Iraq
Iran, after missile strike, warns against 'threats' from Iraqi soil
Iran has warned that it won't tolerate "threats" coming from Iraq, a day after firing ballistic missiles at what it said was an Israeli site in the neighbouring...
Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi said he was unhurt and appealed for "calm and restraint" after a drone attack on his residence in Baghdad's Green Zone early on Sunday as political tensions mount in the country.
The carvings -- 12 panels measuring five metres wide and two metres tall showing gods, kings and sacred animals -- date from the reigns of Sargon II (721-705 BC) and his son Sennacherib.
Eighteen years after the US invaded Iraq to remove strongman Saddam Hussein, and seven years after a US-led coalition battled Islamic State extremists who threatened the country, Washington turned its focus to other types of assistance.
The bloody carnage Monday evening, one of the deadliest attacks in years in the war-scarred country, killed mostly women and children on the eve of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice.
The deadly Monday evening blaze at Al-Hussein Hospital in the provincial capital Nasiriyah, which medics said was fuelled by the explosion of oxygen canisters, was the second such fire in Iraq in three months.
The fire broke out at the Al-Hussein hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah late Monday and was brought under control by local civil defence forces.
The strikes come at a delicate moment as the United States blames Iran-linked Iraqi factions for recent attacks against Iraqi installations housing its personnel, while also hoping to work out a return to a nuclear deal with Tehran.
This comes as the House of Representatives prepares to vote this week on bipartisan legislation that would repeal the longstanding authorisation for use of military force, which authorised force against Saddam Hussein's regime.
The pontiff was greeted by thousands in a sports stadium in the Kurdistan region's capital Arbil who had gathered despite fears the event could become a COVID-19 'super-spreader'.
Security will be tight in Iraq, which has endured years of war and insurgency, is still hunting for Islamic State sleeper cells and just days ago saw a barrage of rockets plough into a military base.
The 84-year-old, who said he would make the first-ever papal visit to Iraq as a "pilgrim of peace," will also reach out to Shiite Muslims when he meets Iraq's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.
On his first day in the Iraqi capital, Francis will give a speech at the "Our Lady of Salvation" Catholic Church in the main commercial district of Karrada.
In its first military action against Iran-linked groups since Joe Biden became president five weeks ago, the Pentagon said it had carried out air strikes at a Syria-Iraq border control point used by Iran-backed groups.
The attack was the bloodiest in Baghdad since January 2018, when a suicide bomber killed more than 30 people in the same square.
The White House said in a statement that Trump had granted full pardons to 15 people and commuted all or part of the sentences for five others.
Recognising Iraq's fragility, the Trump administration has given Iraq a series of waivers on US sanctions to let it keep buying gas from Iran.
The anti-government demonstrations rocking the Iraqi capital and the Shiite-majority south since October had abated in recent weeks amid spiralling tensions between Iraq's key allies, the United States and Iran.
Ahmad Abdessamad, a 37-year-old correspondent for local television station Al-Dijla, and his cameraman Safaa Ghali, 26, were killed late Friday, the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory said.