Whether it is a civil war, insurgent violence, an unjust war, or a war on terror - no one argues that there is a "war" in Iraq. Track the latest news and share opinions about what should be done to curb violence.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament suspended efforts on Saturday to reach a deal on a law which is crucial for an election to take place in January and could affect the U.S. military' s plans for a partial withdrawal next year. Political parties would continue negotiations on Sunday, officials said, after Sunni Arab Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi vetoed the law and sent it back to parliament to demand greater representation for Iraqis who fled abroad, most of them Sunnis. Parliament must... Read Full Story
Iraqi MPs will meet again on Sunday to try to break the deadlock on a stalled electoral law which has left the country's planned January general election in doubt. "The vote is postponed until tomorrow," parliament speaker Iyad al-Samarrai told reporters on Saturday, after a further day of meetings failed to resolve a dispute on a key provision in the law which will govern the national poll. The election, the second national ballot since the US-led invasion of 2003 which ousted Saddam... Read Full Story
A 13-year-old Afghan forced by militants to plant a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan was killed when it exploded, the interior ministry said Saturday. The child died while placing the improvised explosive device (IED) on a road in the Zahri district of southern Kandahar province, where Taliban influence is concentrated, the ministry said in a statement. "A 13-year-old child, under the influence of terrorists, planted a mine under a culvert on Friday... that went off and killed the child... Read Full Story
A bomb exploded near the building of a non-government organisation offering treatment to the blind in northwest Peshawar city on Saturday, injuring one person, police said. The bomb was planted behind the two-storey building housing the German-funded Comprehensive Health and Education Foundation in the city's University Town neighbourhood, senior police officer Imran Kishwar said. "It damaged the outer wall and one office employee was wounded. His condition is stable," Kishwar told AFP. The... Read Full Story
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee condemned Iran on Friday for a violent crackdown on protesters after presidential elections this year that the Iranian opposition says were rigged. Tehran's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee sharply criticized the Canadian-drafted resolution, saying that assembly decisions of this kind have "created an atmosphere of confrontation and polarization." The 192-nation assembly's Third Committee, which focuses on human... Read Full Story
Bombers on Friday killed 18 people in Afghanistan, a deadly start to President Hamid Karzai's second term in office that underscored spiralling insecurity nine years into the US-led war. The attacks brought to 30 the number of people killed since Karzai was sworn in for another five years on Thursday, pledging to try to bring peace to the nation and take over security from foreign forces in five years. A suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck the capital of the southwestern province of Farah... Read Full Story
A suicide bomber struck a court in Peshawar Thursday killing 19 people, the sixth attack on the northwestern city in 11 days as Pakistani troops press a major anti-Taliban offensive. The bomber hit at the main gate of the building, near the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel, where at least nine people were killed when attackers shot their way through a security checkpost and blew up a truck bomb in June. Blood, flesh and shattered window glass littered the ground outside the court building... Read Full Story
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S.-backed Sunni militia leader whose arrest provoked violence between Sunni fighters and forces of Iraq's Shi'ite-led government has been sentenced to death for murder and kidnapping, a court spokesman said on Thursday. Adil al-Mashhadani, who controlled part of east Baghdad's crime-ridden al-Fadhil neighborhood, is one of thousands of Sunni insurgents who now back U.S. forces after turning against al Qaeda. The arrest of some of them after they switched sides has... Read Full Story
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a court building in Peshawar on Thursday, killing 18 people, officials said, in the latest of a series of attacks on the northwestern Pakistan city. The city, near the Afghan border, has been targeted several times since the army began an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan last month and militants stepped up retaliatory attacks. "The attacker was on foot and blew himself up when guards tried to search him... Read Full Story
A suicide bomber struck a court in Peshawar Thursday killing 16 people, the sixth attack on the northwestern city in 11 days as Pakistani troops press a major anti-Taliban offensive. The bomber hit at the main gate of the building, near the five-star Pearl Continental Hotel, where at least nine people were killed when attackers shot their way through a security checkpost and blew up a truck bomb in June. Blood, flesh and shattered window glass littered the ground outside the court building... Read Full Story
