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<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the first-degree murder conviction of a former Blackwater security contractor, ordering a new trial for the man prosecutors say fired the first shots in the 2007 slayings of 14 Iraqi civilians at a crowded traffic circle in Baghdad.</p>

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Iraqi Oil Ministry is ready to legally challenge oil exports from the Kurdistan Region from a tanker ship that has headed into the Atlantic Ocean, reported a provider of commodity information. “A senior Iraqi Oil Ministry official told S&P Global Platts that the ministry has been authorized to challenge the legality of the shipment and any other tankers, marking increased tension following recent warming between Baghdad and Erbil,” the UK-based S&P Global Platts reported in a statement on Tuesday. The Kurdistan Region sends oil through a pipeline terminating at Turkey’s Ceyhan port to ship to...

A State Department employee pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday after being charged in an FBI investigation, the Department of Justice announced. Candace Claiborne, who worked in the Caucasus Affairs office of the State Department, is being charged for two felony offenses. Claiborne is being charged with “obstructing an official proceeding and making false statements to the FBI, both felony offenses, for allegedly concealing numerous contacts that she had over a period of years with foreign intelligence agents,” a Department of Justice release said. Claiborne, who has a Top Secret security clearance, failed to disclose her foreign contacts abroad...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - If Washington doubts there is Iraqi public support for guerrillas killing its troops, it should consider the teenagers who happily watched American blood spill Wednesday. After a roadside bomb ripped through a military vehicle and wounded two soldiers, Iraqi boys rushed out of their homes to survey the damage. "This is good. If they ask me, I will join the resistance. The Americans have to die," said Ali Qais, 15. "They are just here to steal our oil." The U.S. administration has long dismissed the guerrillas as isolated "terrorists" who are Saddam Hussein loyalists or foreign Islamic...

Today was yet another day from hell in Baghdad. All in all, three car bombs went off in the capital of Iraq. The bloodiest of them all, in Sadr city, was claimed by ISIS. In that attack, at least 55 people were murdered. 60 others were injured. TWEET Below a photo of the carnage: PHOTO Most inhabitants of Sadr City are Shiite Muslims, which is why they're targeted by ISIS, a radical Sunni terror group. ISIS considers Shiites fake Muslims or even apostates, which makes it -- according to the hateful theology of the Islamist group -- fair to kill...

June 12, 2013 State Department Whistleblower, a Career Foreign Service Officer, Seeks Congressional Protection After State Threatens Her Kids Bryan Preston The State Department whistleblower is Aurelia Fedenisn. She worked in the department’s inspector general’s office until her retirement in December 2012. According to USA Today, she has sought protection as an official whistleblower after the State Department directly threatened her, once at her home. It threatened her with criminal charges when she turned over documents to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) showing evidence that the department had watered down her report, in which she alleged that the department at the...

For the third time in a week terrorists carried out a mass slaughter of civilians - with ISIS claiming responsibility. A suicide car bomb killed 125 people, including 25 children, Saturday evening in a busy shopping district in Baghdad. It was the deadliest attack in Iraq in many years. Families had gathered in the popular area to break the Ramadan fast and watch the Euro 2016 soccer tournament in a cafe when a suicide car bomb exploded, ripping through a multi-level building that also housed stores and a gym.

Obama retreats from Putin in Syria — again By Editorial Board July 2 at 4:46 PM FOR SEVERAL years, the Obama administration’s Syria policy has been stuck in a cycle of failure. Secretary of State John F. Kerry negotiates deals with Russia to end the fighting or create a new government in Damascus, while warning that if they are not respected by Russian President Vladi­mir Putin or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the United States will consider other options, such as stepping up support for Syrian rebels. In every case, the Russian and Syrian regimes have betrayed their commitments, continuing to...

At least 91 people were killed Sunday in two bombings in the Iraqi capital, including a large-scale attack claimed by the Islamic State group that killed 86 people — among them 15 children — in a central shopping district, officials said. The bombings demonstrated the extremists’ ability to mount significant attacks despite major battlefield losses, including the city of Fallujah, which was declared “fully liberated” from IS just over a week ago. The deadliest attack took place in the central Karada district of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laded pickup truck outside a crowded shopping center, killing...

A suicide car bombing claimed by Isil killed at least 75 people in a Baghdad shopping district in the early hours of Sunday, officials said, the deadliest single attack in the capital this year. The blast, which ripped through a street in the Karrada area where many people go to shop ahead of the holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, also wounded more than 130 people, security and medical officials said. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) issued a statement claiming the suicide car bombing, saying it was carried out by an Iraqi...

