US President Barack Obama announces the end of the country’s combat mission in Iraq, repeating his predecessor George W. Bush some seven years ago. “Tonight, I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over,” he said on Tuesday. The US led Iraq’s invasion in March 2003 based [...]

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki says Iraqi forces are capable of securing the war-torn nation following the withdrawal of US combat troops. Speaking in a televised address on Tuesday, the Iraqi premier said that his county was sovereign and independent from now on. US President Barack Obama had said that the US would end its combat [...]

US Vice President Joe Biden has traveled to Iraq as Washington prepares to officially end its so-called combat mission in the violence-stricken country. Biden landed in Baghdad on Monday, one day before an August 31 deadline when a speech by US President Barack Obama will signal an end to the American military’s combat operations, AFP [...]

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says the US withdrawal from Iraq is an election strategy ahead of the US midterm congressional vote. “That they magnify the US pullout form Iraq is mainly linked with the US internal affairs and its future events including the upcoming elections,” Mehmanparast said at his weekly press conference on [...]

Iraq’s military forces are fully capable of providing stability and security in their country, says Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Danaifar. “Some people want to link the rise of violence and terror in Iraq to the withdrawal of US forces,” Danaifar said on Monday. “Some would like to carry out such acts of violence so [...]

Iran’s new ambassador to Iraq says high on his agenda is to settle the remaining issues in mutual relations such as the Algiers Accord and common oil fields. “Among the most significant issues on the agenda …are to … settle the remaining cases from the past such as the 1975 (Algiers) Accord , common oil [...]

An Iraqi security official has urged the government to fire members of the notorious terrorist group Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) from the country. The MKO is funding armed groups to cause chaos and disorder in central Diyala province, said Ahmed al-Zarkushi, the mayor of Saadiyah district in Diyala, Mehr news agency reported. The mayor further [...]

The Iraqi premier has put the nation on alert, warning of joint terror projects by al-Qaeda militants and the outlawed Baath Party of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein. Speaking on Saturday in the wake of the death of some 60 people in nationwide violent attacks, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned of more acts of terrorism in [...]

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has warned that the political gridlock in the country is conducive to the growth of militancy in Iraq. Violence has raged on across the country as the March 7 parliamentary polls did not produce a clear winner to form a new government. “Here you have a government paralysis, you have [...]

The top US commander in Iraq says American troops would return to combat operations if the security situation worsens and if the Iraqi military asks. Declining to rule out his country’s return to combat, he said, “If they ask us that they might want us to stay longer, we certainly would consider that,” General Ray [...]

The US Army has announced in a statement that an American soldier was killed in southern Iraq while the last combat brigade left the country a few days earlier. “A United States soldier was killed today in Basra province,” the army said on Sunday. The statement gave no further details, AFP reported. The latest death [...]

Iran says it is ready to hold a meeting with the economy ministers of Syria, Iraq and Turkey to discuss setting up an economic bloc in the region. Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini made the remarks in a meeting with Syrian Economy and Trade Minister Lamia Assi in Tehran on Saturday. [...]

The United States and British embassies in Baghdad have been targeted by several mortar rounds, according to an Iraqi police official. Three mortar shells landed near the US embassy, which is located in the Green Zone in the capital Baghdad, on Saturday evening, DPA news agency reported. There was no immediate confirmation of casualties. The [...]

A new poll in the United States shows that a slim majority of Americans believe history will judge the Iraq war as a failure rather than a success. According to results of a Gallup opinion poll released on Friday, 53 percent of Americans surveyed maintain that history will view the US invasion of Iraq and [...]

With the United States drawing down troops in Iraq, the State Department plans to double the number of private security contractors it uses to ensure the safety of the huge civilian development effort, officials said on Thursday. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the plan would bring to some 7,000 the total security contractors employed [...]

Thursday witnessed the withdrawal of the last US occupation combat brigade from Iraq. Although US military restricted journalists from reporting the movement of the brigade until it crossed the borders with the Kuwait, reporters said the troops expressed their relief at leaving the occupied country. Reporters also said the soldiers cried from Kuwait: “We won, [...]

Talks between Iraq’s main political rivals break off months after the general polls in March which left the country divided over who should form a new government. The latest development, yet another blow in the face of war-weary Iraqis, came after election winner and former Premier Iyad Allawi pulled out of the negotiations. A spokeswoman [...]

At least four Iranian pilgrims and one Iraqi citizen have been killed in a car bomb attack just northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police say. The explosion on Monday also left nine separate casualties. Major Mohammed al-Karkhi of the Baquba police told AFP the bombing took place in Muqdadiyah, capital of the Diyala province. [...]

The Iraqi oil ministry has confirmed it is ready to allow the transit of Iranian natural gas destined for Syria and Mediterranean littoral countries. Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said in a statement on Thursday that “Iraq does not mind facilitating extension of the Iranian gas pipeline through its territory to Syria and the Mediterranean [...]

Hundreds of US troops will stay in Iraq under the authority of the US embassy, after American forces’ pullout from the war-torn country in 2011, a top White House advisor says “We’ll be doing in Iraq what we do in many countries around the world with which we have a security relationship,” AFP quoted Anthony [...]