Syria’s Nusra Front appealed to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri to mediate in a dispute with the Islamic State of Iraq, rejecting the latter’s attempted hostile take-over.
Iraq unveiled an ambitious energy strategy to ramp up oil production to 4.5 million barrels per day by the end of next year—as sectarian violence escalates.
The most senior member of Saddam Hussein’s inner circle still on the run, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, is said to be leading a band of insurgents from the Naqshbandi Sufi order.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, “emir” of al-Qaeda in Iraq, announced a merger with Syria’s Nusra Front to form a new organization, the “Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.”
Ten years after the US invasion, Iraq is enmeshed in a cycle of human rights abuses, including attacks on civilians, torture and unfair trials, Amnesty International charges.
Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government announced that ExxonMobil has begun exploring for oil in the region—in a deal rejected by the Baghdad central government as illegal.
A new wave of suicide bombings targeting Iraqi intelligence and judicial officials coincides with widespread Sunni protests demanding the resignaiton of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
In attack blamed on Iran’s elite Quds Force, Katyusha rockets rained down on the former US military base outside Baghdad now used by “demobilized” Mujahedeen Khalq fighters.
A military contractor that was accused in a lawsuit by former detainees of the Abu Ghraib prison of conspiring to torture paid $5.28 million to ex-detainees.
A wave of bomb attacks across Iraq taregted Shi'ite pilgrims, as Sunni protesters blocked highways to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
An ongoing stand-off between an elite force of Iraq's national army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces around the contested northern city of Kirkuk led to skirmishes that left two dead.
Arabic-language news services report that 15 accused al-Qaeda members who recently escaped from a prison in Tikrit, Iraq, are now leading insurgent groups in Syria.
