Baghdad, March 30 - At least 18 people were killed and over 100 injured in five car bombing incidents in Iraq Friday, Xinhua reported.

The bombings targetted Shiite mosques in Baghdad and Kirkuk city, an interior ministry source said, adding at least 14 people were killed and 25 wounded in the four attacks in the capital city.

The fifth was a suicide attack, which targetted the worshipers while leaving a mosque in Kirkuk, some 250 km from Baghdad, killing four and wounding 80, a police source said. (IANS)

Baghdad, March 19 : Twenty people were killed and over 90 wounded in a series of bombings and shootings in Iraq Tuesday, the police said.

In Baghdad, eight car bombs ripped through crowded areas mainly in Shiite districts across the capital, killing 15 people and wounding 73, an interior ministry source told Xinhua.

Also in the capital, two people were killed when two bombs attached to their cars detonated in western and eastern Baghdad, while a third was shot dead by gunmen in the southern part of Baghdad, the source said.

Baghdad, March 12 - A suicide bomber killed five people and wounded 120 others, including 65 schoolchildren, in northern Iraq Monday, while three people were killed in two other attacks in central Iraq, police said.

In the first incident, the blast occurred when a suicide bomber blew up his explosive-laden car near the police headquarters in the town of al-Debis, some 45 km from Kirkuk city, killing five people and wounding 120 others, reported Xinhua citing source.

Dubai, March 11 - Iran will start exporting gas to Iraq within next three months, according to Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi.

Qasemi, who met his Iraqi counterpart Abdul Kareem al-Luaibi in Baghdad, said Sunday the agreement on Iranian gas supplies to Iraq had "reached the stage of final signing".

"The launch of gas exports will proceed by stages. First, gas will start to be supplied to Baghdad and then, within another three months, to Basra," IRNA quoted Qasemi as saying.

Baghdad, Dec 31 : Hakeem Shakir has been promoted from caretaker to Iraq head coach, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has said.

The AFC said in a statement Sunday that the Iraq football association made the decision after Shakir acted as caretaker following Brazilian Zico's resignation late November, reports Xinhua.

Shakir led Iraq to the finals of the under-19 Asian championship and the West Asian championships in 2012.

Shakir, 49, will face his first task of the Gulf Cup 2013 starting in Bahrain next week.

Iraq are also vying for a place in the 2014 World Cup finals.

Baghdad, Dec 31 - Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak Sunday survived an attempt on his life, Xinhua reported.

Al-Mutlak was participating in a protest in Anbar province, about 100 km from Baghdad, when the attack took place. Several of his bodyguards were wounded.

Protests against Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki have intensified since the arrests of bodyguards of Sunni Finance Minister Rafie al-Issawi last week.

Maliki's opponents accuse him of seeking to marginalize Sunni leaders.

Manama, Sept 21 : Qatar-based pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera Network has reportedly replaced its top news director in the wake of WikiLeaks revelations that he modified the network’s Iraq war coverage in response to pressure from the US.

According to the New York Times, the network has named a member of the Qatari royal family and a businessman, Sheik Ahmad bin Jasem bin Muhammad Al-Thani, to replace Wadah Khanfar.

President Obama says he is on track to carry out his promise of ending the Iraq war.

Despite a stalemate situation in Baghdad on efforts to form a new government, Obama is happy with his achievements in Iraq. He is convinced that he will carry out his promise, which he did while campaigning for the post of the president.

Obama's message of opposition to the Iraq war helped him to gain support among Democrats in his presidential election campaign.

The former head of British intelligence said on Tuesday that the decision to use military force in Iraq in 2003 gave Osama bin Laden the jihad he looking for.

London is examining its role in the Iraq war from the planning stages in 2001 to the end of British combat operations in 2009.

London's Guardian newspaper has reported that Eliza Manningham-Buller, who led British intelligence agency MI5 from 2002-07, told the London inquiry into the Iraq war Tuesday that the Iraqi invasion was a propaganda victory for al-Qaida.

Flydubai has commenced its initial flight to Iraq by flying to the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region.

The low cost airline made this declaration on Saturday.

The FZ201 aircraft finished a three-hour trip to Erbil on Friday after it lifted off from the Dubai International Airport.

Flydubai's chief commercial officer Hamad Obaidalla stated that stability is coming back to Iraq and mainly to the Kurdistan area, and this makes Erbil an important gateway into the country.

Authorities have said that insurgents detonated a string of bombs in Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 41 people and injuring 181 others, most of them religious pilgrims.

The deadliest attack was carried out by a suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives that targeted pilgrims near Abu Haneefa al Numan Mosque in Adhamiyah, north of Baghdad, about 8 p. m., McClatchy Newspapers have reported. McClatchy also said that blast killed at least 28 people and wounded 81.

Officials have confirmed that multiple attacks in Iraq Tuesday killed eight people and wounded 15 others.

CNN has reported that Interior Ministry officials said an Iraqi army brigadier general in the northwestern Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhumiya was killed when a bomb attached to his car exploded.

The official further said that another car bomb exploded in northwestern Baghdad in Hurriya killing one civilian and wounding two others.

CNN further said that a car explosion in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora killed one civilian and wounded four others.

It has been reported that anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is calling for an end to both offshore drilling and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to health officials, the need for treatment of rampant mental illness in Iraq far outstrips resources in the war-ravaged country.

The Washington Post has reported that though the war has subsided and many American troops have pulled out, medical specialists say they're overwhelmed with mental health cases induced by war-related trauma.

According to the reports, Iranian troops have crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan and built a fortified base, one of several recent military incursions as Iraq struggles to form a government amid efforts by Tehran to ensure that a pro-Iranian Shiite alliance takes power.

Another area of contention is the disputed oil-rich Maysan border region in southeastern Iraq.

Interior officials have said that five police officers were killed and 30 other people were injured in the Baghdad area Sunday in four separate attacks.

China's state-run news agency Xinhua has reported that a suicide car bomber attacked a group of policemen early Sunday near a checkpoint in southwestern Baghdad's al-Amil district, killing four officers and wounding a dozen more.

A source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one police officer and injured six others.

In Iraq's northern Diyala province, a car bomb blast has killed at least 23 people and injured another 53 people. The bomb blasted at Shia town of Khalis about 80 kilometers north to the capital Baghdad at 1630 GMT. However, a spate of attacks has killed more than 100 people earlier this month.

The situation in Iraq is getting worse after the elections in March. In the general election no single party had claimed the majority to form government.

An Al-Qaeda suspect was detained in Iraq. He has given detailed information about the attack he was plotting to finalize in the next FIFA world cup in South Africa.

The name of the person is Saleh al-Qahtani. He was arrested and now interrogation is on. He had admitted that he had made a plan to attack the Dutch and Danish players to take revenge for the prophet. He has also added that the senior Al-Qaeda leaders did not approved the plan, but he was keen for a blast at the grand event.

Officials have said that investigators are examining the U. S. Army's use of a controversial and possibly dangerous drug to treat wounded troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Baltimore Sun reported on Sunday that the blood-clotting drug, called Factor VII, has been shown to be ineffective in clinical trials and been the focus of safety warnings by U. S. and European regulators.

Authorities have said that Iraq's election results in Baghdad and the surrounding area have been upheld by the country's electoral commission after a partial recount.

The BBC reported on Sunday that the hand recount of 2.5 million ballots, requested by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, took two weeks.

The BBC also said that Maliki's coalition party had come in second in the voting.

The recount confirms the two-seat parliamentary lead of Maliki's challenger Iyad Allawi and is compatible with the original results announced in March.