Town iraq. Medical search. Frequent questions

Mosul's Old City is home to ancient churches and mosques that were destroyed in 2017 during the bloody battle by Iraqi forces and an international military coalition to drive out Islamic State. (zawya.com)
Corruption and infighting among Iraqi politicians still slow efforts to rebuild Mosul and large parts of the city remain in ruins. (zawya.com)
Bombs exploded in predominantly Shi'ite Muslim districts of the Iraqi capital and in the southern city of Hilla on Tuesday, killing at least 49 people, police and hospital sources said. (derechos.org)
Al-Wafa fell in a surprise attack that drew fresh attention to the Iraqi government's struggle to arm Sunni tribes in western Iraq who are fighting ISIS. (alarabiya.net)
Nevertheless, Chalabi retains DoD support and is a prominent member of the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, which could assume responsibility for that country's civil and political affairs when the U.S. delivers "sovereignty" (whatever that means) to Iraq on June 30, as President Bush reiterated last Tuesday. (nevadaappeal.com)
As the New York Times noted last week, "Less than 90 days before the symbolic transfer of autonomy to an Iraqi governing body, the United States has not even seriously started working out the arrangements for bringing the United Nations into Iraq as a real partner. (nevadaappeal.com)
Many opponents of Bush's Iraq policy, including presumptive Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, believe that the Iraqi adventure has weakened the War on Terrorism, elevated the terrorist threat to America and turned foreign public opinion against us, especially in the Muslim world. (nevadaappeal.com)
But since the end of combat operations in Iraq, violence in Iraq has spiked, a development Petraeus called a "tragedy - for the Iraqi people, for the region and for the entire world. (kcur.org)
The Islamic State group has retaken parts of the Iraqi town of Hit following violent clashes with Iraqi troops nearly one month after the Iraqi military announced its full liberation. (newarab.com)
The Islamic State group (IS) advanced on Sunday in the Iraqi town of Hit following violent clashes with Iraqi military forces, sources said. (newarab.com)
Iraqi and coalition officials say Hit - which lies along the Euphrates river valley in Iraq's vast Anbar province - is strategically important as it sits along an IS supply line that links the extremist militants in Iraq to those in Syria. (newarab.com)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on six people affiliated with the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kataeb Hezbollah, which is accused of being behind a spate of recent attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria following the October 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel. (fox4kc.com)
But thanks to a bold new plan implemented by the US military, residents of this central Iraqi city are now enjoying plenty of fresh air--and breathing a deep sigh of relief. (blogs.com)
This is a model of how with a little planning and a willingness to think outside the box, you can take an area that was among the most polluted and clean it up, practically overnight,' says Shelden Barnard, an advisor to the Iraqi environmental group, Citizens for a Clean Iraq, a grassroots advocacy group that encourages Iraqis to consume fewer petroleum-based fuels. (blogs.com)
Before a war-weary Senate yesterday, Ambassador Ryan Crocker gave a candid assessment of the security situation in Iraq, but downplayed the significance of the Iraqi government's poor progress on meeting congressionally mandated benchmarks. (motherjones.com)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A video purporting to show Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped in Iraq in March, was shared by an Iraqi TV channel and social media close to Iraqi militia groups on Monday. (yahoo.com)
In July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that Tsurkov was being held by Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite militia Kataeb Hezbollah and that Iraq was responsible for her safety. (yahoo.com)
An armed group calling itself the"Islamic Resistance in Iraq," which is an umbrella body for Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, claimed launching two of the drones in an online statement. (menafn.com)
HILLA, Iraq: Four prisoners and a guard were killed in clashes at a prison in the central Iraqi city of Hilla, during which eight inmates escaped, officials said on Saturday. (dawn.com)
Six Iraqi police and 11 inmates were killed in a Baghdad jail mutiny in May, while 12 suspected al Qaeda members escaped from prison in the southern city of Basra in mid-January. (dawn.com)
A general and vascular surgeon, Osteen worked for two months at an emergency field hospital located 12 miles outside the Iraqi city during a time when hundreds of thousands of civilians were trapped by ISIS. (christianpost.com)
The incident took place early in the morning when the Iraqi aircraft bombarded an IS hideout in Farhatiyah area near the town of Balad, some 80 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, destroying the hideout and killing six IS militants inside, Sheikh Safaa al-Timimi, a leader of a brigade in Saraya al-Salam militia, told Xinhua. (xinhuanet.com)
the latter shares a border checkpoint with the Iraqi city of al-Qa'im. (truthdig.com)
Not since WW II, when Iraq helped the British fight the Vichy French in Syria, has there been this degree of Iraqi military intervention in Syria. (truthdig.com)
Lahib Higel, a senior analyst for Iraq at the International Crisis Group, said in the short term, the Iraqi groups allied with Iran and Hamas are not likely to open a new front in the war, but that could change if the Hamas-Israel war escalates or becomes protracted. (whnt.com)
A bus carrying pilgrims to the Iraqi city of Karbala overturned north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing 18 people, medical officials said. (kdvr.com)
Two Iraqi medical officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media said that the bus overturned near the town of Balad, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) north of Baghdad. (kdvr.com)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was personally observing the entry of Iranian pilgrims to Iraq via the Shalamcheh border crossing on Saturday, where he and Iranian Vice President Mohammad Mokhber also laid the foundation stone for a railway project that will provide rail transportation between the two countries. (kdvr.com)
A suicide car bomber killed one Iraqi soldier and wounded five people, including three civilians, as it targeted an army checkpoint in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar. (wikipedia.org)
February 14: A suicide car bomber killed at least eight policemen and wounded 20 others when he blew up his vehicle at the entrance of a police station in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, police sources said. (wikipedia.org)
The militant group ISIS, which stands for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, promises to take control of more Iraqi cities - including the capital, Baghdad. (kusi.com)
While the national security wing of the Republican Party has been obsessed with Iraq for a quarter of a century, regardless of the situation on the ground, the rise of ISIS, and the failure of the US-trained Iraqi army to fight effectively, may have made arguing for greater American engagement less politically radioactive than it would have been a year ago. (vox.com)

