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Iraq
Kurdistan Islamic Movement will not participate in the upcoming elections
2021-05-07
[SHAFAQ] The leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Movement, Irfan Abdul Aziz, said that his movement will refrain from running for the elections scheduled for October 10 later this year.

In a presser held today, Thursday, Abdul Aziz said that the movement took this decision in light of "several factors" after deliberating the situation keenly.

Abdul Aziz said that the main reason behind this decision is "electoral rigging", adding that what happened in Iraq in the previous elections is unmatched, "even in Africa".

"Iraq is not a state anymore. It is an arena to settle international conflicts, while, regionally, the countries that control the parties in Iraq can do whatever they want."

Al-Dawa party-Iraq Organization said it will not participate in the early legislative elections this year, expressing concerns about repeating the scenario of the previous elections.
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Iraq
Iraq’s President Barham Salih designates Adnan Al-Zurfi as the new Prime Minister
2020-03-17
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
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Iraq
Blast reported in front of Dawa office in Kirkuk: security source
2018-09-21
More on this report from yesterday.
[Rudaw] An kaboom has rocked Kirkuk’s Tas’een quarter Wednesday night.

"A terrorist attack occurred in Kirkuk province via an abandoned explosive-laden vehicle that moderately injured three people," Yahya Rasul Abdullah, spokesperson for Iraq's Joint Operations Command, confirmed in a statement.

The injured people have been taken to hospital, he added.

The boom-mobile blew up in front of an office of the Dawa party, Idris Rafaat, head of Kirkuk Asayesh, told Rudaw TV.

Rafaat is based in the Kurdistan Region. He left Kirkuk when the city was taken over by Iraqi federal forces last autumn.

Dawa is the party of rivals Nouri al-Maliki and Haider al-Abadi.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Rebellion of a rich country’s poor
2018-07-22
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The war on terror has ended in Iraq and levers of power now rest in the hands of Shiite parties with varying degrees of links with Iran. Who is responsible for this failure? Who is the corrupt? Which party is depriving Iraqi people of their national wealth? The country of Tigris and Euphrates is thirsty!

The country with the third largest oil reserves in the world is staggering without electricity. The country claiming "victory over ISIS" is controlled by militias of the Popular Mobilization Forces which are no less sectarian than ISIS! The country of free elections is experiencing the biggest electoral fraud!

Today, the deteriorating situation has been worsened by a new element. The protests have revealed a bitter truth. The Najaf Airport which protesters stormed and closed is managed by the militias of five parties including the ruling Dawa party. In this sense, the news from Iraq is more surprising than news emanating from some of the "banana republics" in Central America.
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Iraq
Iraqi Shiites Demonstrate against Iran
2018-07-17
[Kurdistan24] Demonstrators demanded jobs and radically improved public services, while they denounced Iran's influence in their region.

The protests, led by local tribal leaders, began in Basra and then spread to five other southern provinces: Najaf, Karbala, Maysan, Babil, and Dhi Qar.

On Saturday, they entered their sixth consecutive day.

The Iraqi government has taken measures to crack down on the demonstrations. It shut down access to social media throughout the country, including the Kurdistan Region, and ordered an internet blackout in most of Iraq.

Baghdad also mobilized security forces to quell the demonstrations, and fatalities ensued.

Two protesters died of their injuries after being attacked by Iraqi forces in the city of Ammara, in Maysan Province. In Najaf, another two protesters were killed by security forces, while seven were wounded.

Some reports suggest that elements within the army are siding with the demonstrators, and it is other forces that are primarily involved in suppressing the unrest. A split within the Iraqi security forces would be very significant.

In the city of Nasriyya (Dhi Qar Governorate), protestors chanted, "Iran, Iran, we don’t want you anymore, Dhi Qar will not shut up anymore!"

Iraqi security: 65 protesters apprehended in Muthanna rallies

Muthanna (Iraqinews.com) – Iraqi security forces have arrested 65 protesters in Muthanna governorate as demonstrations over poor public services and corruption across southern Iraqi provinces entered their eighth day.

In remarks to the Iraqi Mawazin website on Monday, a security source said, "65 protesters were apprehended while taking part in a rally in Muthanna governorate."

