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The Obama administration recognizes that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi “has to reach out to his neighbors,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday in response to queries about Abadi’s meetings with Iran’s top leaders. During his visit to Tehran, Abadi appears to have been accompanied by a man named by the U.S. government during the Iraqi war as responsible for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces. […] On the Iranian president’s website, one of the photographs of his meeting with the Iraqi prime minister shows Rouhani greeting a man—apparently a member of the Iraqi delegation—identified by the Foundation for...

After eight months of grinding urban warfare, Iraqi government troops on Thursday captured the ruined mosque at the heart of Islamic State's de facto capital Mosul, and the prime minister declared the group's self-styled caliphate at an end. Iraqi authorities expect the long battle for Mosul to end in coming days as remaining Islamic State fighters are bottled up in just a handful of neighborhoods of the Old City. The seizure of the nearly 850-year-old Grand al-Nuri Mosque -- from where Islamic State proclaimed the caliphate nearly three years ago to the day -- is a huge symbolic victory. "The...

Iraq’s prime minister announced Wednesday he will seek a popular mandate to change the country’s constitution amid widespread calls to fight corruption and curtail government spending. The announcement came as Islamic State militants ambushed a military convoy in Iraq’s western Anbar province, killing at least 14 soldiers. […] In Baghdad, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he respects the current constitution, implemented in 2005, but believes “it is incomplete.” […] On Tuesday, lawmakers unanimously approved a reform plan proposed by al-Abadi that eliminates the three vice presidencies and the three deputy prime minister posts, dismantling part of the top-heavy government established...

The media began its speculation as to why resident Barack Obama appeared to snub Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on a park bench at the G-7 summit. The answer to the question might have much to do with Haider al-Abadi who is running Iraq as a state of militia gangs presenting seven thousand Sunnis for mass execution on the altar of sacrifice for political gain with Iran. .... The disintegration of the Iraqi army being at least three years away from being fully retrained and reassembled, according to the Pentagon and now that Iran calls the shots on who lives...

One of the best lessons I learned in my years of service in the military is a quote often share with y’all: “the enemy has a vote.” You can try and sell the American people — and others — a politicized line such as “al-Qaida has been decimated and destroyed” or “we have reached the framework of a deal with Iran” or “ISIS is not Islamic,” but the bad guys are not affected by empty rhetoric. And here we go again with the Obama administration and the conflagration against Islamic terrorism. We’ve been told that ISIS has stalled. Their recruiting...

Falih Essawi shouted on the phone as he described his situation. From his point of view, ISIS militants might be just hours away from taking the key Iraqi city of Ramadi. Fierce fighting has engulfed Ramadi, which lies only about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Baghdad and is the capital of Anbar province, Iraq's Sunni heartland. Essawi, the deputy head of the Anbar Provincial Council, told CNN from inside the city Wednesday that it's unclear how much longer government troops can hold their front lines against the ISIS offensive. Security was "collapsing rapidly in the city," and he begged...

The same Tuesday night that a senior official in US President Barack Obama's administration was quoted calling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "chickens**t," yet more officials indicated the US is warming up to cooperation with Iran - the Islamic regime seeking nuclear weapons that has repeatedly declared its desire to destroy Israel. Senior US and Arab officials were cited by the Wall Street Journal saying that in recent months, America and Iran have grown closer through cooperation against their "common enemy", the Islamic State (ISIS), as well as over a shared interest in "stability" in Iraq and Afghanistan. American officials revealed...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s new prime minister scrapped a top military office and ordered two senior commanders into retirement, in a major move aimed at restructuring a failed army that is having to fight the Islamic State (IS) forces. The changes follow another defeat by the Iraqi army against IS forces. Haidar al-Abadi discarded the office of the Adjutant General of the Armed Forces, set up by his predecessor Nouri al-Maliki, who was accused of trying to concentrate power in his own hands. The premier “canceled” the position, which was inside the prime minister’s own office, said a statement posted...

Inside Iraqi Corruption Charles R. Smith Tuesday, March 29, 2005 John A. Shaw is a curious example of Washington politics gone mad. Shaw is a veteran government employee who served inside the White House under Presidents Ford, Nixon and Reagan and was an associate deputy secretary in the Department of Commerce. In 2001, Shaw was appointed by Bush Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld to head the newly formed Office of International Technology Security. In this post, Shaw began the difficult task of reforming government controls over the export of sensitive technology to foreign countries. In 2003, Shaw began investigating allegations of...