• Kerry says U.S. will back Iraq against militants

    Kerry says U.S. will back Iraq against militants

    Sep 10, 2014 10:20 PM EDT

    ... the Islamic State has established a safe haven. "Of course, our role is to defend our country, but the international community is responsible to protect Iraq and protect Iraqis in the whole region," al-Abadi said. "What's happening in Syria is coming across to Iraq. We cannot cross that ...

  • US widens campaign against Islamic State, strikes targets in western Iraq

    US widens campaign against Islamic State, strikes targets in western Iraq

    Sep 07, 2014 04:40 PM EDT

    ... key dams across the country, including the Haditha complex. Hagel said the Iraqi government had asked the U.S. to launch the airstrikes and that Iraqi forces on the ground conceived the operation. Anbar has for some time been a contested region between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants backed ...

  • Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and Islamic State -- What should Obama do?

    Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and Islamic State -- What should Obama do?

    Sep 04, 2014 12:59 AM EDT

    ... he has to bring the country with him, including a Congress that's very reluctant before the election to get involved in another war in Iraq. He has to deliver on his promise that Russia and President Putin will pay a price in Ukraine. He has to make clear that ...

  • News Wrap: UN approves investigation of the Islamic State in Iraq

    News Wrap: UN approves investigation of the Islamic State in Iraq

    Sep 01, 2014 11:09 PM EDT

    ... unimaginable scale. The council approved an investigation of the militants' actions in Iraq, from mass killings to sexual abuse to forced conversion. This came after Iraq's human rights minister appealed for help, saying, "We are facing a terrorist monster." MOHAMMED SHIA' AL-SUDANI, Minister of Human Rights, Iraq (through ...

  • Fearing massacre in Amirli, Iraqis ask U.S. for additional support

    Fearing massacre in Amirli, Iraqis ask U.S. for additional support

    Aug 28, 2014 01:10 AM EDT

    ... MARGARET WARNER: That's also an interesting question. First of all, of course, clearly, the Iraqi forces.  This town, though it is called in Northern Iraq, is really equidistance between Irbil, where I am now, in the Kurdish capital, and Baghdad.  So the Iraqi forces are pretty close and their ...

  • U.S. considering new relief mission in Iraq

    U.S. considering new relief mission in Iraq

    Aug 27, 2014 03:28 PM EDT

    ... expressed the U.S. government's willingness to provide more counterterrorism training for Iraqi security forces. The U.S. has several hundred military personnel in Iraq providing security for American facilities, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the U.S. Consulate in Irbil, and coordinating with Iraqi security ...

  • Pressure is on for Iraqi factions to reconcile in face of extremist threat

    Pressure is on for Iraqi factions to reconcile in face of extremist threat

    Aug 27, 2014 12:16 AM EDT

    ... Gwen, is, where is the United States going to come down on this?  A lot of people here, and I -- and also farther south into Iraq proper, have said, you know, the Americans' insistence over the last 10 years under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama on a unified Iraq ...

  • Displaced Iraqis traumatized by Islamic State, betrayed by neighbors

    Displaced Iraqis traumatized by Islamic State, betrayed by neighbors

    Aug 20, 2014 11:51 PM EDT

    ... out of a joint operations center up here in Irbil. The second thing that was missing, Judy, was a cohesive Iraqi force. This time, the Iraqis were fighting entirely on their own. And according to a senior Kurdish military official here, it was a hodgepodge of regular Iraqi army and ...

  • U.S. official: More airstrikes in Iraq

    U.S. official: More airstrikes in Iraq

    Aug 20, 2014 08:02 PM EDT

    ... approved, would mainly provide extra security around Baghdad. The 14 latest airstrikes were in the area of the Mosul Dam and were aimed at helping Iraqi and Kurdish forces create a buffer zone at the key facility. The strikes, which now total 84 since operations began, have helped Iraqi and ...

  • Despite military advances, displaced Iraqis fear risks of returning home

    Despite military advances, displaced Iraqis fear risks of returning home

    Aug 19, 2014 12:36 AM EDT

    d. But it was all coordinated here in Irbil in this joint operation center set up by the United States, intelligence, special forces and so on, with both Kurdish military and Iraqi military. And it was U.S. intelligence and airstrikes that coordinated with fighters from both those other groups ...