The 2007 Failed States Index, produced by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, placed Iraq behind only Sudan among the world?s most unstable nations.
Iraq has overtaken Afghanistan as an ideal training ground for Jihadists to export their battle across and beyond the Middle East, experts say.
The exodus of more than 1 million refugees from war-torn Iraq reversed a five-year trend decline in the number of refugees worldwide, the United Nations says.
Violence in Iraq is the main driver behind a significant rise in the global refugee population to nearly 10 million people by the end of 2006, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday.
As of Monday, June 18, 2007, at least 3,527 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 2,888 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Iran's foreign minister said Monday his country would be open to holding talks with the U.S. over Iraq's security, and criticized the U.S. for not having a "plan to overcome the current crisis."
Iraq is now the second most unstable country in the world, a private survey finds, its standing deteriorating from last year's fourth place on a list of the 10 nations most vulnerable to violent internal conflict and worsening conditions.
Iran's foreign minister said Monday his country would be open to holding further talks with the U.S. over Iraq's security, while also criticizing the U.S. for not having a "plan to overcome the current crisis," state-run media reported Monday.
Three months after his notorious blackout farewell from "The Sopranos," actor James Gandolfini will return to HBO with a documentary about wounded U.S. veterans of the Iraq war, the network said on Monday.
Steve Simon and Ray Takeyh, senior fellows at the Council on Foreign Relations, was online Monday, June 18 at 2 p.m. ET to discuss their Sunday Outlook article on why the U.S. is out of options for success in Iraq -- and how it can exit the conflict while improving its stature and influence in the region.