'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives blew himself up outside the offices of a major Kurdish party in northern Iraq early Wednesday, the deadliest in a wave of morning attacks that killed at least 31 people across the country.
Israel's prime minister on Monday accused the international community of "deafening silence" in response to recent vows by the head of the Hamas militant group to fight on until the Jewish state is destroyed, appearing unmoved by global condemnation of his government's plans to continue settling the West Bank.
Ethnic Kurds fleeing Syria are finding a safe haven among Iraq's Kurdish population, but divided loyalties and distrust of Turkey leave open questions as to how the refugees will align themselves as the Syrian civil war drags on in its 20th month of bloodshed.
Turkish warplanes and attack helicopters struck Kurdish rebel targets inside Iraq after a guerrilla attack killed eight Turkish soldiers, Turkey's military said Wednesday.
Two political leaders who put Iraq's prime minister in power met Thursday to discuss whether they should withdraw their support, now that a bitter sectarian political deadlock has led to calls for secession.
Bombings struck several areas in Baghdad and to the north Thursday, killing at least 30 people in the first major attacks in Iraq in nearly a month. The violence stoked fears that insurgents were trying to undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government amid rising sectarian tensions.
It has been nine years since U.S. forces removed a brutal tyrant in Iraq at a huge cost in lives and treasure, but already the country is slipping back into the clutches of a dangerous new one-man rule, which inevitably will lead to full dictatorship, and already it is dashing hopes for a prosperous, stable, federal and democratic Iraq.
Iraq's Sunni vice president on Monday asked for popular support to fight government charges that he commandeered death squads and said he would continue to defy arrest with the help of the nation's powerful Kurds in a showdown that tests the limits of Baghdad's reach.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden reached out to Iraq's leaders to discuss recent violence there and the country's tenuous political climate.
Iraq's ancient Christian communities have been decimated by jihadi Muslim terrorists who have bombed their churches, kidnapped their loved ones and summoned them to submit to Islam or die. Since the U.S.-led liberation of Iraq, roughly two-thirds of the pre-war Christian population of 1.5 million has fled Iraq.
Kurdish security guards opened fire on a crowd of protesters calling for political reforms in northern Iraq and killed at least two people, officials said, showing even war-weary Iraq cannot escape the unrest roiling the Middle East.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. emphasized to Iraqi leaders Thursday that the United States wants nothing more than for Iraq to be a free and democratic country during a daylong visit that officials said would focus on the departure of American troops from the country.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, one of America's closest allies in the country, has rebuffed the personal request of President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to relinquish his post as Iraqis form a new government in Baghdad.
The outcome of Turkey's military operation against Kurdish separatist terrorist strongholds in Northern Iraq has yet to be realized. Military solutions are surely not the only way to eradicate a terrorist organization. On the other hand, no terrorist organization should have the right to represent the Kurdish people.
PARIS — Buoyed by his successful American vacation and positive opinion polls, President Nicolas Sarkozy plunged yesterday into a whirl of diplomacy, including a search for a role in Iraq that would be helpful to Washington.
He urged them to be on high alert while avoiding any escalation with nearby forces from the central government.
Earlier this month, Mr. Barzani called on Kurdish factions in Syria to cease fighting and work toward a common purpose.
