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If ever there was a date to be remembered and commemorated in Islam, it’s the 17th of Ramadan. This year it falls on Thursday, June 23rd, beginning Wednesday evening at sundown. This date holds great military and spiritual significance within Islam, as it was on this day that the greatest and most significant battle in Islamic history took place: the Battle and Victory of Badr in 624 AD (about 150 miles south of Medina), in which 313 Muslims defeated 1,000 non-Muslims from the Koresh tribe of Mecca who just wanted to return home safely from Syria with their trade caravans....

The BREXIT referendum vote takes place on Thursday. Coincidentally, Operation Badr – Beware the 17th of Ramadan – June 23, 2016 via VladTepesblog.com If ever there was a date to be remembered and commemorated in Islam, it’s the 17th of Ramadan. This year it falls on Thursday, June 23rd, beginning Wednesday evening at sundown. This date holds great military and spiritual significance within Islam, as it was on this day that the greatest and most significant battle in Islamic history took place: the Battle and Victory of Badr in 624 AD (about 150 miles south of Medina), in which 313...

Najaf (Iraq) (AFP) - A top leader of Iraq's Popular Mobilisation paramilitary organisation said Monday that Baghdad had turned to Russia because the US-led coalition was not serious about fighting the Islamic State group. A spokesman for the US-led coalition retorted that it had spent $2.3 billion to train and equip Iraqi forces over the past year. "To this day, we have not seen a really serious effort to fight Daesh," Hadi al-Ameri said in the holy city of Najaf, using an Arab acronym for the jihadist organisation. "There are some who try to contain Daesh but not really eliminate...

Iraq, in short, could be experiencing what Lebanon did decades ago as Hezbollah fighters took the Bekaa Valley. In this case, the land in question is Mesopotamia and the forces are PMUs, but the result will be the same: a swath of land in which the government is gradually ceding ground to powerful paramilitary factions with strong terrorist connections.

BAGHDAD — Over the past three decades, Hadi al-Amiri has gone from being a guerrilla fighting on behalf of Iran against his home country, Iraq; to notorious militia leader accused of running "death squads"; to parliament member in Baghdad, where he has emerged as a key player in the fight against the Islamic State (IS). “The Iraqi people, they love bravery,” Amiri said, by way of explaining his newfound influence. -excerpt- Amiri is the leader of the Badr Organization, a Shiite militia infamous during Iraq's civil war for its brutal tactics, which has now transformed into a political party that...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Angry Shiites marched Wednesday and set fire to the offices of a secular politician after a Sunni Arab guest criticized Iraq's Shiite religious leaders during an Al-Jazeera talk show. Al-Rubaei made his comments during the "Opposite Direction" program shown Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon on Al-Jazeera. Hours later, thousands of people chanted anti-Al-Jazeera slogans in the streets of the Baghdad neighborhoods of Sadr City and Karradah, and in the southern cities of Najaf and Karbala. The demonstrations, which turned into political rallies, threatened to further polarize Thursday's parliamentary elections after angry Shiites in the southern city of...

The former military wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq threatened Tuesday to take up arms against former Saddam Hussein loyalists if they make gains in Thursday's legislative elections. The blunt warning by the Badr Organization contradicted earlier remarks by the head of SCIRI, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, in which he said his group's former militia was ready to help with election security. The threat also comes as Iraqis abroad cast the first ballots in their country's election of postwar first full-term Parliament. "If Baathists regain power, we will take up arms against them just as we did...

Candidates linked to an Islamist party with close ties to Iran won out over rivals in elections for Iraq's provincial councils announced on Friday. The results provide an early glimpse of the balance of electoral strength within the Shia political movement, which is expected to dominate once the final results of the January 30 election - expected in the next two days - are announced. The strong turnout for slates associated with the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, (Sciri) suggests that it would have the advantage over its partners in a pan-Shia coalition in claiming key ministries. However,...

Suicide bombers killed 52 worshippers at a mosque in western Iraq on Friday, while in Baghdad two car bombs killed eight Iraqis and destroyed the blast wall protecting a hotel housing foreign journalists. The suicide attackers targeted the Sheik Murad Shi'ite mosque in Khanaqin, 140 kilometers (87 miles) northeast of Baghdad, as dozens of people were attending Friday prayers, police said. Iraqi army Col. Hazim al-Sudani said 52 people were killed and 65 injured in the largely Kurdish town. The blast near the Hamra hotel in Baghdad knocked down the blast walls protecting the hotel and blew out windows, but...

London, Nov. 27 – The United States Congressional Research Service issued a report warning of Iran’s dominating influence in neighbouring Iraq. The report, recently posted on the website of the U.S. State Department, cited Iranian support for militant groups and Shiite political parties in Iraq. “Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iran has showcased its growing political and economic influence over and mentorship of the Iraqi government”, it said, adding that the “thrust of Iran’s strategy in Iraq has been to engineer and perpetuate domination of Iraq’s government by pro-Iranian Shiite Islamist movements that would, in Iran’s view, likely align...