Bomb attacks in Baghdad and southern Iraq city kill 49. (derechos.org)
The deadliest attacks on Tuesday occurred in and around the mainly Shi'ite city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, where 35 people were killed in seven car bomb explosions inside the city itself and the nearby towns of Haswa, Mahaweel and Mussayab. (derechos.org)
But the UN has had a minimal presence in Iraq since it withdrew most of its personnel after terrorists bombed its Baghdad headquarters several months ago. (nevadaappeal.com)
At the time, the mayor of Baghdad said that $10 billion had been set-aside for 150,000 units in Sadr City within 10 years. (blogspot.com)
Appearing via video link from Baghdad yesterday, Ryan Crocker, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, provided testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee amidst eroding support for the war among the committee's Republican members. (motherjones.com)
Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had been hostile to the Baathist regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, blaming the latter for bombings in Baghdad in the second half of the last decade. (truthdig.com)
Iraqis hold a mass rally supporting the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, in Baghdad, Iraq. (whnt.com)
BAGHDAD - The Ministry of Health here is campaigning to ban the sale of guns in Iraq. (wn.com)
After taking over Iraq's second-largest city Mosul, the militant group ISIS has its sights set on Baghdad. (kusi.com)
We turn to Iraq where back to back suicide car bombings today killed at least 18 people and wounded more than 30 in central Baghdad. (democracynow.org)
To mark the occasion, up to 300,000 Shiite Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad on Saturday calling for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, the release of Iraqis from US-run prisons and for the speedy trial of Saddam Hussein. (democracynow.org)
Hatra , Arabic Al-Ḥaḍr , ruined city located in the Al-Jazīrah region of present-day northern Iraq , 180 miles (290 km) northwest of Baghdad and 68 miles (110 km) southwest of Mosul . (britannica.com)
This is a locator map for Iraq with its capital, Baghdad. (wspa.com)

