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Family of politician, who is a dual Australian and Iraqi citizen, allegedly targeted via attacks on a Sydney home and online extortion attempts linked to an address in western CanadaFour people have been charged in Sydney and Canada over alleged attempts to extort $10 million from a senior Iraqi politician, after what was described as a year-long campaign of intimidation.Dual raids were launched at...

Survivors of Islamic State brutality are pushed further into the margins as the pandemic causes the world to turn inwardStaring at the same four walls day after day, unable to find work, reunite with relatives, or send your children to school. The Covid pandemic has rendered this bleak picture a reality for many people across the globe. Yet for many who have survived or...

One wounded at base where US firm services Iraqi warplanesLittle-known Shia militant group claims responsibilityAt least four rockets struck an airbase in Balad, north of Baghdad, on Saturday, the Iraqi military said in a statement. Other officials said one person was wounded at the base where a US defense company services combat aircraft. Related: After rocket attack, Biden faces first real test on Iran...

Analysis: Fiery rhetoric of Trump era is gone, but flare-up in northern Iraq is a microcosm of tension to comeJoe Biden faces his first real test with Iran. A barrage of 15 rockets in northern Iraq that struck a US base, killing a military contractor and wounding a soldier, were likely aimed as much at testing the new president’s mettle as they were at...

Eight others injured in blast that is expected to bring first serious test of Joe Biden’s Iran policyA rocket attack on a US airbase in the Kurdish region of Iraq has killed one civilian contractor and injured eight other people in the first serious test of Joe Biden’s Iran policy.A volley of approximately 14 rockets was launched at the base near the main city...

President accuses US of backing Kurdish militant group after 13 Turkish people found dead in IraqThe Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has accused the US of supporting Kurdish militants, after Turkish troops found the bodies of 13 Turkish soldiers, police and civilians abducted by Kurdish insurgents in a cave complex in northern Iraq.Erdoğan also took aim at the state department after its initial hesitance...

After decades of war, more and more women are working to remove lethal mines and IEDs from the fields and cities of their homelands. It’s dangerous, but it’s helping to rebuild their livesAs a child, Hana Khider dreamed of Sinjar. Born and brought up in Syria, she remembers her mother telling her stories about the district in northern Iraq where her relatives lived. “I...

Defence is refusing to provide details about the Australians piloting deadly British air force drone strikes in Iraq and SyriaAustralian air attacks on enemy ground targets in the Middle East ended three years ago. Or so the Australian military told us.But undisclosed to either the Australian public or the federal parliament, this country’s air force personnel have been piloting deadly British air force drone...

Attack wounded more than 100 people and raises fear of return to violence in Iraqi capitalTwo suicide bombers have killed at least 32 people and wounded more than 100 at a Baghdad market, raising fears of a return to the militant violence seen for years in Iraq after the 2003 US invasion and during the Islamic State era. In the worst such attack in...

Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis died in drone strike ordered by US presidentA Baghdad court has issued a warrant for the arrest of the US president, Donald Trump, as part of its investigation into the killing of a top Iraqi paramilitary commander.Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of Iraq’s largely pro-Iran Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network, died in the same US drone strike that killed the storied...

John M Patarini says in letter to New York Times he is ‘disgusted with the president’s actions’ after Trump pardonsThe mass shooting in Baghdad for which Donald Trump pardoned four American mercenaries was “a massacre along the lines of My Lai in Vietnam”, the lead FBI investigator in the case said, pronouncing himself “disgusted with the president’s actions”. Related: 'Our blood is cheaper than...

Rights experts say pardon of four contractors over Iraq killings undermine humanitarian lawDonald Trump’s pardon of four American men convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007 violated US obligations under international law, United Nations human rights experts have said.Nicholas Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder and Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted of voluntary and attempted manslaughter...

Joe Biden to be lobbied to reverse decision to pardon security guards jailed over massacreIraqis have reacted with outrage to Donald Trump’s move to pardon four security guards from the security firm Blackwater who were jailed for a 2007 massacre that sparked an outcry over the use of mercenaries in war.The four men were part of a security convoy that fired on civilians at...

Four guards fired on unarmed crowd in Baghdad in 2007, killing 14 and sparking outrage over use of private security in war zonesDonald Trump has pardoned four security guards from the private military firm Blackwater who were serving jail sentences for killing 14 civilians including two children in Baghdad in 2007, a massacre that sparked an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in...

Prosecutor says, however, there is ‘reasonable basis to believe’ atrocities may have been committedThe international criminal court has formally abandoned its long-running inquiry into claims that British troops committed war crimes in Iraq between 2003 and 2008.The ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said there was a “reasonable basis to believe” that atrocities such as wilful killing, torture, inhuman/cruel treatment and rape may have been committed...

Study says poor equipment could be a reason for higher British fatality rate in Iraq and AfghanistanBritish soldiers were 12% more likely to have been killed than their American counterparts during the “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a study of casualty figures.The research – intended as a lessons learned exercise – also concludes that UK forces were 26% more likely...

Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri was ‘king of clubs’ in US wanted list and had $10m bounty on his headSaddam Hussein’s right-hand man, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a longtime fugitive, has died, according to the late Iraqi dictator’s daughter and his Ba’ath party.After Saddam’s capture following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the wiry, red-haired general remained the “king of clubs” in Washington’s deck of cards of...

Mustafa al-Kadhimi also urges Europe to assist the Middle Eastern nation’s debt-ridden economyIraq’s prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, has warned that he is being forced into an impossible balancing act between the US and Iran, as he urged Europe to come to the aid of his country’s debt-ridden economy.Appointed as prime minister in June, Kadhimi – a British citizen and former journalist – came to...