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Paramilitary groups who have been protesting against U.S. air strikes in Iraq began to withdraw from the perimeter of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Wednesday, although some supporters remained. By Wednesday afternoon many had left the embassy and started setting up a protest camp in front of a nearby hotel. A small group of protesters remained and said they would not leave till U.S. forces were expelled from Iraq. This protest as led by Badr Corps chief Hadi Ameri.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- After protestors stormed a U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the 82nd Airborne Division based out of Fort Bragg is preparing to be deployed to Kuwait, according to officials. Defense Secretary Mark Esper later announced that "in response to recent events" in Iraq, and at Trump's direction, he authorized the immediate deployment of an infantry battalion of about 750 soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to the Middle East. He did not specify their destination, but a U.S. official familiar with the decision said they will go to Kuwait.

The Pentagon directed at least 100 crisis response Marines to reinforce the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday following violent protests — and released photos and videos of it all. U.S. Marines assigned to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command (SPMAFTF-CR-CC) 19.2, prepare to deploy from Kuwait in support of a crisis response mission, Dec. 31, 2019. The SPMAGTF-CR-CC is designed to move with speed and precision to support operations throughout the Middle East. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Robert G. Gavaldon)

The New York Times caught flack after the publication labeled Iranian-controlled militias, which attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, as "mourners." "Hundreds of Iraqi mourners tried to storm the United States Embassy in Baghdad, shouting 'Down, down USA!,' in response to deadly American airstrikes this week that killed 25 fighters," the paper said in a Tuesday tweet. The tweet met with swift condemnation from those saying they were parroting Iranian propaganda. Protesters shouted, "Death to America," as they broke into the embassy compound. Your “mourners” must be upset about a video. But these attackers are Hezbollah supporters. Hezbollah is a...

Donald Trump announced that the US embassy in Baghdad is safe after some 6,000 pro-Iran militia fighters stormed the compound on Tuesday, set walls ablaze and chanted 'Death to America!' in a violent retaliation for American air strikes. The president doubled down in his warning to Iran, saying their government will be held 'fully responsible' for the attack that forced the Pentagon to send 100 Marines as reinforcements to the Iraqi embassy. 'The U.S. Embassy in Iraq is, & has been for hours, SAFE! Many of our great Warfighters, together with the most lethal military equipment in the world, was...

The Iranian foreign ministry has issued an official statement rejecting US President Donald Trump's remarks that Iran is behind the violent riots surrounding the US embassy in Baghdad. "America has a surprising audacity to attribute to Iran the protests of the Iraqi people," said Foreign Ministry spokesman ...

Iranian militia leader Hadi al-Amiri, one of several identified as leading an attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, reportedly visited the White House in 2011 during the presidency of Barack Obama. On Tuesday, a mob in Baghdad attacked the U.S. embassy in retaliation against last weekend’s U.S. airstrikes against the Iran-backed Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah (KH), responsible for killing an American civilian contractor. KH is one of a number of pro-Iran militias that make up the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF/PMU), which legally became a wing of the Iraqi military after fighting the Sunni Islamic State terrorist group....

US embassy staff and the US ambassador in Baghdad have been evacuated, according to two unnamed Iraqi Foreign Ministry officials cited by Reuters, as hundreds of Iraqi protesters swam the embassy compound. Iraqi supporters of a powerful Iranian-backed militia were attacking the outside of the fortified zone that surrounds the US embassy compound in Baghdad, protesting against American air strikes that killed 25 fighters from the group, news agencies reported.

BEIRUT, LEBANON (10:00 P.M.) – A base housing U.S. military personnel near Baghdad was reportedly targeted by several rockets this evening, the AFP News Agency reported. “4 rockets target base housing US personnel near Iraq capital,” the AFP reported, citing a security official.

Iraqi security forces have opened fire on protesters in southern Iraq, killing at least five people, amid ongoing anti-government demonstrations. At least two people died and some 50 others were injured near the Gulf port city of Basra on Sunday. Late on Saturday, at least three protesters were killed and more than 40 others injured in Nasiriya. Since the violence began in October, more than 300 people have died and thousands more have been injured. People are demanding an end to corruption, more jobs and better public services in the demonstrations, which have mostly affected southern Iraq and the capital...