During the initial 2018 excavation, Puljiz and Qasim discovered a palace dating back to the Mitanni Empire , which reigned in parts of present-day Iraq, Syria and Turkey from 1550 to 1350 B.C. The palace may have been the centerpiece of a Mitanni city and economic center called Zakhiku, which is mentioned in ancient texts. (discovermagazine.com)
ISIL is active in the civil war in neighboring Syria and is also present in the city of Falluja, along with other Sunni militants and anti-government fighters. (derechos.org)
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters stormed a town in Iraq's western Anbar province on Saturday, killing at least 19 policemen and trapping others inside their headquarters, in the latest attack in the desert region where it controls large amounts of territory, officials said. (alarabiya.net)
Cairo, 5 December 2019 - Since 2018 UN-Habitat has been working to develop five City Profiles for conflict-affected cities in Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Yemen. (unhabitat.org)
Two U.S. defense officials confirmed three additional attacks on U.S. military facilities in Iraq and Syria on Friday, bringing the total number of attacks on U.S. and coalition military facilities in Iraq and Syria to at least 60. (fox4kc.com)
One of the oldest human civilizations in the world emerged between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East, specifically present-day Syria, Iraq, and Kuwait. (grunge.com)
The recent attacks by armed groups in Iraq and Syria are believed to be part of a series of retaliatory measures against the U.S. forces, amid the ongoing conflict between U.S.-backed Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian faction, in the Gaza Strip, according to the observatory. (menafn.com)
Here we are just about two years later, and US soldiers wearing boots are on the ground in Iraq and Syria. (truthout.org)
About 217 US soldiers have been sent to Iraq to augment the more than 4,000 troops already there, along with an additional 250 sent to the urban death zone that is Syria. (truthout.org)
They destroyed 8 fuel tankers transporting gasoline to forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an al-Qaeda affiliate that has begun holding territory both in northern Syria and in al-Anbar Province in Iraq. (truthdig.com)
Gen. Saad Maan, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said, "Army helicopters yesterday morning struck eight fuel trucks in Wadi al-Sawab at Al-Bu Kamal inside Syria, which were attempting to enter into Iraq. (truthdig.com)
He added that "eight persons were killed in this operation, i.e. the persons who were trying to transport the fuel" to the organization "the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" in al-Anbar Province. (truthdig.com)
This winter, the al-Qaeda affiliates took control of the cities of Ramadi and Falluja in al-Anbar Province, a spill-over onto Iraq of the Syrian civil war, where radical Sunni fighters, some of them from Iraq, had taken territory in northern Syria. (truthdig.com)
Since the al-Qaeda affiliates in Iraq are trying to benefit from their control of oil fields and other resources in Syria for their struggle against al-Maliki, it is natural that the latter would eventually hit them in Syria itself. (truthdig.com)
DARASHAKRAN, Iraq, October 4 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency has this week opened the world's newest refugee camp to help accommodate some of the tens of thousands of people who have fled the fighting inside Syria and sought refuge in northern Iraq during recent months. (unhcr.org)
Another refugee, Noh Ahmed, fled with his wife and five children (including four-month-old twins) to Iraq from Hassakeh in northern Syria in mid-August and was staying in Bekhma. (unhcr.org)
But the number of refugees crossing the border rose dramatically last August, when more than 60,000 people flowed into northern Iraq from all parts of Syria. (unhcr.org)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The prospect of Israeli forces launching an assault into Gaza's dense urban neighborhoods, where militants use civilians as human shields, brings back searing memories of the deadly battles the U.S.-led coalition fought against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. (wwlp.com)
I don't rule out anything, because we do have a stake in making sure that these Jihadists are not getting a foothold in either Iraq or Syria. (kusi.com)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The Islamic State group still commands between 5,000 and 7,000 members across its former stronghold in Syria and Iraq and its fighters pose the most serious terrorist threat in Afghanistan today, U.N. experts said in a report circulated Monday. (wspa.com)
But the panel said in a report to the U.N. Security Council that "the overall situation is dynamic," and despite significant losses in the group's leadership and reduced activity in Syria and Iraq, the risk of its resurgence remains. (wspa.com)
The Islamic State group declared a self-styled caliphate in a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq that it seized in 2014. (wspa.com)
Despite sustained counter-terrorism operations, Daesh continues to command between 5,000 and 7,000 members across Iraq and Syria, "most of whom are fighters," though it has reduced its attacks deliberately "to facilitate recruiting and reorganization," the experts said. (wspa.com)