The source pointed out that "the protests are sill ongoing in the governorate."

On Sunday, an Iraqi protester was killed, while 15 others were injured in mass demonstrations in Muthanna governorate.

The protesters also set fire to some headquarters of political parties.

Eight people killed so far in Iraq's protests, says ministry

Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – The Iraqi Health Ministry has announced that eight people have been killed so far as a result of protests that started last week in Basra and extended to other southern provinces within a few days.

Speaking at a press conference, Seif al-Badr, the ministry's spokesman, said that the "clashes between protesters and security forces left 56 people injured, almost half of them are policemen."

According to the spokesman, three deaths were reported in Muthanna governorate, two deaths in each of Basra and Najaf, and one in Karbala.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Interior Ministry has said that up to 274 security forces were injured in clashes with protesters since the start of mass demonstrations across the nation last week.

In an online statement, the ministry said there were brigadier generals and senior policemen among the injured.

Security forces use live ammunition to disperse protest, northwest of Baghdad

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Security forces have forcibly dispersed a protest, northwest of Baghdad. Some entrances were closed, according to security sources and news reports on Monday.

Speaking to Alghad Press, the source said, "Rioting police in al-Shoala region dispersed a protest of around 300 demonstrators using live ammunition."

Some entrances were closed, the source added.

Moreover, the forces closed exits of al-Aamel district in Baghdad, preventing any gatherings there, Almaalomah website reported.

The troops were highly deployed there, closing exits that lead to Baghdad airport street.

Iraqi protesters burn pictures of Khomeini in Basra

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] As popular unrest across several southern cities of Iraq, videos being shared on social media showed several demonstrators burning the offices of political parties with links to Iran, most notably those belonging to the Badr militia, Dawa party and the National Wisdom Movement.

Pictures from Sunday showed the burning of a poster bearing the image of former Iran Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini on a main street in the province of Basra.

"The streets of Basra continue to protest against the Iranian practices, which have been going on for years now, especially the after our water became saline after drainage thrown by Iran in the Shatt al-Arab River," Abu Ahmad al-Mansoori, one of the protesters in Basra, told Al Arabiya English.

The crumbling oil hub of Basra and others parts of the Iraqi southern heartland have long been neglected, especially by the Shiite-led governments who came after former president Saddam Hussein. Similar protests have occurred in the past.

In a rare move, protesters stormed the international airport in Najaf, a holy Shiite city, over the weekend temporarily halting air traffic.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, in response, announced that his caretaker government would release funds for water, electricity and health services in Basra, once dubbed the "Venice of the Middle East" for its network of canals.

Iraq: Deadly Basra protests spread to other cities

[Al Jazeera] Protests have spread to more Iraqi cities after a week of violent demonstrations in the oil-rich city of Basra where at least seven people were killed, dozens maimed, and hundreds tossed in the slammer
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
, police and activists said.

Monday's protests took place in the eastern province of Diyala and the southern city of Nasiriyah, according to AFP news agency.

The unrest first erupted in Basra on July 8 when security forces opened fire, killing one person. Protesters accused the government of failing to provide basic services, including electricity.

"We are the residents of Basra, not infiltators. We are simply raising our demands, which are clean water, electricity, basic services and jobs. Our peaceful protests are met with bullets," one demonstrator told Al Jazeera.
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Iraq
Iraq deploys security forces in Najaf after day of protests
2018-07-15
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi security forces have deployed on the streets of the Shiite holy city of Najaf after a day of angry protests against poor public services and high unemployment.

Military vehicles and fire engines deployed along Najaf's streets on Saturday after demonstrators on Friday attacked the ruling Dawa party’s office downtown and stormed the airport, forcing it to shut down.

Earlier in the day, Iraq’s interior ministry has announced a nationwide state of high security alert in response to ongoing protests in the country’s southern provinces over poor government services and corruption.

Iraqi Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji also announced that all arrest warrants against those who violated government departments and institutions have been issued and will be placed in durance vile
Book 'im, Mahmoud!
 in the next few hours.

Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent reported power outages in the entire province of Najaf late on Saturday and that security forces have declared a curfew.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of Iraqis stormed the airport and halted air traffic in Najaf, extending protests following demonstrations in the southern city of Basra decrying poor government services and corruption.
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Iraq
Iraqi mufti accuses former prime minister of following foreign agenda
2016-11-18
[RUDAW.NET] A prominent Iraqi Sunni holy man on Thursday blamed former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki for allowing ISIS to take over djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
 and accused him of now following an "outside" agenda.

Dr. Rafi Rofaai said that Maliki, a Shiite backed by Iran, there was not a party in Iraq that that the former prime minister had not criticized, including his own Dawa party. The mufti, or holy man, accused him of bearing a grudge against the country’s Kurds and Sunnis.

"Maliki is a shedder of blood and a dictator who is promoting sectarianism and holding grudges against every party, including his own," Rofaai said in an interview with Rudaw.

He noted that when Kurdish President Masoud Barzani "defends the national rights of the Kurdish nation, Maliki opposes that. When Sunnis defend themselves, he also opposes them."

Tensions between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi government under Maliki peaked in February 2014 as Baghdad froze the Kurdish share of the national budget.

The KRG has since struggled to finance its staggering public servant salaries and the war against ISIS through international loans, austerity measures and its own oil exports.

Responding to a question about whether Kurds can have their own state, Maliki had stated: "No one has the constitutional right to exit Iraq."

Rofaai said, "There is no party in Iraq that Maliki has not attacked." He accused him of "implementing an outside agenda," a reference to neighboring Iran, which wields immense power in Iraq.

He said there are even "people within the Dawa party and State of Law coalition who are attacked by Maliki. So for the time being he does not have a clear and good agenda."

Referring to comments Maliki has persistently made in support of the Iranian-backed Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary forces that are fighting alongside Iraqi Army in the battle for Mosul, Rofaai said it was under Maliki’s own premiership that ISIS ‐ or ISIS in Arabic ‐ had taken over Mosul.

"Maliki is saying that he fights ISIS with Hashd al-Shaabi forces. Who brought ISIS into Mosul? Maliki and his men pulled out a number of Lions of Islam from prisons and sent them to Mosul," Rofaai charged.

In June 2014, Iraqi forces turned and fled ‐ leaving massive caches of arms that were taken by ISIS ‐ when the snuffies stormed across Iraq and took over Mosul without much of a fight.
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Iraq
Iraq parliament agrees on 17 percent budget share for KRG
2015-12-17
Getting them to actually pay it has been a separate issue, which is why, as I recall, Erbil keeps Turkey's oil payments rather than passing them through to Baghdad.
[Rudaw] Iraq's parliament agreed a 17 percent share of the national budget for the autonomous Kurdistan region on Wednesday, despite efforts by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki
... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
's Shiite Dawa party to cut the annual allocation.

"The Iraqi parliament passed and fixed the Kurdistan region's 17 percent budget share," Sarhan Ahmed, a Kurdish MP in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw.

He explained that the proposal to keep the allocation at 17 percent -- as specified in the Iraqi constitution -- was accepted despite opposition by the Dawa bloc, which on Monday had proposed a reduction to 13 percent.

Ahmed said Maliki's bloc had asked for yet another hearing on the proposal, but "the parliament speaker rejected their call and considered it illegal."

The proposal to cut Kurdistan's share of the budget was condemned by Kurdish MPs in the Iraqi parliament at an emergency session on Tuesday.

Iraq's Minister of Finance Hoshyar Zebari has warned that "reducing Kurdistan's share of the budget would dismantle Iraq's political process."
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Iraq
ISIS kills 300 Iraqi soldiers by chlorine gas attack in Saqlawiyah
2014-09-23
(IraqiNews.com) On Monday several Members of Parliament from Diwaniyah Province confirmed that ISIS killed over 300 soldiers using chlorine gas for the first time in Saqlawiyah, north of Fallujah.

Islamic Dawa party MP Ali al-Badri said, at a press conference at the parliament building in the presence of a number of deputies of Diwaniyah province and attended by IraqiNews.com that “the terrorist organization ISIS used chlorine gas for the first time in the region of Saqlawiyah after trapping more than 400 troops, resulting in the deaths of many of them due to suffocation while the terrorist gangs detonated car bombs within the brigade headquarters.”

