Sunni insurgents seized a mainly ethnic Turkmen city in northwestern Iraq on Sunday after heavy fighting, solidifying their grip on the north after a lightning offensive that threatens to dismember Iraq. Residents reached by telephone in the city of Tal Afar said it had fallen ...
Iraq military meltdown blamed on graft, politics
The Iraqi Army that disintegrated under an onslaught by Islamist fighters last week was a hollow force, riven by corruption, poor leadership and sectarian splits — a shadow of the military Washington had hoped to leave in the war-ravaged country. The United States dismantled Iraqi ...
ISIS leader fights to supplant al-Zawahri as world's deadliest terrorist
The leader of radical Sunni fighters who have made rapid military advances in Iraq is the rising star of global jihad, driven, Islamist fighters say, by an unbending determination to fight for and establish a hard-line Islamic state. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, commander of the Islamic ...
The Iraqi Army will have to destroy Mosul in order to save it — and it's not clear whether it can do the job even then.
An offensive by insurgents that threatens to dismember Iraq seemed to slow on Saturday after days of lightning advances as government forces regained some territory in counterattacks, easing pressure on the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. As Iraqi officials spoke of wresting back the initiative against ...
Iraq's top Shiite cleric issues call to fight jihadist rebels
Iraq's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric urged followers to take up arms against a full-blown Sunni militant insurgency to topple Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a conflict that threatens civil war and a possible break-up of the country. In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama said ...
Obama faces limited options, doubts over airstrikes in Iraq crisis
Two and a half years after President Barack Obama disentangled America from a long, unpopular war in Iraq, his options for helping the government in Baghdad stave off a militant onslaught are slim as doubts simmer over whether even punishing airstrikes would be effective. He ...
Insurgents seize two more Iraqi towns; Obama threatens airstrikes
Islamist rebel fighters captured two more Iraqi towns overnight in a relentless sweep south toward the capital Baghdad in a campaign to re-create a medieval caliphate carved out of fragmenting Iraq and Syria. U.S. President Barack Obama threatened military strikes against the radical Islamic State ...
Islamic militants have overrun northern Iraq, taking control of the country's second-largest city and sparking fears of the collapse of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