MOSUL, Iraq - Muslim and Christian residents of Mosul told Pope Francis of their lives under the brutal rule of Islamic State on Sunday as the pontiff blessed their vow to rise up from ashes, telling them that 'fraternity is more durable than fratricide. (zawya.com)
Francis, on a historic trip to Iraq, flew into the Mosul by helicopter to encourage the binding of sectarian wounds and to pray for the dead of any religion. (zawya.com)
The archaeological site of Kemune, where the sunken city was found, in the dried-up area of Iraq's Mosul reservoir. (discovermagazine.com)
Now, the walls of this ancient city are once again submerged beneath the water of the Mosul reservoir. (discovermagazine.com)
The radical Sunni Muslim militants have captured swathes of western and northern Iraq, including the north's biggest city, Mosul, in June. (alarabiya.net)
Along with a group of Christian healthcare workers, Dr. Paul Osteen spent 2 months at an Emergency Field Hospital in Mosul Iraq - a joint venture between the World Health Organization and Samaritan's Purse. (christianpost.com)
Dr. Paul Osteen will never forget the horrors he witnessed in Mosul, Iraq. (christianpost.com)
MEDICINES DELIVERED TO HEALTH FACILITIES/PARTNERS* The security situation inside Mosul City is relatively stable. (who.int)
The security situation inside Mosul City is relatively stable. (who.int)
Noor was born in Mosul, Iraq, and started receiving regular red blood cell transfusions at 5 years of age in order to treat her thalassemia. (cdc.gov)
Because there were very few resources available to support people with thalassemia living in Iraq, Noor's mother, Faten Alabbas, helped to establish the Thalassemia Association of Niniva (TAN), based in Mosul, Iraq. (cdc.gov)
Noor and her mother left Iraq in 2014 shortly after a military offensive in Mosul heavily damaged the entire city, including its hospitals and clinics. (cdc.gov)

The bus that crashed today while carrying pilgrims to Karbala is pictured at the police station in Balad, Iraq, Saturday Sept. 2, 2023. (kdvr.com)
Palestinians inspect the damage of a destroyed house that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. (wwlp.com)

Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have threatened to attack U.S. facilities there because of American support for Israel. (fox4kc.com)
Two officials with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the issue, confirmed the attacks on the two bases Wednesday. (whnt.com)

ISIS seized the town of al-Wafa, 45 km west of Anbar's capital Ramadi on Saturday after starting its assault early on Friday. (alarabiya.net)
Police forces have been fighting ISIS fighters since Friday, but lack of ammunition forced it to retreat and losing the town. (alarabiya.net)
Elsewhere in western Anbar, ISIS militants executed at least 21 Sunni tribal fighters on Friday after capturing them near al-Baghdadi town on Wednesday, local officials and tribesmen said on Saturday. (alarabiya.net)
GENEVA, October 14 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency reported on Tuesday that an estimated 180,000 people have fled from the central Iraq town of Hit following its capture by ISIS and affiliated armed groups at the weekend. (unhcr.ca)
On March 30 a coalition aircraft from an unspecified country bombed a residential building in the ISIS-held city, killing or injuring seven civilians, including one believed to be a child. (abc.net.au)

When an extreme drought caused a 3,400-year-old city to reemerge from a reservoir on the Tigris River in northern Iraq, archaeologists raced to excavate it before the water returned. (livescience.com)
The 3,400-year-old city may be Zakhiku, a sprawling city in the empire (per the University of Tübingen ). (grunge.com)

