BAGHDAD - Violence in Iraq’s capital has killed at least 24 Iraqis at the start of voting in the country’s first parliamentary elections since 2005.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry source says at least 12 people were killed and eight wounded when an explosion destroyed a building in Baghdad.
An earlier blast as polls opened killed four people […]

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s government says it has executed Saddam Hussein’s notorious henchman and cousin, widely known as “Chemical Ali,” for crimes against humanity.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh says Hassan al-Majid was executed Monday.  He had been sentenced to death by hanging four times by Iraqi courts, most recently in a verdict earlier this month.
Al-Majid was […]

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi court has sentenced a notorious cousin of former dictator Saddam Hussein to death by hanging for ordering the gassing of Iraqi Kurds in 1988.
It is the 4th death sentence handed down to Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as “Chemical Ali” for his role in the poison gas attack in the northeastern […]

BAGHDAD - A wave of car bombings rocked the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Tuesday morning, killing more than 100 people and wounding dozens of others. It was the worst violence to hit Baghdad, since October, when two massive car-bombs killed 155 people.
Ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals across Baghdad, after a wave of powerful car-bombings struck […]

BAGHDAD - An al-Qaida-linked group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s devastating car bombings in Baghdad that killed at least 155 people and wounded more than 500 others.
The militant group named the Islamic State in Iraq announced it was behind the twin suicide bombings in a statement posted on a militant Web site. 
Iraqi Prime […]

BAGHDAD - Iraqi officials say the toll from Sunday’s two powerful car bombs in central Baghdad has risen to 155 killed and more than 500 others wounded.  
The near-simultaneous attacks hit near the heavily-guarded Green zone and appeared to target a provincial government building and the Ministry of Justice.
The blasts caused heavy damage to the […]

SHARM EL SHEIKH - Tense relations between Iraq and Syria set the backdrop for a meeting on Iraqi security Wednesday. Officials from Iraq and its neighbors attended an annual conference, hosted this year by Egypt, on how other countries can help improve conditions or, at least, not make them worse.  

The Iraqi government has been […]

WASHINGTON - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is blaming Sunni insurgents for Wednesday’s wave of bomb and mortar attacks in Baghdad. At least 95 people were killed and hundreds more wounded. The strikes targeted two key government buildings, the Foreign and Finance Ministries. And the attacks continued on Thursday when a bomb exploded in central […]

BAGHDAD - Multiple explosions in the Iraqi capital have killed 95 people and wounded at least 310 others, in the worst day of violence in Baghdad since U.S. forces left urban areas in June.

One of the biggest bombs went off outside Iraq’s Foreign Ministry, causing casualties both inside and outside the heavily fortified building.

The […]

BAGHDAD - The top U.S. commander in Iraq says he wants to station more American soldiers in disputed areas of northern Iraq where there has been a recent spike in violence.
General Ray Odierno said Monday U.S. soldiers would partner with both Iraqi government and Kurdish troops to secure the region marked with tension between Arabs […]

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s planning minister says the country’s first nationwide census in two decades will be postponed indefinitely because of ethnic tensions.
Ali Baban said Sunday the government is technically capable of carrying out the census, but fears it could inflame tensions in northern areas disputed by Arabs and Kurds. He said local political parties in […]

IRBIL - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has met with the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, Massoud Barzani, during the second day of his trip to Iraq.
The two held talks in the Kurdish regional capital Irbil on Wednesday as Mr. Gates attempted to bridge the divide between Iraq’s ethnic Kurds and majority Arabs.
On Tuesday, […]

BAGHDAD - Britain said it will withdraw its remaining forces in Iraq to neighboring Kuwait. 
The British Embassy in Baghdad said Tuesday the move is necessary because the Iraqi parliament has failed to pass a deal allowing some British troops to stay beyond the end of July.
The deal would have allowed up to 100 British troops […]

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government has opened bidding for development rights for some of the country’s massive oil and gas fields.
More than 30 international firms, including U.S. giant Exxon Mobil and China’s CNPC, are vying for a chance to secure service contracts to develop six oil and two gas fields.
The contracts will provide money to […]

BAGHDAD - Police have arrested Iraq’s former trade minister in connection with corruption allegations, after he tried to leave the country.
The chairman of the parliamentary integrity commission, Sabah al-Saedi, told reporters Saturday that ex-minister Falah al-Sudani had tried to escape on a plane headed to the United Arab Emirates, but the flight was ordered to […]

WASHINGTON - The commander of multi-national forces in Iraq, U.S. Army General Ray Odierno, said he does not believe a recent upsurge in violence will delay the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraqi cities by the end of June.  

General Odierno told reporters at the Pentagon the major attacks in Iraq over the past […]

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has denounced Sunday’s deadly raid by the U.S. military in southern Iraq, and has demanded that U.S. forces hand over to Iraqi courts those who were responsible.
Mr. Maliki called the pre-dawn raid that killed two people in the town of Kut a crime that violated the U.S.-Iraqi security […]

WASHINGTON - The military commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan is warning that security gains in Iraq are fragile and that a tough fight lies ahead in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

General David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, testified before a House of Representatives panel Friday.

He said substantial progress has been made in […]

BAGHDAD - Russia and Iraq have agreed to work toward restoring contracts established before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said the understanding was reached during Friday’s talks in Moscow between prime ministers of the two countries.

Russian energy firms such as Lukoil signed agreements with the government of Saddam Hussein. But Saddam […]

Iraqi and U.S. troops are ordering Sunni Muslim security volunteers in a Baghdad district to turn in their weapons, after the arrest of their local leader sparked deadly gun battles.
The troops used loudspeakers Sunday to order members of the local “Awakening Council” to stop fighting, or be arrested. Despite the warning, sporadic shooting continued in […]

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s top court has sentenced the main spokesman for Saddam Hussein’s regime, Tariq Aziz, to 15 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
 
The former deputy prime minister was sentenced Wednesday for his role in the execution of dozens of Baghdad traders in 1992.
The court sentenced two of Saddam’s half-brothers, Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan and […]

BAGHDAD - An Iraqi court has given a third death sentence to Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Hassan al-Majid, also known as “Chemical Ali” for his role in the gassing of Iraqi Kurds.

The court sentenced Majid to hang after convicting him of premeditated murder in connection to the 1999 crackdown on Shi’ite protests in the city of […]

BAGHDAD - Iraqis are voting Saturday in elections that are seen as a crucial test of the country’s stability.
In the first provincial elections since 2005, Iraqis will pick representatives for 14 of the country’s 18 local councils. More than 14,000 candidates are vying for 440 seats.
Several mortars exploded near a polling station in the city […]

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government says U.S. security firm Blackwater is no longer authorized to operate in Iraq, where it provides protection to U.S. diplomats.
Baghdad has accused Blackwater security guards of unlawfully killing 17 Iraqi civilians in a 2007 Baghdad shooting.
Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Thursday that Blackwater’s Iraqi license has expired and […]