Baghdad Wakes to Sounds of Helicopters, Talk of a People’s 'Revolt' Sharon Behn May 21, 2016 4:58 AM BAGHDAD— Baghdad woke Saturday to the early morning sounds of helicopters flying overhead, most of them heading in and out of the fortified International Zone after protesters defied bullets and tear gas to storm the area. As they fled the gunfire and tear gas Friday afternoon, some carrying their injured friends across the bridge away from the IZ, the anti-government protesters vowed they would return – but with weapons. Many are followers of Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr who, like many of the...

Hundreds of supporters of Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stormed into Baghdad's Green Zone and broke into the Iraqi parliament building. The protesters, who had gathered outside the heavily fortified district, known as the Green Zone, crossed a bridge over the Tigris River chanting: 'The cowards ran away!' in apparent reference to departing lawmakers before breaking into the parliament building. The staggering scenes came after Sadr denounced Iraq's politicians' for their failure to reform a political quota system blamed for rampant corruption.

The suicide bomber who blew up a youth soccer match late last month left barely a dent in the hard, dry earth, and only a faint scorch on a concrete wall nearby. But he gouged a chasm of grief in the heart of the small community that lost more than two dozen of its sons in a single moment, at 6:15 on the evening of March 25. A total of 43 people died in the bombing at the game, according to figures provided by the local government. Of those, 29 were boys younger than 17 who had either been participating...

Iran-backed militias have seized homes, businesses and cultural sites, including churches belonging to Baghdad’s Christian communities, forcing individuals to resettle and forfeit all their belongings, according to members of the Christian members of the Iraqi Parliament. The militias have targeted properties belonging to Christians, forcing individuals to leave the area, according to Christian community leaders, including representatives from the Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac minorities, as well as the Chaldean Patriarch of Iraq who have condemned the attacks, calling them a form of ethnic cleansing aimed to rid Baghdad of its Christians. “Their claim is that the property of a non-Christian...

Saad al-Hadithi spoke to The Associated Press after an earlier statement from the prime minister's office seemed to dismiss the idea entirely. "Baghdad is the capital for all Iraqis and it's not possible for a wall or a fence to isolate the city," the earlier statement said. The plan for the wall was originally drafted by the Interior Ministry as an effort to curb near-daily attacks carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and cut down on checkpoints inside the city that snarl traffic. The Interior Ministry's spokesman, police Brig. Gen. Saad Maan, told The Associated...

Four former Blackwater security contractors found guilty in a deadly Baghdad shooting appealed their convictions on Monday, saying a key witness against them had changed his testimony after the trial and that prosecutors lacked jurisdiction to even bring the case. The appeals, long expected, represent the latest legal volley in a criminal case that's spanned years in Washington's federal court and that concluded with guilty verdicts following a months-long trial in 2014. Nicholas Slatten is serving a life sentence on a charge of first-degree murder. Three other former guards - Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Herd - were found...

Three American contractors are missing in Iraq, a senior security official in Baghdad says. "A company filed a report Sunday about three of its staff going missing. ... They are American contractors. We are looking into this report," the official told CNN. Separately, an Iraqi security official with knowledge of the case said that two of the contractors are dual Iraqi-American citizens and that the third is an American national. Gunmen grabbed the men at an apartment in Baghdad's southeastern Dora neighborhood late Friday afternoon, the source said.

Three Americans have been kidnapped in Baghdad by "militias," according to Arab news channel Al Arabiya, citing its own sources. The State Department said it is aware of the report and is working with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans. Officials, however, would not confirm that anyone been kidnapped. "We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement to The Hill. "The safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority, he continued. "We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to...

In full disclosure, I wrote this last night before the State of the Union address. I guessed then and I was right - none of this was addressed by Obama in his speech. Last week we shared how horrific January 2016 began in its first week. Week two doesn't look much better. President Obama tried to present a world of rainbows and unicorns in his final State of the Union address, but that's about as real as the Land of Oz. Barack Obama and his minions can attempt to create an alternative universe in which they live, but the truth...

The new unit, comprised of around 300 Nato special forces troops, will be tasked with hunting down the world's most dangerous jihadis. They will serve under the US Joint Special Operations Command, based in a secret location near Baghdad, Iraq. But the SAS will also be able to carry on with their missions at home in the UK. A source close to the new unit, set up to seek and destroy fanatics in the Middle East, said they will "relentlessly target" terror groups. Our insider added: "We are at war and will be merciless in the pursuit of those who...