Iraq News

Five years ago, retired Air Force intelligence officer Kirk von Ackermann became the first of 39 Americans to be kidnapped in Iraq. He's still missing, his wife fearing she'll never see him again.

Besides the personal tragedy, his disappearance and those that have followed have taken on a larger significance. They mark a turning point in terrorist tactics that U.S. intelligence officials say has produced a startling statistic: a 500 percent increase in foreigners taken hostage around the world as militants adopt the methods of the most violent figures in the Iraq insurgency.

'Dinner guest': one Shiite from the town said he would invite the former dictator to his house for a meal.

LONDON (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was quoted on Monday as saying it was time for British combat forces to leave the south of the country because they were no longer needed to maintain security and control.

Maliki told The Times newspaper in an interview there might still be a need for their experience in training Iraqi forces and on some technological issues, but the emphasis was now on business links.

He thanked U.S.-led forces for their "important help" but said "the page has been turned."

Iraq's oil minister will meet Monday in London with representatives of international oil companies for the first round of bidding for new contracts in the country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the minister's spokesman said.

Last April, Iraq chose 35 oil companies out of the 120 that applied to participate in the bidding round to develop six major oil fields and two gas fields.

Topping the list of companies are the world's oil giants: Royal Dutch Shell PLC, BP PLC, ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total.

Dirndl-clad waitresses deliver frothy beers, the brass band has the oom-pah music in full drive and there are sausages on the grill.

Welcome to Iraq?

It may still be a far cry from the Oktoberfest party in Munich, Germany, that draws in 6 million people each year. But Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq is looking to cash in on the relative peace it is enjoying with new investment and _ despite the challenge of attracting foreigners to one of the world's most dangerous countries _ perhaps the beginnings of a tourism industry.

Waterford -- An army of volunteers is helping to make life a little easier for an injured Iraq War veteran.

Fears that the U.S. military's handover of neighbourhood guard units to Iraqi control would unleash a new wave of violence in Baghdad have so far proved unwarranted, the U.S. military said.

Iran's ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi said the US-Iraq security pact is a "pure Iraqi issue." Interviewed by the Los Angeles Times , he noted the security pact is one-sided and emphasized the U.S. ...

Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his work on conflict resolution.

An upswing in insurgent attacks against Christians in Mosul has forced 500 families to flee in the last week and seek shelter at churches, monasteries and relatives' homes, the governor of northern Iraq's Ninevah province said Saturday.

Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula estimated some 3,000 people have fled the city in what he called a 'major displacement.'

So far this month, police in Mosul have reported finding the bullet-riddled bodies of seven Christians killed in separate attacks, the latest a day laborer found on Wednesday.

A Kurdish journalist was gunned down in the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi police said. A New York-based journalists' group said Saturday it was the 136th killing of a reporter since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq five years ago.

Col. Taha al-Din of Kirkuk police said Diyar Abbas Ahmed, a journalist with Iraq Eye media, was assassinated Friday in the city center.

Ethnic and religious tensions have risen in the city, which has been the site of a tense standoff between Arabs and Kurds. Kurds want to incorporate Kirkuk into their semiautonomous region in the north and Iraq's government has been stalled for months over the future status of the oil-rich city.

France, which famously opposed the Iraq war, is in talks to resume sales of military equipment to Baghdad for the first time in nearly two decades, French and Iraqi officials say.

As provincial elections approach, some officials worry that assassinations will increase as political parties try to eradicate their competitors.

Oct. 10 - As Golden Mosque in Samarra is restored, some hope it will become symbol of reconciliation and recovery.

Apparently the Left's messiah doesn't want to wait to be elected before throwing a monkey wrench into our foreign policy: At the same time the Bush administration was negotiating a still elusive agreement to ...

Finland's ex-president Martti Ahtisaari received the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to build a lasting peace from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Middle East.

Three Christians have been killed in the past 24 hours in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported on Wednesday, quoting police sources.

In the past, when Iraqi police here ran out of gas, they often turned to the Marines, who generally obliged by filling the trucks and generators - courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

BAGHDAD : A suicide bomber blew herself up in the provincial capital of Diyala Province on Wednesday, killing 10 people on a street that has already been attacked by suicide bombers at least 16 times in the ...

" nce war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end.