Iraq

World News

Line Between Islamist Militants And ISIS Blurs In Egypt

8:55am October 26, 2014

Among more extreme Islamists, sympathies for the so-called Islamic State are growing — especially in Egypt, where some Islamists are being arrested and accused of terrorism by the police.

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Turkey Is A 'High-Maintenance Ally' In Fight With ISIS

11:57am October 25, 2014

How strong is the U.S.-Turkey alliance against the Islamic State? NPR's Scott Simon speaks with former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone.

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Iraqi security forces rest on a sidewalk following clashes with militants last month in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. So far, the Iraqi forces have not been able to recapture cities and towns in western Iraq that the Islamic State seized earlier

World News

Iraq's Abu Ghraib Is Back In The News, Now As A Front-Line Town

10:23am October 24, 2014

by Alice Fordham

A town west of Baghdad and home to a notorious prison, Abu Ghraib is where Iraq troops are bracing for a possible attacks by Islamic State militants. Many local residents feel caught in the middle.

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World News

Former Blackwater Security Guards Found Guilty In Iraq Shootings

6:28pm October 22, 2014

by Bruce Auster

A federal jury found four former security guards with the company Blackwater guilty in connection with the shooting of dozens of Iraqi citizens in 2007 at a Baghdad traffic circle. That shooting revealed the leeway given outside contractors and became a symbol of the U.S. intervention in Iraq.

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Pentagon Says It Will Investigate Stray Arms Drop Over Syria

2:55pm October 22, 2014

by Scott Neuman

The self-declared Islamic State has released a video purporting to show its fighters rifling through a crate of grenades airdropped by a U.S. military cargo plane.

Former Blackwater Worldwide guard Nicholas Slatten leaves federal court in Washington in June. Slatten on Wednesday was found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007.

Blackwater Guards Found Guilty In 2007 Shootings In Iraq

2:42pm October 22, 2014

by Scott Neuman

One guard was found guilty of first-degree murder and three others of voluntary manslaughter in a 2007 incident in Baghdad in which 14 civilians were killed.

Peshmerga look out from a front-line outpost — a few sandbags, soldiers, and grenades perched on the brow of a hill — to the eastern Iraqi town of Jalula. The Kurdish fighters are grappling with how to combat changing ISIS tactics.

World News

Ambushes, Mines And Booby Traps: ISIS Militants Change Tack

7:01am October 22, 2014

by Alice Fordham

In northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters have won back territory from the so-called Islamic State only to lose it again. ISIS is using a range of explosives, inflicting heavy Kurdish casualties.

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Aza Betwata (left) and his brother Mirwan (center) left Holland to join the Kurdish peshmerga fighting against ISIS militants in northern Iraq. Though the brothers come from a family of fighters, Aza had just two days of training — his brother must show

World News

Kurds Leave Life In Europe To Fight ISIS In Their Iraqi Homeland

9:33am October 21, 2014

by Alice Fordham

Until August, 24-year-old Aza Betwata was in Holland, enjoying beef and cabbage and studying to be a social worker. Now, he's among the hundreds of exiled Kurds who have returned and taken up arms.

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A family passes through Maktab Khaled in northern Iraq, the last Kurdish checkpoint before they make their way to Kirkuk. ISIS-controlled territory lies less than a mile away.

World News

The Artificial Boundary That Divides Iraq

6:03pm October 20, 2014

by Leila Fadel

A checkpoint near Kirkuk marks the line between Kurdish-controlled territory and the world of Islamic State extremists. Some 5,000 civilians stream across daily, lives and families divided.

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National

ISIS Threat Is 'Extremely Worrying' Says Counter-Insurgency Expert

11:44am October 20, 2014

A decade after the U.S. took control of Fallujah, America is at war again. NPR's Rachel Martin talks with former Lt. Col. John Nagl, whose counter-insurgency manual helped shape U.S. strategy in Iraq.

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