Outside TIKRIT, Iraq
Incidents like the Blackwater shooting in Iraq four weeks ago happen because arrogant companies are hiring inexperienced staff, a leading security expert told AFP, as others defended the industry.
The U.S. mission in Iraq is a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.
As of Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007, at least 3,826 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 3,115 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Two senior U.S. officials promised Saturday that they would convey to Iraq Turkey's unease over Kurdish rebels in the north but they also expressed concern over the possibility of a Turkish military offensive in the region.
Two senior U.S. officials promised Thursday that they would convey to Iraq Turkey's unease over Kurdish rebels in the north but they also expressed concern over the possibility of a Turkish military offensive in the region.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Saturday she had urged Turkey to refrain from any major military operation in northern Iraq.
Nearly 15 percent of the 500,000-strong Yazidi sect in Iraq have fled the country as growing persecution has forced their religious observances underground.
The son and heir apparent of Iraq's top Shiite politician came out strongly Saturday in favor of autonomy for Iraq's religiously and ethnically divided regions, a potentially explosive issue on Iraq's already highly polarized political landscape. Also Saturday
The heir apparent of Iraq's top Shiite politician came out strongly in favor of giving more control to Iraq's religiously and ethnically divided regions on Saturday, telling supporters that central government control was "tyrannical."