A military jury at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell sentenced US Army First Lt. Michael Behenna to 25 years in prison after convicting him of the murder and assault of an Iraqi detainee.
Iraqi-born Dutch citizen Wesam al-Delaema pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the District of Columbia to a charge of conspiracy to murder US nationals outside the United States.
Some 50,000 US troops likely to remain in Iraq after President Obama fulfills his pledge to “withdraw combat troops” would still have a combat role, unnamed Pentagon officials told the New York Times.
US Army Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr. was convicted on charges stemming from the 2007 deaths of four Iraqi detainees, and was given a life sentence at a court-martial at a US military base in Germany.
The Iraqi government has reopened the prison formerly called Abu Ghraib, promising to operate the facility by international standards and allow inspections by humanitarian groups.
The trial of Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist accused of throwing his shoes at George Bush, has been postponed so the court can determine if Bush’s visit was “official” and respond to the defense.
Four prisoners who were released from Guantánamo Bay and sent back to their home country of Iraq last month have been detained by authorities there and are being interrogated, Iraqi officials confirmed.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Obama administration to end the indefinite detention of journalists by the US military overseas. At least one reporter, in Iraq, is still incarcerated.
Car bombs and other attacks in Iraq targeted Shi’ite pilgrims headed to Karbala for Arabeen celebrations, leaving up to 20 dead and some 60 wounded.
Authorities in Ezidikhan, the self-declared Yazidi autonomous homeland in northern Iraq, issued a statement protesting a Turkish air-raid on their territory. The attack was apparently a targeted assassination of Yazidi leader Zeki ?engali, who is a representative of the Union of Communities in Kurdistan (KCK), the international body in the political orbit of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Four members of the Yazidi territorial militia, the Sinjar Protection Units (YBS), were also killed in the attack, and a home destroyed. The raid actually took place as Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was on an official trip to Turkey, sparking outrage from some Iraqi officials. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)
Muntader al-Zaidi, the journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush, will face trial on Feb. 19 for assaulting a visiting head of state, with a maximum 15-year term, Iraqi officials announced.
Iraqi officials charge that twice in the last two weeks the US military violated the security agreement signed in November by attacking criminal suspects without coordinating with Iraqi forces.
