ministry’s intelligence agency “was able to arrest five wanted terrorists, for their affiliation with the Daesh gangs,” said a press release, issued by the Security Media Cell (SMC), a media outlet affiliated with Iraq’s armed forces.

BAGHDAD, Feb 23 (NNN-NINA) – An army pilot officer, a paramilitary member, and a doctor were killed yesterday, by gunmen in separate incidents in Iraq, security sources said.

Unidentified armed men shot dead Iraqi Air Force officer, Saad Mohsen Marzouq, who was driving in Fallujah city, some 50 km west of the capital, Baghdad, a local police source said, on condition of anonymity.

22 Feb 2023; MEMO: Iraq's Central Bank announced, on Wednesday, it plans to regulate foreign trade from China directly in Yuan as part of a bundle of measures to facilitate access to foreign currency, state media reported.

The reports did not give more details about plan, Reuters reports.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Amid chilly temperatures and heavy security, thousands of black-clad pilgrims from across Iraq marched Thursday in the annual procession in marking the death of a Shiite saint.

Pilgrims traditionally travel on foot to the shrine and burial site of Imam Moussa al-Kadhim, the seventh of 12 Shiite imams who died in a Baghdad prison in the eighth century. The procession leads to the site in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kadimiyah. Participants wear black, with some carrying out self-flagellation to publicly express their mourning.

BAGHDAD (AP) — For months, the United States has restricted Iraq’s access to its own dollars, trying to stamp out what Iraqi officials describe as rampant money laundering that benefits Iran and Syria. Iraq is now feeling the crunch, with a drop in the value of its currency and public anger blowing back against the prime minister.

The exchange rate for the Iraqi dinar has jumped to around 1,750 to the dollar at street exchanges in some parts of the country, compared to the official rate of 1,460 dinars to the dollar.

BAGHDAD, Jan 22 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi military said, it killed, yesterday, two Daesh militants, in an airstrike in Salahudin Province, north of Baghdad.

According to a statement from the Joint Operations Command’s media office, the militants were spotted by Iraqi forces, in a rocky area near the town of Tuz Khurmato, which is located in eastern Salahudin. They were killed when Iraqi airplanes attacked their position with an airstrike.

Jan 15 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani defended the presence of U.S. troops in his country and set no timetable for their withdrawal, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday.

Referring to the U.S. and NATO troop contingents that train and assist Iraqi units in countering Islamic State but largely stay out of combat, Sudani said that the foreign forces are still needed. "Elimination of ISIS needs some more time," he said in the interview.