The city of Falluja in Iraq's Sunni-dominated province of Anbar has been under siege by the army since early January, when militants overran it after security forces cleared a site where Sunnis were protesting against Maliki. (derechos.org)
Gen. David Petraeus , who commanded the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, says the "foremost threat to Iraq's long-term stability" is not the self-described Islamic State but Shiite militias backed, and sometimes guided, by Iran. (kcur.org)
Add this to Wednesday's Senate vote to split Iraq along religious and sectarian lines (as though it is senators' decision to make) and the grim picture of Iraq's future starts to look even worse. (truthdig.com)

The northern city was occupied by Islamic State from 2014 to 2017. (zawya.com)
Fighters of Islamic State, a Sunni militant group that tried to establish a caliphate across the region, ravaged northern Iraq from 2014-2017, killing Christians as well as Muslims who opposed them. (zawya.com)
It was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following a three-year battle that left tens of thousands of people dead and cities in ruins, but its sleeper cells remain in both countries. (wspa.com)
This cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of public schools in Erbil City, Iraq in 2017. (who.int)

In northern Iraq, troops are fighting to wrest control of Sulaiman Pek from Sunni militants who took over parts of the town last Thursday and raised the black flag of the Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) over it. (derechos.org)
Petraeus oversaw the "surge" of troops into Iraq in 2007 and 2008, which succeeded in quelling the bloody Sunni rebellion after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. (kcur.org)
They're on a mission, the same mission U.S. Army Capt. John Turner was on in Iraq seven years ago: Win the war and bring the troops home safe and sound. (indyweek.com)
Nobody has called, let's say, for the reintroduction of American troops into Iraq, or to have a very pro-active engagement. (kusi.com)
The sparse polling on adding combat troops in Iraq hasn't been consistent. (vox.com)
Still, if Kristol and his allies get their way - and it looks like they will - a willingness to insert thousands of American troops into Iraq will become a major debate point in the Republican presidential primary and the general election. (vox.com)
That's why the saber-rattling hasn't been followed by forceful calls to put American troops in Iraq, particularly when it comes to candidates who have a real shot at winning the primary. (vox.com)
His position now is a labyrinth: He wouldn't have gone to Iraq given what's currently known, the Obama administration made a mistake in withdrawing troops, and he thinks adding US forces would fail. (vox.com)

In May 2022, archaeologists studying in Iraq found remnants from a city believed to be from the Mitanni Empire, which occupied northern Mesopotamia from the 1500s to the 1300s B.C., according to Britannica . (grunge.com)
The subsequent changes in water flow after it was built put the city underwater until March 2022. (grunge.com)

Baghdad's city government has initiated a major development project to build tens of thousands of housing units in the impoverished Sadr City section of the capital. (blogspot.com)
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government has promised to redevelop Sadr City since it launched a crackdown on the Mahdi Army there in 2008. (blogspot.com)
It can almost be expected that any large deal, such as the Sadr City development one, would include some kind of graft. (blogspot.com)
January 17: A suicide car bomb struck a market in Sadr City, killing 17 people. (wikipedia.org)

For six weeks, the team of archaeologists and photographers worked to unearth more and more of the city. (discovermagazine.com)

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the politics, economics, security, culture and history of Iraq via original articles and interviews. (blogspot.com)

Police forces backed by few members of government-paid Sunni tribal fighters tried to prevent the militants from crossing the sand barrier surrounding the town, but were overwhelmed when sleeper cells from inside open fired on them, the mayor and a police officer said. (alarabiya.net)
The town had been under IS control since the militants overran the area in October 2014. (newarab.com)
About the same number of civilians were killed or taken hostage by militants and used as human shields as they fled the city. (wwlp.com)

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias, issued a statement afterward claiming responsibility for the two attacks and saying it "heralds more operations" against the "American occupation. (whnt.com)

A spate of drone attacks hit U.S. bases in Iraq as recently as Friday, as regional tensions have flared up following the bloody war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (fox4kc.com)
BEIRUT (AP) - Coalition forces were slightly injured in Iraq in a spate of drone attacks over the last 24 hours at U.S. bases in Iraq as regional tensions flare following the deadly bombing of a hospital in Gaza. (whnt.com)

