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BAGHDAD, Dec. 5, 2008 – For about 2 million Sadr City residents, clean drinking water running through their home faucets was a luxury few had. But now the water is flowing freely thanks to a new U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water treatment plant that was three years in the making. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project engineer Simeon Francis examines filter actuators as they are being cleaned at the R-3 water treatment plant in Baghdad. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “I am very happy for the 2 million people of Sadr...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq – The scouting movement in Iraq was revitalized in 2004 by the Green Zone Council, a group of Coalition forces in Baghdad who saw value in having Iraqi children involved with their communities. Today, service members continue to work with the youth of Iraq on Saturday afternoons at a small community just outside the Victory Base Complex. “You can look around and, if nothing else, you are doing something good here because you are creating a positive impact for Iraqi families and the children,” said Lt. Cmdr. Eric Fretz, who is helping bring the scouting program back...

Iraq parliament passes U.S. security pact Thu Nov 27, 2008 9:12am EST By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament approved a landmark security pact with the United States Thursday that paves the way for U.S. forces to withdraw by the end of 2011. The deal, which parliament linked after days of fractious negotiations to a series of promised political reforms and a public referendum next year, brings in sight an end to the U.S. military presence that began with the 2003 invasion. Lawmakers in Iraq's 275-seat parliament passed the deal with a majority of 149 out of 198 present,...

A student at the Wurwood Kindergarten holds the tray with the scissors for the ribbon cutting ceremony at the opening of the school in Salman Pak, Nov. 21, 2008. Photo by Lt. Col. Wayne Marotto, 1st Armored Division Public Affairs. BAGHDAD — Wurwood Kindergarten School officially reopened its doors Nov. 21 in the Rasheed neighborhood of Salman Pak after a two-month-long refurbishing period. The school has 350 students enrolled, ages 4 to 5 years old, and six class rooms. Prior to the refurbishment, the school could only hold 60 students. The school employs eight teachers, a director and an assistant.“The...

Saturday, 08 November 2008 HABBANIYAH — A throng of Habbaniyah government officials, police and citizens gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony marking the grand opening of the Habbaniyah government center, Oct. 25. The government center has been four months in the making and is now complete, standing as a symbol of a representative government taking hold in the area. Now both the mayor of Habbaniyah and the city council work together, under the same roof, to govern the district. “The collaboration among different local governments is critical,” explained Kevin Anderson, a representative from the Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team – Ramadi....

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq has signed preliminary deals worth billions of dollars with General Electric Co and Siemens for equipment to almost double electricity generation capacity, an energy official said on Saturday. The deals with GE, Siemens and a third company would be worth a total of $7 billion to $8 billion, Iraq's Electricity Minister Karim Waheed told Reuters. Years of war, sanctions and neglect have battered Iraq's power grid and the country suffers chronic power shortages. The capital Baghdad receives only a few hours of electricity a day. The deals would mark a big step in the country's reconstruction,...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2008 – When security responsibility for Iraq’s Anbar province was turned over to the Iraqi government this month, it validated the security model that has been applied throughout the country, a coalition spokesman said Sept. 11. Successful coordination of a surge in U.S. forces, the emergence of the Awakening movement, and political movement by the Iraqi government resulted in the weakening of the al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist network into a more containable scattering of individual cells, said Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, deputy chief of strategic communications, Multinational Force Iraq. Anbar province, Driscoll said, is “now kind...

BAGHDAD — When bells ring for a return to schools throughout the Sadr City district of Baghdad later this month, students at 38 schools throughout the area are in for a big surprise. Following the end of hostilities in Baghdad’s most densely populated district, nearly all the 38 schools located in Task Force Gold’s operational environment were selected for repair and refurbishment by the Soldiers of the 926th Engineer Brigade. “The youth of Sadr City represent the future,” said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Talley, commander of the 926th Eng. Bde., in speaking about the importance of the project. “They are the...

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq, Sept. 5, 2008 – When bells ring for a return to schools throughout Baghdad’s Sadr City district later this month, students at schools renovated by Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers are in for a big surprise. Local contractors in Baghdad’s Sadr City district work on refurbishing the Thatt Al Salasel School, Sept. 3, 2008. Multinational Division Baghdad spearheaded the renovation of 38 schools throughout the area. U.S. Army photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Following the end of hostilities in Baghdad’s most densely populated district, nearly all of the 38 schools in Task Force Gold’s...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE RUSTAMIYAH, Iraq, Sept. 4, 2008 – In another indication of a return to normalcy in eastern Baghdad, more than 90 organizations gathered Aug. 29 and 30 at the Palestine Hotel in the Iraqi capital’s Rusafa district for the 9 Nissan District Business Trade Show. An Iraqi businessman shows Turkish artificial grass, which is one of his company’s products, during the 9 Nissan District Business Trade Show at the Palestine Hotel in Karadah, Iraq, Aug. 30, 2008. More than 90 organizations, including more than 80 businesses, gathered for the event Aug. 29 and 30. U.S. Army photo...