Basra, 25 Nov. (AKI) - A security source in the southern Iraqi city of Basra has revealed that the local authorities are investigating three Iranians who entered the city illegally. The source, who asked to remain anonymous, said the intelligence services in the province are carrying out inquiries into several people working for the Iranian secret services who arrived in the city last week. According to information released by one of the local religious movements, the three people arrived in the city to issue directives on the killing of several Basra citizens, including several journalists, who feature on a long...

A major explosion shook central Baghdad Friday morning near an interior ministry building where U.S. troops found detainees showing signs of torture, witnesses said. There was no immediate information about casualties. The blast in the Jadiriyah neighborhood reverberated through the city center, sent a mushroom cloud hundreds of feet into the air and was followed by the sounds of sporadic small arms fire. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. Earlier this week U.S. troops found up to 173 malnourished detainees, some showing signs of torture, in the building. Most were believed to be Sunni Arabs, the main...

ABOARD USS CLEVELAND, Arabian Sea (NNS) -- Members of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 1 are currently leading a group of six coalition ships conducting maritime security operations (MSO) in the North Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman. The strike group’s flagship, USS Tarawa (LHA 1) and the amphibious transport dock USS Cleveland (LPD 7) are joined by the guided-missile destroyer USS Oscar Austin (DDG 79). The French ships Var (FS 608) and Lafayette (FS 710), and the Pakistani frigate Badr (PNS 181) round out the coalition task group. MSO are part of ESG-1’s regularly scheduled deployment to the U.S. 5th...

Armed men entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm on Monday, deposed the city's mayor and installed a member of Iraq's most powerful Shiite militia. The deposed mayor, Alaa al-Tamimi, who was not in his offices at the time, recounted the events in a telephone interview on Tuesday and called the move a municipal coup d'état. He added that he had gone into hiding for fear of his life. "This is the new Iraq," said Mr. Tamimi, a secular engineer with no party affiliation. "They use force to achieve their goal." The group that ousted him insisted that...

BAGHDAD In a move certain to inflame sectarian tensions, Iraq's Shiite and Kurdish leaders said Wednesday that they supported the existence of an Iranian-trained Shiite militia and praised the militia's role in trying to secure the country. It was the first time the new Iraqi government has publicly backed an armed group that was created along sectarian lines and it was an implicit denial of repeated requests by U.S. officials that the government disband all militias. The remarks supporting the Shiite militia were made in the morning at an unusual news conference where speakers included Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Iraqi prime...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 12 - In the weeks after Baghdad fell in April 2003, looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein's most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms, a senior Iraqi official said this week in the government's first extensive comments on the looting. The Iraqi official, Sami al-Araji, the deputy minister of industry, said it appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery...

Iraq Accuses Iranian Embassy of Killing Agents October 14, 2004 Agence France Presse/ AFP Iraq's national intelligence chief Mohammed al-Shahwani has accused Iran's Baghdad embassy of masterminding an assassination campaign that has seen 18 intelligence agents killed since mid-September. Shahwani told AFP a series of raids on three Iranian "safe houses" in Baghdad on September 29 had uncovered a treasure trove of documents linking Iran to plots to kill members of the intelligence service and using the Badr former militia of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq's (SCIRI) as its tool. SCIRI has vigourously denied the allegations...

A series of truces agreed on last month, encompassing Mr Sadr's stronghold in al-Thoura, Baghdad's eastern slum, as well as the Shia holy cities and other towns further south, are still holding. His own home turf in the capital has been more peaceful than it has been for months. Former fighters are now being paid to collect rubbish, plant trees, direct traffic and help the Iraqi police. The new government has promised to pay for a new sewage system so that the slum detritus will no longer flow past Baghdad's grimmest tenements. Outside the city, the clergy behind Mr...

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf are wreaking deadly revenge on those who served Saddam Hussein. Hit-men on motorcycles have been assassinating ex-members of the ousted dictator's Baath Party in Mafia-style killings.In the latest attack to rattle anyone who ever worked for the Baath, a teacher walking to school with her two young sons was sprayed with AK-47 rifle fire."I am the victim of the new Iraq. My son was chanting verses from the Koran on the way to school. Suddenly they shot at us," said Dhamya Abbas from her hospital bed."I left the...

(IsraelNN.com) One of two Hamas terrorists killed by IDF forces today was Ahmed Badr, the Hamas commander in Hevron. Authorities report he was responsible for the 19 August suicide bombing attack in Jerusalem that claimed 22 lives and left over 130 wounded. Jenin-Like "Dilemma" in Hevron