The former head of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq tells The Washington Post that Iran and Shiite-backed militias pose a greater threat to Iraq than the self-described Islamic State. (kcur.org)
Indeed, Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, has toured the battlefield in which Shiite militias have waged a bloody battle against the Islamic State, which controls portions of Iraq territory. (kcur.org)
Tashkil al-Waritheen, one of the Iranian-backed militias making up the larger group, claimed responsibility in a statement for a second drone attack, which it said had targeted the al-Harir airbase in northern Iraq. (whnt.com)

and family links to people living in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. (unhcr.ca)
Iraq already hosts some 214,000 Syrian refugees with the vast majority residing in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. (unhcr.ca)
The association of bullying with substance use has not been examined in Kurdistan and Iraq, which have suffered from the effects of long-term conflict and economic hardship. (who.int)
Iraq, and the Kurdistan Region, adolescents ( 7 ). (who.int)

He noted, for example, that the president of Iraq, a Kurd, is holding meetings with the prime minister of Iraq, a Shiite. (motherjones.com)
Later in 2014, Sadr announced the formation of Peace Companies to protect Shiite shrines from the IS following the June 10, 2014 blitzkrieg when the group seized large swathes of territories in predominantly Sunni provinces in northern and western Iraq. (xinhuanet.com)
Millions of believers converge on the city each year for the Shiite pilgrimage of Arbaeen, regarded as the largest annual public gathering in the world. (kdvr.com)

No group immediately claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, but Shi'ites are often targeted by Sunni Islamist insurgents who have been regaining ground in Iraq over the past year and overran several towns in recent weeks. (derechos.org)
Police forces and the pro-government Sunni fighters were forced to retreat to a nearby police-brigade headquarters bordering their town. (alarabiya.net)

UNHCR and its partners have spent more than US$6 million preparing Darashakran for its new residents, but we must be prepared for further arrivals of refugees," said Claire Bourgeois, UNHCR's representative in Iraq. (unhcr.org)
With our donors, UNHCR will work to ensure that Iraq has the capacity to cope with current and future influxes of refugees, but we appeal for borders to be kept open to all persons seeking protection and assistance," she added. (unhcr.org)

Qasim was there when parts of the ancient city first emerged from the reservoir in 2018, another drought year. (discovermagazine.com)
But as climate change has worsened, so has drought in Southern Iraq. (discovermagazine.com)
This year, the drought enabled the researchers to excavate far more of the city. (discovermagazine.com)

The ancient city was part of the Mittani Empire. (livescience.com)
As the water sank, the 3,400-year-old ruins of an ancient city became visible along the former banks of the Tigris River. (discovermagazine.com)
In the northern section of the ancient city, a multi-story storage building may have housed stockpiles of grain and goods. (discovermagazine.com)
NBC News also reported that climate change is driving the droughts that unveiled this ancient city. (grunge.com)

Meanwhile in northern Iraq, an increasing number of Syrian Kurds from the besieged border town of Kobane are seeking shelter in Dohuk province having crossed the border from Turkey. (unhcr.ca)
The new facility was needed because the only other permanent refugee camp in northern Iraq, Domiz in Dohuk governorate, was severely overcrowded. (unhcr.org)

Until recently, the air quality in Fallujah ranked among the worst in Iraq. (blogs.com)
FALLUJAH, Iraq-Not long ago, this city of 300,000 in west central Iraq was a typical Middle Eastern metropolis: a dense network of residences, businesses and mosques, all obscured by a deadly haze of pollution. (blogs.com)
But thanks to a new initiative implemented by the US military , Fallujah has quickly become the greenest city in all of Iraq, if not the entire Middle East. (blogs.com)
This is a step towards creating a truly healthy, livable city,' said Phoenix Hassan, a member of Critical Mass Fallujah, an activist cycling organization. (blogs.com)
Glynn, who also served in Fallujah during some of the most heated urban combat there at the height of the Iraq War, will be able to advise the Israelis on how to mitigate civilian casualties in urban warfare. (wwlp.com)