BAGHDAD in 2008 is a city tantalisingly close to a genuine transformation. The first impression after an absence of two years is the stunning reduction in the appalling level of violence that had torn the city's suburbs apart over the past four years. A relative calm has now descended. On the day I arrived, there was not a single serious security incident across the whole of Baghdad. As Ramadan begins, it seems Iraqis are increasingly weary with war and yearn for a more normal life. Last week, 60,000 people crowded into a city stadium for a major football match. Rocket...

Iraq and China have agreed on the terms of a $3 billion oil service contract, the Iraqi oil minister said Wednesday, announcing his country's first major oil contract with a foreign company since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The oil minister, Hussain al- Shahristani, warned that time was running out for big Western oil companies, which have pressed for years for Iraqi contracts, to seal even short-term deals that had been expected to mark their return to Iraq, which has the world's third-largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iraq and the Chinese state-run oil company, CNPC, have agreed...

NAJAF, Iraq - The city's first airport is weeks away from opening, but already a bigger one is talked about. Land prices are soaring. Merchants say they don't remember business ever being so good. Four years ago, Najaf was an urban battlefield, with American troops fighting Shiite militiamen loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Today, the Shiite holy city is a hot spot of a different kind, thanks to improved security, a free-for-all market economy - and a direct pipeline to the Shiite-led government.

" Iraq has signed its first major oil deal with a foreign company since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, a spokesman for the Iraqi Oil Ministry said Saturday." "It was the first time in more than 35 years that Iraq has allowed foreign oil companies to do business inside its borders. The contract with the China National Petroleum Corporation could be worth up to $3 billion. It would allow the CNPC to develop an oil field in southern Iraq's Wasit province for about 20 years, said Oil Ministry spokesman Assim Jihad."

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2008 – Though Iraq’s military medical system has gained significant capability over the past five years, recruiting qualified physicians remains a challenge, the coalition’s top advisor to the Iraqi surgeon general said. Only 160 out of 800 available positions for physicians in the Iraqi military medical system have been filled, U.S. Army Col. (Dr.) John Powell, director of health affairs for Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, told bloggers and online journalists in a teleconference Aug. 26. “The biggest piece right now,” Powell said, “is personnel … who have medical capabilities, who can do what’s necessary to diagnose...

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Aug. 13, 2008 – Youths from Taji teamed up Aug. 11 as part of a summer youth hire program to clean up the Taji Market, northwest of Baghdad. Army Capt. Timothy Cho (right), part of the provincial reconstruction team embedded in Multinational Division Baghdad with the 25th Infantry Division’s 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, along with Rudy (left), the team’s bilingual bicultural advisor, stands with Taji youth at the Taji Market, northwest of Baghdad, Aug. 11, 2008. The children are part of the summer youth hire program, which engages them in community-oriented tasks. U.S. Army photo...

Jordan's King Abdullah II held talks Monday with Iraq's prime minister after coming to Baghdad on an unannounced visit, the first by an Arab head of state since the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003. Abdullah urged Arab governments to "extend their hand to Iraq" because a strong Iraq "is a source of strength for the Arab nation," according to a statement released by the royal palace in the Jordanian capital of Amman. An Iraqi government statement said Abdullah had "frank and positive talks" with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on ties between the two states. Al-Maliki told the king...

One day I will publish my entire collection of upside-down Iraq headlines, where the true purport of the story is the inverse of the intended one. (Top billing thus far would go to the greatest downer of them all: the tale of Iraq's unemployed gravediggers, their always-insecure standard of living newly imperiled by the falling murder rate. You don't believe me? Wait for the forthcoming anthology.) While you wait, you might consider last week's astonishing report about the Iraqi budget surplus and the way in which the report was reported. Largely attributable to the bonanza in oil prices, to new...

The Iraqi government could end the year with as much as a $79 billion budget surplus as ever-increasing oil revenues pile on top of leftover income the Iraqis still haven't spent on their national rebuilding effort, congressional auditors say. A report by the Government Accountability Office made public Tuesday prompted renewed calls from senators that Baghdad pay more of the bill for its own reconstruction, which has been heavily supported with U.S. funds. The projected Iraq surplus, including unspent money from 2005 through 2008, has been building because of rising world oil prices, increasing Iraqi oil production, the government's inability...

Established in 1955, the al Doura Refinery, located in south central Baghdad, has the capacity to produce 90,000 barrels per day of diesel and gasoline product. Minister of Oil Directorate General, Dathar Taheen, is spearheading a Government of Iraq-funded refinery construction program that will increase the Doura Refinery's production capacity by an additional 140,000 barrels per day. USACE Photo. BAGHDAD — In the Doura district of Baghdad, security is improved near one of Iraq’s older oil refineries.Al Doura refinery, a rusting relic of Saddam’s pervasive neglect of oil infrastructure, wouldn’t seem to be the likely bastion of wind and solar...