Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, top leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, announced in an audio message July 22 a new plan to free imprisoned militants, attack the Iraq's judiciary and retake lost territory. "We are… Read moreAl-Qaeda in Iraq inaugurates new campaign of attacks
Mass arrests, incommunicado detentions and torture persist at Camp Honor, a prison in Iraq’s capital Baghdad that the Iraqi government promised to close last year, Human Rights Watch reports.
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the earlier dismissal of lawsuits against two Abu Ghraib contractors on the grounds that they have immunity as government contractors was premature.
Ali Mussa Daqduq, a former detainee of the US with alleged ties to Hezbollah, was cleared of all charges in an Iraqi court. The US handed Daqduq over to Iraqi authorities in December, over the protests of Republicans.
Amid official optimism about Iraq that surrounded the Arab League summit in Baghdad, the insurgency continues; Kurdistan has again halted oil exports in a dispute with the national government, and the fugitive vice president has fled to Qatar.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay criticized Iraq for carrying out a large number of executions—including 34 on a single day last month. She cited “lack of transparency in court proceedings” and “concerns about due process and fairness of trials.”
Thanks to a plea deal, Staff Sgt. Frank G. Wuterich will serve not time in the final court-martial resulting from a five-year investigation into the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha in 2005.
Blackwater, now known as Academi, reached a confidential settlement agreement with survivors and families of victims in a shooting incident in the Nisour Square area of Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.
The US handed over the last detainee in Iraq, Ali Mussa Daqduq, to Iraqi authorities—over the protests of John McCain and other Republicans, who wrote that the transfer “could pose an unacceptable risk to US national security interests.”
Despite White House and media crowing about the “end of the war” in Iraq, in fact war continues throughout the country. The day of the US “withdrawal” saw deadly car bombings and oil pipeline blasts that shut production in Basra.
Ashura celebrations saw multiple bomb attacks on Shi’ite pilgrims in Iraq, leaving at least 20 dead. Attacks on public Ashura celebrations in the Afghan cities of Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar meanwhile left 58 dead.
Obama announced that all US forces will be withdrawn from Iraq by the new year—but in fact thousands of private contractors and hundreds of military advisors will remain in a program coordinated by the Pentagon’s Office of Security Cooperation.
