Iraq

Iraqi president undergoes heart operation in US

Baghdad - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani underwent an operation on his heart valve in the US, the Iraqi news agency Aswat al-Iraq reported late on Thursday, citing the president's office in Baghda

Explosion kills two policemen, injures six in Iraq's Diyala

Explosion kills two policemen, injures six in Iraq's Diyala Baghdad - A blast targeting a police patrol in Iraq's restive Diyala province killed two policemen and injured six people, a security source said Thursday.

The bomb struck a police patrol in Baquba, the capital of Diyala, located some 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, an anonymous security source told Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Diyala, which has witnessed a major military operation in recent weeks, has been a safe haven for anti-US insurgents, mainly the Islamic State of Iraq, also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq.

US troops will pull out in three years, says Iraqi Minister

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar ZebariLondon, Aug. 14: All US combat troops will leave Iraq within three years, provided the violence remains low, under the terms of a draft agreement with the Iraqi Government.

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari also told The Times that the US military would be barred from unilaterally mounting attacks inside Iraq from next year.

In addition, he said that the power of arrest for US soldiers would be curbed by the need to hand over any detainee to a new, US-Iraqi committee.

Tribal police leader escapes assassination attempt in Iraq

Baghdad - A tribal police leader escaped an assassination attempt on Wednesday when a car bomb went off targeting his motorcade in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a police source said.

Abdel Karim Nasief, director of Multaqa district, was west of Kirkuk when an bomb-laden car struck his motorcade, injuring him and three of his security men, a police source told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

Tribal police, also known as "Awakening Councils," are US-backed Sunni units formed to fight militants from the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq.

Tribal leaders who were tired of al-Qaeda's indiscriminate killings and austere version of Islam collaborated with the US military to fight the terrorist organization.

Iraq's archaeological sites at risk due to neglect, not looting

Washington, August 13: A new survey of eight of the most important archaeological sites in the south of Iraq has indicated that neglect, not looting, threatens the sites.

According to a report in National Geographic News, an international team of scholars who visited the historic sites in June found no obvious evidence of recent looting.

The findings came as a surprise to antiquities experts and scholars who had expected continued destruction of Iraqi heritage sites after the US invaded in 2003.

"We didn't see any new looting at the eight sites, which was really very, very encouraging," said team member Elizabeth Stone, a Mesopotamia specialist from Stony Brook University in New York.

Jordan to buy Iraqi crude at higher discount, minister says

Amman  - The Iraqi government has agreed to raise the discount offered to Jordan on crude oil from Kirkuk to 22 dollars per barrel, Energy Minister Khaldoun Qteishat said Tuesday.

Under a deal signed between the two countries two years ago, Iraq agreed to sell Jordan crude oil at a preferential price of 18 dollars lower than the world market price.

Iraqi oil supplies to Jordan were high on the agenda of King Abdullah II's whirlwind visit to Baghdad on Monday, when he became the first Arab head of state to visit Iraq since the downfall of the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein five years ago.

Pages