Nuri al-Maliki

The withdrawal of US forces from Iraqi cities won't affect security in the country, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki assured US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi in Baghdad on Sunday. "We don't need big numbers of (US) military forces inside the cities after we get control of them," Maliki said in a statement after meeting with Pelosi, who arrived in the Iraqi capital unannounced earlier in the day. "The responsible withdrawal (of US troops) will not affect the security situation...Read Full Story

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey wanted Iranian gas to be transported to Europe via the planned Nabucco pipeline "when conditions allow," despite U.S. opposition. European Union governments and Turkey were to sign transit agreements in Ankara later on Monday for the EU and U.S.-backed Nabucco pipeline, which aims to reduce Europe's energy dependence on Russia by transporting gas from the Caspian and Middle East through the planned pipeline from...Read Full Story

BAGHDAD ( Reuters ) - The head of Iraq 's central bank said on Tuesday he was not worried the bank's independence may be compromised by a court ruling placing it under the cabinet, despite having warned Iraq's overseas assets could be at risk. The Iraqi supreme court last month ruled that several ostensibly independent institutions, including the central bank, the anti-corruption watchdog and the electoral agency, should be supervised by the cabinet, and not by parliament. The decision was...Read Full Story

Muntazer al-Zaidi an Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush apologized to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for embarrassing him before the watching world, the prime minister’s office said on Thursday. TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi shot to instant fame when he called Bush a “dog” in Arabic at a joint news conference with Maliki in Baghdad last Sunday and threw both his shoes at Bush in a gesture that is a deep insult in the Arab world. “Zaidi said in his...Read Full Story

A baby miraculously survived a Baghdad car bombing cradled in his mother's lap as she was burned alive in a blast that claimed the lives of eight people on Tuesday, witnesses said. The baby boy's father was seriously wounded in the attack not far from a Shiite Muslim shrine in the Kadhimiyah neighbourhood of northern Baghdad, police and witnesses said. Tuesday's attack came shortly before US President Barack Obama arrived in the Iraqi capital on a surprise visit. It also came hard on the...Read Full Story

A baby miraculously survived a Baghdad car bombing cradled in his mother's lap as she was burned alive in a blast that claimed the lives of eight people on Tuesday, witnesses said. The baby boy's father was also seriously wounded in the attack not far from a holy Shiite shrine in the Kadhimiyah neighbourhood of northern Baghdad, police and witnesses said. Tuesday's attack came shortly before US President Barack Obama arrived in the Iraqi capital on a surprise visit. It also came hard on the...Read Full Story

The Guardian A week on, Iraq PM pulls ahead in tight race Reuters Iraqi's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki casts his vote inside a polling station at the green zone in Baghdad March 7, 2010. BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki edged ahead on Sunday in early results of an election Iraqis hoped would end ... Iraq PM Nouri Maliki extends poll lead in Basra BBC News Iraq PM takes poll lead in key province AFP Iraqi PM picks up oil-rich province in vote count The Associated Press Los...Read Full Story

Just because Mr. Bush's handlers creatively applied the term "time horizon" to keep his loyalists from taking the cyanide pills doesn't mean it isn't a plan for withdrawal. Obviously, Afghanistan, Pakistan and who knows what else are looming too large to ignore. Remember this was not reported on CNN. Thank you, Reuters! Iraqi PM backs Obama troop exit plan Sat Jul 19, 2008 BERLIN (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic...Read Full Story

US President Barack Obama said on a surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday that the next 18 months could be "critical" and told the war-torn country that it would soon have to look after itself. Obama, who has called for an end to US combat operations in Iraq by August next year, flew in to Baghdad aboard Air Force One on his first trip since taking office three months ago. "It is time for us to transfer (control) to the Iraqis," Obama told an audience of US troops stationed near Baghdad. "They...Read Full Story

If you ask me (and nobody really did) but I think George W. has a lot of balls for even setting foot in Iraq. This man almost single-handedly has caused the "unnecessary" deaths of thousands of American troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians! But that didn't stop our fearless "lame duck" leader. ( Reuters ) - U.S. President George W. Bush made an unannounced farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday, just weeks before he leaves office and bequeaths the unpopular Iraq war to President...Read Full Story