Asian Lite News Archive

Category: Iraq

  • Macron arrives in Iraq

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      French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday arrived in Baghdad on his first official visit to the Iraqi capital for talks with the country’s top leaders over bilateral relations. Macron is expected to meet his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih and Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi as well as other top officials during his one-day visit, reports…

  • Iraqi army recaptures town from ISIS

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    The Iraqi military, with the help of volunteer forces, has managed to fully liberate the town of Dhuluiya in Salahuddin Province from the Islamic State (IS) terrorists, media reported . “The Iraqi forces succeeded in taking full control of the Tigris river town, 70 km north of the capital Baghdad from the IS terrorists,” Press…

  • Britain to train local Iraqi forces

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    Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon  said hundreds of British troops will be sent to Iraq next year to help train local forces to fight against Islamic State(IS). Fallon told in an interview with The Telegraph that “very low hundreds” of British troops will be deployed to Iraq to training Iraqi and Kurdish forces to fight…

  • 160,000 Christians flee Mosul in Iraq

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    At least 160,000 Iraqi Christians have been forced out of their homes in the city of Mosul after the Islamic State (IS) radical group terrorists seized Iraq’s second largest city in June, a Christian lawmaker says. “Christian families have been displaced from the city because of violence and death threats from this terrorist group,” Press…

  • Britain conducts first airstrike against ISIS

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    Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) military jets have conducted their first strikes on an Islamic State (IS) heavy weapon position in Iraq, the British ministry of defence said. In the course of an armed reconnaissance mission, two Tornados were tasked to assist Kurdish troops in northwest Iraq who were under attack from IS, also known…

  • Arab countries support US on ISIS mission

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      Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have promised to stand alongside the US “until the end” in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) Sunni radical group, a day after launching coordinated attacks on the group in Syria. US President Barak Obama received the support in a meeting Tuesday…

  • Iraq against foreign ground troops

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    Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said  that Iraq rejects the presence of foreign ground troops in the country to fight the Islamic State (IS) militant group. “Abadi renewed rejection of any ground intervention in Iraq,” a statement from Abadi’s office quoted him as saying during a meeting with Australian Defence Minister David Johnston in Baghdad.…

  • France begins attacks on ISIS

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    France’s President Francois Hollande said Friday French jets have launched first airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq where they seized major towns and threatened the region’s security. “This morning, at 9.40 a.m., our Rafale jets launched the first strike against a logistics depot of the terrorists,” Hollande said in a statement issued…

  • Over 100 killed in Iraq airstrikes

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    Over 100 people were killed and 79 others wounded in Iraq Thursday in US air strikes and clashes between the Iraqi security forces and insurgent militants, including those with the Islamic State(IS), officials and security sources said. In Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, US airstrikes hit an IS training centre at the college of agriculture…

  • US air strikes target ISIS in Iraq

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      A US airstrike was carried out near Iraqi capital Baghdad which marked a new phase in the fight against Islamic State (IS). US Central Command said in a statement that it was the first strike as part of “expanded efforts” to help Iraqi forces on the offensive against IS, CNN reported Tuesday. Monday’s airstrike…

  • Paris meet pledges military aid to Iraq

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    Representatives of 29 countries, including the five member of the UN Security Council, agreed Monday to provide Iraqi authorities with “any means necessary including military assistance” to help in cracking down on the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, France’s foreign ministry said. “All participants underscored the urgent need to remove Daesh (or IS) from the…

  • Kerry arrives in Baghdad for talks

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    US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Iraq’s capital Baghdad Wednesday for talks with Iraqi leaders for building up an anti-terrorism campaign, media reported. Kerry is expected to meet top Iraqi leaders, including new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, to discuss forming a broad coalition against the Islamic State (IS) Sunni extremist organisation, an Al…

  • Christian Aid calls for end to Iraq violence

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      The recent upsurge in violence in Iraq has led to a major new humanitarian crisis with more than 1.45 million people forced to flee their homes since the start of the year, many of them from persecuted religious minorities including Yazidis, Shabak and around 100,000 Christians. Following the launch of a Christian Aid crisis…

  • ISIS beheads second US journalist

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    Days after the beheading of American photojournalist James Foley, Sunni militant group Islamic State (IS) has posted a video showing the beheading of another kidnapped American journalist Steven Sotloff, CNN reported. Titled “A second message to America”, the video also threatens the life of British captive David Haines. Sotloff speaks to the camera before he…

  • Iraq air strikes kills many

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    At least 41 people were killed and 48 injured Tuesday in air strikes and clashes in Iraq’s Salahudin province, an official said. In one incident, up to 32 people were killed and 14 injured when a helicopter gunship attacked a school building which housed three displaced families in the militant-seized town of Alam, some 10…

  • Acts of terrorism as diplomacy

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    Colum by Saeed Naqvi The ISIS threat has been around for months. Why was it not nipped in the bud? Obama’s response in the course of a conversation with Thomas Friedman of the New York Times is revealing. “We did not start airstrikes all across Iraq as soon as the ISIS came in because that…

  • Church raps PM’s Mideast policy

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    The Church of England has attcked Prime Minister David Cameron’s Middle East policy, describing the government’s approach as incoherent, ill-thought-out and determined by “the loudest media voice at any particular time”. The criticisms are made in an extraordinary letter to the prime minister signed by the bishop of Leeds, Nicholas Baines, and written with the…

  • UK Declares £8 Million Aid to Iraq

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    The UK is releasing an £8 million package of emergency humanitarian assistance to get lifesaving aid to tens of thousands of people across northern and central Iraq who have fled ISIL terrorists, International Development Secretary Justine Greening has announced. The £8 million in new aid declared today brings to £13 million the total aid to Iraq…

