• Photo essay: The burn pits of Iraq and Afghanistan

    Photo essay: The burn pits of Iraq and Afghanistan

    Nov 17, 2014 11:05 PM EST

    During most of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military and its contractors disposed of garbage and everything else it did not want to ship back to the U.S. in open-air burn pits. There were at least 230 burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan according data from ...

  • Obama's plan to expand role in Iraq hinges on OK from Congress

    Obama's plan to expand role in Iraq hinges on OK from Congress

    Nov 08, 2014 05:39 PM EST

    ... said the military will set up several sites across Iraq to train nine Iraqi Army brigades and three peshmerga brigades, which are made up of Iraqi Kurdish forces. The military will also establish two operations centers where small advisory teams can work with Iraqi forces at the headquarters and brigade ...

  • Obama authorizes 1,500 more troops in Iraq to fight Islamic State

    Obama authorizes 1,500 more troops in Iraq to fight Islamic State

    Nov 07, 2014 08:11 PM EST

    ... assist Iraqi military and Kurdish forces fighting IS. White House press secretary Josh Earnest says Obama has also authorized the additional personnel to operate at Iraqi military facilities outside Baghdad and Erbil. Until now, U.S. troops have been operating a joint operation center setup with Iraqi forces there. The ...

  • News Wrap: Former security guards convicted of shooting Iraqis in 2011

    News Wrap: Former security guards convicted of shooting Iraqis in 2011

    Oct 23, 2014 12:57 AM EST

    ... JUDY WOODRUFF: In other news of this day, a federal jury convicted four former security guards today of shooting more than 30 Iraqis in Baghdad in 2007; 14 of the victims died.  The guards, all of them American, worked for the former Blackwater security firm protecting U.S. diplomats ...

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    Blackwater guards found guilty in Iraq shootings

    Oct 22, 2014 04:36 PM EST

    ... deep hostility toward Iraqi civilians. The guards, the prosecution said, held "a grave indifference" to the death and injury that their actions probably would cause Iraqis. Several former Blackwater guards testified that they had been generally distrustful of Iraqis, based on experience the guards said they had had in being ...

  • A step forward in ISIS fight? Iraq lawmakers approve Sunni, Shiite ministers

    A step forward in ISIS fight? Iraq lawmakers approve Sunni, Shiite ministers

    Oct 18, 2014 10:40 PM EST

    ... minister of defense and minister of interior, we have yet another step to go forward on really coordinating the response to the Islamic State in Iraq. HARI SREENIVASAN: OK.  Well, we've been talking a lot about ISIS in the context of Syria and Iraq.  It seems that Lebanon is ...

  • News Wrap: Iraqi PM urges Sunni tribal leaders to defend Ramadi from Islamic State

    News Wrap: Iraqi PM urges Sunni tribal leaders to defend Ramadi from Islamic State

    Oct 17, 2014 11:30 PM EST

    ... 1,886. For the week, the Dow and S&P still lost 1 percent and the Nasdaq fell about 0.5 percent. Government forces in Iraq have launched new operations against Islamic State fighters. The troops, aided by coalition airstrikes, aim to retake areas around Tikrit and Baiji, home to ...

  • Uncovering secret chemical weapon victims of the Iraq war

    Uncovering secret chemical weapon victims of the Iraq war

    Oct 16, 2014 01:02 AM EST

    ... hasn't been a comprehensive tracking. JUDY WOODRUFF: And last thing, do we know what's happened, how many more weapons may still be in Iraq and who has control over them? C.J. CHIVERS: I don't know how many are still there. There are some reports that there ...

  • On Baghdad’s doorstep: Islamic State militants gain ground in Iraq

    On Baghdad’s doorstep: Islamic State militants gain ground in Iraq

    Oct 14, 2014 11:59 PM EST

    ... a Sunni neighborhood. So all of that has been here and continues to be, even though there has been U.S.  airstrikes. And that leaves Iraqis feeling frustrated, worried about the future and genuinely scared. But it isn't because suddenly the Islamic State is at the doorstep. They have ...

  • 2 out of 3 Americans support U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, Syria

    2 out of 3 Americans support U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, Syria

    Oct 03, 2014 02:34 PM EST

    ... And despite more than a decade of costly war, about a third favor going beyond airstrikes and putting American military boots on the ground in Iraq or Syria. Obama says he has no plans to send ground troops to Iraq or Syria. A little more than a third say they ...