Separately, a Kurdish security source anonymously said that, a booby-trapped drone attacked Harir Airbase outside the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region, at noon. (menafn.com)
A couple of days after checking into the Hotel Erbil in Hawler (the name preferred by the Kurds for their city), I noticed a display of cityscapes mounted on boards on the mezzanine across the lobby. (flowjournal.org)
1Erbil Directorate of Health, Erbil, Iraq. (who.int)

Many Sunnis in Iraq resent Maliki and feel they have been sidelined by the Shi'ite-led political order that took shape following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. (derechos.org)
This week, with his popularity rating at one of the lowest in his presidency, President Bush defended the invasion of Iraq in an address before thousands of US soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas. (democracynow.org)
But he has struggled to define his view of the American relationship with Iraq, at first stumbling over the question of whether he would have gone to war knowing what his brother knew at the time of the 2003 invasion. (vox.com)
After the Mongols' invasion in 1258 the city was abandoned for six centuries. (lu.se)

In a TV appearance from Iraq a week earlier, Crocker said that electricity was probably more important to everyday Iraqis than "all 18 benchmarks rolled up into one. (motherjones.com)

But not long before the sunken city resurfaced, Kurdish archaeologist Hasam Qasim recognized the drought's potential to reveal the ruins lurking below the water. (discovermagazine.com)
The government of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq said an intercepted drone crashed in an open area near the village of Batas. (whnt.com)
When they came to Iraq and spoke with Nechirvan Barzani, the Prime Minister of the Kurdish autonomous region, however, they found an interested party. (flowjournal.org)

Go and read Michael Totten's essay on the "Dream City of the Kurds. (blogspot.com)

Combat airmen at Balad Air Base, Iraq, work in the pre-dawn hours to prepare their armored Humvees for duty as security for a convoy from the base. (stripes.com)
Airman 1st Class Randy Calip holds a flashlight in his mouth while securing a machine gun atop a Humvee during the pre-dawn hours at Balad Air Base, Iraq. (stripes.com)

IS still controls much of northern and western Iraq, but has been driven back in recent months in some areas, such as the cities of Ramadi and Tikrit. (newarab.com)

Two drones targeted the al Asad airbase in western Iraq used by U.S. forces and one drone targeted a base in northern Iraq, a U.S. official told the Associated Press. (whnt.com)

Weapons and Warfare) The Iran-Iraq War was one of the longest and deadliest in recent histories. (blogspot.com)

The Bronze Age city, at an archaeological site called Kemune, is a relic of the Mittani Empire (also spelled Mitanni Empire), an ancient kingdom that ruled parts of northern Mesopotamia from around 1500 B.C. to 1350 B.C. Researchers have long known of the remains of the city, but they can only investigate them during droughts . (livescience.com)

The 84-year-old pope walked past ruins of houses and churches to a square that was once the thriving centre of the old town. (zawya.com)
Because of its strategic position along caravan trade routes, the town prospered and became an important religious centre. (britannica.com)

Upon arrival in Iraq, the asylum-seekers are screened by border authorities and transferred by the International Organization for Migration to Gawilan camp, set up a year ago for previous waves of Syrian refugees. (unhcr.ca)
The Syrian Baath Party is a branch of the same Baath Party that had ruled Iraq 1968-2003, which in Iraq came to be headed by Saddam Hussein. (truthdig.com)
Iraq has been welcoming Syrian refugees since early in the crisis which began in March 2011. (unhcr.org)

Some 5,400 Syrians from Kobane have now entered Iraq via Turkey, including 3,600 people in the last three days. (unhcr.ca)

Also on Wednesday, Iran-allied groups in Iraq announced that they had formed a "joint operations room" to help Hamas in its war effort. (whnt.com)

Part of the problem was that the administration left the Pentagon in charge of civil and political affairs for far too long, ignoring a detailed State Department blueprint for the reconstruction of Iraq, including the transition to democracy. (nevadaappeal.com)

The Ottoman Empire encouraged people to settle in the city by building the police station in 1863. (lu.se)

A U.S. defense official, who wasn't authorized to comment to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the attack on the al-Asad military base in western Iraq. (whnt.com)