  • US to launch airstrikes on ISIS base

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    Obama authorizes targeted air strikes in Iraq  US President Barack Obama has authorized targeted air strikes and air drops for Iraq’s aid amid a humanitarian crisis. Speaking at the White House Thursday, Obama said he authorized air strikes “if necessary” against Islamic militants, who have advanced into the Kurdish region of Iraq and seized the…

  • France offer asylum for Iraqi Christians

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    The French government has said that it was ready to welcome Christians fleeing from Iraqi city of Mosul which is now controlled by militants of the Islamic State, media reported Tuesday. Last month, militants from Islamic State, previously known as Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), seized large territories in northern Iraq, prompting…

  • Fuad Masoum is new Iraq president

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      Iraqi lawmakers Thursday elected Fuad Masoum as the new president of Iraq, signalling important progress in forming a new government. Mohammed Fuad Masoum, known as Fuad Masoum, won 211 votes among 269 lawmakers who attended the session of the 328-member parliament, Xinhua reported. “We declare that Fuad Masoum is the president of the Republic…

  • Iraqi PM slams eviction of Christians

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    Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Sunday slammed as criminal acts the displacement of Christian citizens by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group from northern Iraqi city of Mosul, calling for a worldwide unified stand against the militants. A statement issued by Maliki’s office said the IS militant threat against the Christian minority in its seized…

  • Saeed Naqvi on Shia-Sunni schism

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    Saeed Naqvi says the new Caliphate opposed to Shia apostasy and, eventually to Sunni monarchies  The expanding Shia-Sunni conflict in the Muslim world is exposing vast gaps in popular understanding of the schism. For example when Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, the Tunisian strongman was ousted, people thought a Shia dictator had fallen. From this they extrapolated…

  • British twin girls elope to join ISIS

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    Salma and Zahra Halane, 16, twin teenage girls from Manchester thought to have run away to join their brother who is fighting in Syria. The girls’ parents from Chorlton have also spoken out for the first time, saying they are ‘shocked’ at their disappearance two weeks ago, the MEN reported. Salma and Zahra Halane, 16,…

  • Indian nurses’ ordeal ends

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    All 46 Indian women nurses seized by Sunni insurgents in Iraq were freed Friday after intense diplomatic efforts, and were set to return to Kerala Saturday morning. In what appeared to be a sudden change of mind, the militants told the nurses Friday morning after breakfast that they should be ready to move to Erbil, the…

  • US against Kurds breaking away from Iraq

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     The US has opposed a call for a referendum on independence for Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. The call from Massud Barzani, president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, came as Sunni militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) are continuing their offensive after seizing a large part of Iraq’s northern…

  • ISIS Declare Islamic State

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    Militant group Isis has said it is establishing a caliphate, or Islamic state, on the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria, BBC reported. It also proclaimed the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as caliph and “leader for Muslims everywhere”. Setting up a caliphate ruled by the strict Islamic law has long been a goal…

  • Iraq gets Russian fighter jets

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    Iraq has received the first batch of fighter jets it ordered from Russia to help fight Sunni insurgents, the Iraqi defence ministry said. BBC quoted the ministry as saying that five Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft would enter service in “three to four days”. The deal with Russia “was aimed at increasing the firepower of the…

  • ISIS, #NO2ISIS war escalates on Net

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    A propaganda war is escalating across the social media between members of the ISIS and a growing number of its opponents, who are publicly countering the terrorist organisation through a successful #NO2ISIS campaign, The Muslim News from London reported. ISIS, formally an insular group, based in Syria and now Iraq, is now using the social…

  • Nouri rejects national govt

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    Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has rejected calls for a national salvation government to help counter the offensive by jihadist-led Sunni rebels, BBC reported. Such calls represented a “coup against the constitution and an attempt to end the democratic experience”, he warned. The US has led appeals to the country’s political leaders to rise above…

  • Why Punjabis taking Iraq jobs?

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    Jaideep Sarin and Parminder Singh Bariana visit Hoshiarpur in Punjab and Yamunanagar in Haryana to find out the reason for youths taking risky jobs in civil-war hit Iraq. Joblessness, better money drives youth to Iraq  Joblessness, poor land holdings, vice-like grip of the drug mafia and, of course, the lure of better money is what drives…

  • ISIS link shocks Cardiff Muslims

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    Cardiff has an ongoing problem with the radicalisation of young Muslims, said an academic who has studied the issue, BBC reported. Dr Suraj Lakhani, of Cardiff University, who recently completed his doctorate – A Social Analysis of Radicalisation in the UK, told BBC Radio Wales: “As far as I’m aware, there has been an issue…

  • Iran opposes US intervention in Iraq

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    Iran strongly opposes any kind of US intervention in Iraq, the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday. “Iran believes that people and government as well as religious leaders of Iraq can end the adventurism,” IRNA cited Khamenei as saying during a meeting with top Iranian judiciary officials. Blaming the western countries for fomenting…

  • UK- fears threat from Syrian returnees

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    Met Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick said police forces across the country will have to deal with the threat of British fighters returning from Syria for “many years.” She said young British Muslims might commit violence on their return. Her comments came after an apparent internet recruitment video for jihadists in Syria and Iraq appeared to…

  • British, Dutch jihadists on the rise

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    Britain’s intelligence agencies intensified operations to identify the people appearing in a video which urges young British-Muslims to join the Jihadi movement in the Middle East. Meanwhile,  the Dutch Minister of Interior Ronald Plasterk said the number of Dutch jihadists travelling to Iraq is on the rise. Though Pasterk did not give numbers, during a…