Badri said, “We hold the full responsibility for the fate of the trapped soldiers to the Commanding General of the Armed Forces, Haider Abadi, and the security leaders, especially the Anbar Operations Chief, Lt. Gen. Rashid Flaih, because of the slow measures taken by the Air Force despite frequent appeals for rapid procedures to rescue the soldiers since several days ago.”
How about holding the ISIS responsible?
Badri added that the “Saqlawiyah crime is considered as the second Speicher Massacre,” stressing that “300 soldiers were killed in the attack.”
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Iraq
Al Maliki to back new Prime Minister
2014-08-16
Four senior Shiite lawmakers tell The Associated Press that Al Maliki has agreed to endorse Haider Al Abadi as the next prime minister following a meeting of Dawa party members in Baghdad late Thursday, ending the deadlock that has plunged Baghdad into a political uncertainty.

Hussein Al Maliki and Khalaf Abdul-Samad, lawmakers with Al Maliki and Al Abadi’s State of Law parliamentary bloc, say Al Maliki will support Al Abadi’s nomination in his speech Thursday night. Two other lawmakers also say Al Maliki will do so.

The government announced Al Maliki will speak Thursday evening.
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Iraq
Iraqi Sunnis lay out conditional offer to join unity government
2014-08-15
[REUTERS] Tribal leaders and holy mans from Iraq's Sunni heartland said on Friday they would be willing under certain conditions to join a new government that hopes to contain sectarian bloodshed and an offensive by Islamic State Death Eaters that threatens Baghdad.
More and more it looks as if a fair bit of the Sunni rebellion is not in support of the ISIS but was against al-Malicki's government...
Members of the Sunni Mohammedan minority made their offer after Iraq's most influential Shi'ite holy man, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, threw his weight behind prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi, a Shi'ite trying to form an inclusive government in a country beset by daily bombings, abductions and executions.

Abadi faces the daunting task of pacifying the vast western province of Anbar, where Sunni frustrations with the sectarian policies of outgoing Shi'ite premier Nuri al-Maliki have pushed some to join an insurgency led by the Islamic State fighters.

The tribal leaders and holy mans said Sunni representatives in Anbar and other provinces have drawn up a list of demands to be delivered to Abadi through Sunni politicians, their front man Taha Mohammed al-Hamdoon told Rooters.

He called for government troops and Shi'ite militia forces to suspend their attacks in Anbar to allow for talks.

"It is not possible for any negotiations to be held under barrel bombs and indiscriminate bombing," Hamdoon said in a telephone interview, referring to strikes on Sunni cities. "Let the bombing stop and withdraw and curtail the militias until there is a solution for the wise men in these areas."

Separately, one of Anbar's most powerful tribal leaders, with thousands of men at his command, said on television he was ready to work with Abadi, if he respected Sunni interests.

Ali Hatem Suleiman, a leading figure in an earlier alliance with U.S. and Iraqi forces against al Qaeda, said he could consider joining a new campaign against the Islamic State.

Sistani, spiritual leader of the Shi'ite majority, said earlier that the handover to Abadi offered a rare opportunity to resolve political and security crises.

Maliki finally stepped down as prime minister under heavy pressure from allies at home and abroad late on Thursday, clearing the way for Abadi who is a party colleague but has a reputation as a less confrontational figure.

Iraq has been plunged into its worst violence since the peak of a sectarian civil war in 2006-2007, with Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State overrunning large parts of the west and north, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee for their lives and threatening the ethnic Kurds in their autonomous province.

Sistani told the country's feuding politicians to live up to their "historic responsibility" by cooperating with Abadi as he tries to form a new government and overcome divisions among the Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish communities that deepened under Maliki. Abadi himself, in comments online, urged his countrymen to unite and cautioned that the road ahead would be tough.

Sistani, a reclusive octogenarian whose authority few Iraqi politicians would dare openly challenge, also had pointed comments for the military, which offered serious no resistance when the Islamic State staged its lightning offensive in June.

"We stress the necessity that the Iraqi flag is the banner they hoist over their troops and units, and avoid using any pictures or other symbols," Sistani said, in a call for the armed forces to set aside sectarian differences. Maliki was blamed for blurring lines between the army and Shi'ite militias.