The exodus from Hit represents the fourth major wave of displacement in less than a year in Iraq, and for many of those caught up in it, it is the second, third or even fourth time that they have had to flee since January," UNHCR's chief spokesperson Melissa Fleming told journalists in Geneva. (unhcr.ca)
Hundreds of families have begun to flee the town towards the neighbouring town of Kubaysa in search of a safe refuge, according to one of the town elders. (newarab.com)

An earthquake likely destroyed much of the city in around 1350 B.C., but some of its ruins are preserved underneath collapsed walls. (livescience.com)
Around 1350 B.C., an earthquake struck the region, collapsing the upper walls and burying much of the city in debris. (discovermagazine.com)

The ancient Bronze Age city at Kemune in Iraq. (livescience.com)
Kemune is the only known urban center from the Mittani Empire located directly on the Tigris River, suggesting the city controlled crossings at this part of the waterway and may have also been an important connecting point for the empire, Ivana Puljiz, a junior professor of ancient Near Eastern archaeology at the University of Freiburg in Germany who also worked on the excavation, told Live Science in an email. (livescience.com)

Sadr's militia is a reformation of the previous militia Mahdi Army, which he led during the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the subsequent sectarian strife in the years after 2003. (xinhuanet.com)

More vets are returning as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, Berwyn said, and more have post-traumatic stress syndrome or traumatic brain injuries that in past wars would've killed them. (indyweek.com)
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asked Congress yesterday [Wednesday] to approve an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the Bush administration's 2008 war funding request to nearly $190 billion - the largest single-year total for the wars so far. (truthdig.com)
Marine veteran who served w/the Marines in Afghanistan and later in Iraq/Afghanistan as a security contractor. (ivaw.org)

Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas, who are running for president, have been opposed to putting new American "boots on the ground" in Iraq. (vox.com)

Yet despite that history and the legacy it has left, I think Iraq and the coalition forces are making considerable progress against the Islamic State. (kcur.org)

In his televised news conference Tuesday, President Bush strongly defended his Iraq policy and vowed that the U.S. will "stay the course," no matter what it costs in American lives and taxpayer dollars. (nevadaappeal.com)
KCUR serves the Kansas City region with breaking news and powerful storytelling. (kcur.org)

He was a 21-year-old Marine killed in Iraq. (wshu.org)

Location of camps and collective centers where persons were surveyed and vaccinated during a cholera outbreak and humanitarian crisis, Iraq, 2015. (cdc.gov)

More than a year ago, well before President Bush decided to invade Iraq, I wrote the following: "I think it would be a terrible mistake to initiate a preemptive strike against Iraq without majority support from our European and Middle Eastern allies and the American people. (nevadaappeal.com)

Editor's note: Read about Iraq in the New York Times or the Washington Post and you're likely to get a daily dose of bombings, assassinations, and prisoner abuse scandals. (blogs.com)
This article is a list of suicide bombings during 2007 in Iraq. (wikipedia.org)

Diseases1

Psychiatry and Psychology2

Disciplines and Occupations1

Anthropology, Education, Sociology and Social Phenomena1

Technology, Industry, Agriculture1

Named Groups2

Health Care1

Geographicals3

Iraqi32

Baghdad13

Syria23

Mosul12

20232

Iranian-backed militias in I2

ISIS5

3,400-year-old city2

Iraq's3

20174

Troops8

20222

Sadr City4

Archaeologists1

Musings On Iraq1

Militants3

Islamic Resistance in Iraq1

Spate of drone attacks2

Militias3

Kurdistan4

Shiite3

Sunni2

UNHCR2

Drought3

Ancient city4

Dohuk2

Fallujah5

Erbil3

Invasion4

Iraqis1

Kurdish3

Kurds1

Balad2

Ramadi1

Airbase1

Iran-Ira1

Archaeological site1

Centre2

Syrian3

Turkey1

Hamas1

Reconstruction1

Ottoman Empire1

Asad1

Flee2

13502

Kemune2

Sectarian1

Afghanistan3

Boots on the1

Coalition1

News2

Marine1

Crisis1

Invade1

Bombings2