In March 2013, when Edward Snowden sought a job with Booz Allen Hamilton at a National Security Agency facility in Hawaii, he signed the requisite classified-information agreements and would have been made well aware of the law regarding communications intelligence. Section 798 of the United States Code makes it a federal crime if a person "knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States" any classified information concerning communication intelligence. [snip] Before taking the job in Hawaii, Mr....

The toll from four days of violent unrest in Iraq rose to 72 killed and hundreds more wounded, police and medics said on Saturday, as authorities lifted a days-long curfew in Baghdad that protesters had defied. FRANCE 24's correspondent Simona Foltyn has the details. More than 3,000 people have also been injured since the protests against chronic unemployment, poor public services and widespread corruption erupted in the capital on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said. Rights activists said police snipers shot at protesters on Friday, escalating violent tactics used by the security forces that have included live fire, tear gas and water...

September 17, 2019 Clip No. 7493 Iraqi Researcher Hashem Al-Kindi: Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades Refrained from Assassinating Obama Because Iraq's President Was Standing Next to Him Hashem Al-Kindi, an Iraqi researcher who works with the Al-Hadaf Research Center, said in a September 17, 2019 interview on Al-Diyar TV (Iraq) that dozens of operations against U.S. targets in Iraq that the Islamic resistance in Iraq had planned to carry out have been canceled because of the presence of Iraqi civilians and "out of respect for Iraq's sovereignty." He claimed that in 2009, the Hezbollah Brigades had even identified U.S. President Barack Obama...

In 1678, a Chaldean priest from Baghdad reached the Imperial Villa of Potosí, the world’s richest silver-mining camp and at the time the world’s highest city at more than 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) above sea level. A regional capital in the heart of the Bolivian Andes, Potosí remains – more than three and a half centuries later – a mining city today. Its baroque church towers stand watch as ore trucks rumble into town, hauling zinc and lead ores for export to Asia. Elias al-Mûsili – or Don Elias of Mosul, as he was known – arrived in 17th-century Potosí...

...Trump on Sunday warned Iran not to threaten his country. “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!” he tweeted.

President Trump fired a social media broadside at the Iranian regime Sunday afternoon, vowing that war between Washington and Tehran would result in "the official end of Iran" before warning, "[n]ever threaten the United States again!" Trump tweeted hours after a rocket landed less than a mile from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, the first such attack since September. An Iraqi military spokesman told reporters the rocket appeared to have been fired from east Baghdad, which is home to several Iran-backed Shiite militias. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have risen in recent weeks after the...

BAGHDAD - A Katyusha rocket reportedly fell in central Baghdad's Green Zone on Sunday night, Iraq military personnel announced. "A Katyusha rocket fell in the middle of the Green Zone without causing any losses or causalties, further details will come later," the military said in a statement.

The U.S. State Department has ordered "non-emergency U.S. government employees" to leave its embassy in Baghdad and its consulate in Erbil. "The U.S. government's ability to provide routine and emergency services to U.S. citizens in Iraq is extremely limited," the department said in statement early Wednesday. It has also warned citizens about traveling to Iraq. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Sunday tweeted that it was advising "all U.S. citizens of heightened tensions in Iraq and the requirement to remain vigilant."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a sudden, unscheduled trip to Baghdad on Tuesday, as an aircraft carrier and Air Force bombers headed to the Middle East amid warnings that Iran was contemplating an attack on U.S. troops in the region. The surprise visit came after Pompeo abruptly canceled a trip to Germany, where he was scheduled to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. The State Department initially said only that the change was made because “pressing issues” had arisen. Pompeo’s visit to Baghdad, which followed an Arctic Council meeting in Finland, took on an air...

The Sack Of Baghdad In 1258 – One Of The Bloodiest Days In Human History MEDIEVALFeb 15, 2019 Jay Hemmings   SHARE:FacebookTwitter When we think of the darkest, most bloody days of human history, our minds inevitably turn to the horrors of modern warfare. We think of battles like The Somme in WW1, or Stalingrad or Leningrad in WW2, or murderous regimes like Pol Pot’s or Hitler’s.As bloody and brutal as these events were, they were often spread over periods of weeks, months, or years. Their huge death tolls accumulated over time.However, when talking about the biggest loss of life...