Maliki ended eight years in power that began under U.S. occupation and endorsed Abadi, a member of his Shi'ite Islamic Dawa party, in a televised late-night speech during which he stood next to his successor, surrounded by other leaders.

Maliki's critics at home and abroad had accused him of marginalizing the Sunni Mohammedan minority, which dominated Iraq until a U.S.-led invasion deposed Saddam Hussein in 2003. This, they said, had encouraged disaffected Sunnis to back the jihadist fighters who have ordered religious minorities to convert to their radical brand of Islam or die.

They have threatened to march on the capital.

The appointment of Abadi, had drawn widespread support within Iraq but also from the United States and regional Shi'ite power Iran - two countries which have been at odds for decades.

"The regional and international welcome is a rare positive opportunity ... to solve all (Iraq's) problems, especially political and security ones," Sistani said in comments which were relayed by his front man after weekly Friday prayers in the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, south of Baghdad.

After its capture of the northern metropolis of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
 in June, a swift push by the Islamic State to the borders of Iraqi Kurdistan alarmed Baghdad and last week drew the first U.S. air strikes on Iraq since the withdrawal of American troops in 2011.
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Iraq
Backgrounder on Haidar al-Abadi: From Exile to Iraq PM Designate
2014-08-13
[AnNahar] Haidar al-Abadi, tasked with forming Iraq's next government during a major crisis, is a former exile and long-serving MP described variously as a genial, tough, diplomatic and uncontroversial politician.

Many of those characteristics are a sharp departure from outgoing premier Nuri al-Maliki, who is opposed by Iraq's Sunni Arabs and some of his own Shiite community, and has defiantly insisted he is being robbed of a third term in a violation of the country's constitution.

Abadi, a member of Maliki's Dawa party, earned a doctorate from Manchester University in Britannia, where he remained in exile for much of Saddam Hussein's rule.

Two of his brothers were locked away
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
 and executed by Saddam's regime for membership in the Dawa party, which opposed his rule, while a third was imprisoned for a decade on the same charge.

Abadi, a balding man with a close-cut white beard, returned to Iraq following Saddam's overthrow in 2003 and became communications minister in the interim government set up after the dictator's fall.

Abadi, who was born in 1952, was elected to parliament in 2006, chairing the Economy, Investment and Reconstruction Committee and then the Finance Committee.

He was voted deputy parliament speaker in July, before being tapped to form the government.

"Haidar is a very friendly person, very down to earth," said Zaid al-Ali, a legal expert and the author of the book The Struggle for Iraq's Future.

"People... accept that he's a very easy person to speak to. You don't need to look over your shoulder after speaking with him, you don't have to be worried about disagreeing with him," Ali said.

Kirk Sowell, the Amman-based publisher of the Inside Iraqi Politics newsletter, said Abadi is "a completely mainstream guy, he's kind of a grey suit."

"He doesn't have any enemies, he's avoided controversies," and "he's never been one to push for reform," Sowell said.

"Up until recently, he's been a Maliki surrogate," he said. "I have never seen much daylight between the two of them."

Haidar al-Khoei, an associate fellow at the Chatham House think-tank, said Abadi may be a positive change from Maliki.

"From what I hear from within Dawa circles, he is clearly much smarter than Maliki. He has a lot more business experience as well," Khoei said.

"He's still tough," but "he's also more diplomatic and more reconciliatory, and I think that gives him the edge in terms of being able to form a government."

If he is successful in doing so in the next 30 days, Abadi will face enormous challenges as premier.

Iraq suffers from rampant corruption, has major shortfalls in basic services such as electricity and clean water, and is sharply divided along religious and ethnic lines.

But the greatest of all will be security, with jihadist-led murderous Moslems in control of large areas of five Iraqi provinces, and hundreds of people killed in attacks each month.

Maliki sought to address violence, which has been on the rise since April 2013, with military force, making little in the way of concessions to his opponents, especially members of the country's Sunni Arab minority.

But without reaching out to Iraqi Sunnis and giving them a significant stake in politics and government, it will be extremely difficult to bring the violence plaguing the country under some semblance of control.

Of the widespread challenges Abadi faces, Khoei said: "I don't think it's going to be easy, but with Maliki, it will be impossible -- that's the bottom line."
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