AUSTRALIA-IRAQ: Troops Withdraw, Howard Comes Under Fire

The withdrawal of Australian combat troops from Iraq is coinciding with a push to have the man responsible for the country’s participation in the "coalition of the willing", former prime minister John Howard, indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes.

IRAQ: The Love Stories Are Gone

As statistics go, at least 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the occupation, now in its fifth year. Every one of them has left behind once loved ones to mourn the loss and to think of what might have been.

MIGRATION: Int’l Community Failing Iraqi Refugees

The international community, especially the United States, has depicted a "false picture of the security situation" in Iraq in order to encourage refugees to return to a country where the situation is still "too dire", said Amnesty International, a prestigious London-based rights group, in a statement Friday.

POLITICS-US: Bush Pledges on Iraq Bases Pact Were a Ruse

Two key pledges made by the George W. Bush administration on military bases in its negotiations with the government of Iraq have now been revealed as carefully-worded ruses aimed at concealing U.S. negotiating aims from both U.S. citizens and Iraqis who would object to them if they were made clear.

BOOKS-IRAQ: The Fruit of a Poisonous Tree

For those seeking different and deeper reasons why Iraq ended up where it is today, other than the often-cited but somewhat clichéd list of blunders like the disbanding of the Iraqi army and dissolving of the Baath party, Jonathan Steele's "Defeat: Why America and Britain Lost Iraq" is a must-read.

IRAQ: ‘Special Weapons’ Have a Fallout on Babies

Babies born in Fallujah are showing illnesses and deformities on a scale never seen before, doctors and residents say.

POLITICS: Al-Maliki’s Balancing Act Leaves Iran Cool

As Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sought to alleviate neighbouring Iran's increasing concerns about a security deal between his country and the United States, he strove to keep a delicate balance with the two countries which are vying for hegemony over Iraq.

US/IRAN: Fearing Escalation, Pentagon Fought Cheney Plan

Pentagon officials firmly opposed a proposal by Vice President Dick Cheney last summer for airstrikes against Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases by insisting that the administration would have to make clear decisions about how far the United States would go in escalating the conflict with Iran, according to a former George W. Bush administration official.

POLITICS-US: Senate Finds Pre-War Bush Claims Exaggerated, False

Claims by U.S. President George W. Bush and other top administration officials before the 2003 invasion of Iraq regarding Baghdad's ties to al Qaeda and its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programmes were generally not supported by the evidence that the U.S. intelligence community had at the time, according to a major new report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released Thursday.

IRAQ: Animals Too Struggle for Survival

Amidst the huge and growing death toll, it has been easy to forget that animals, in their own way, are finding it hard to survive in Iraq.

POLITICS-IRAQ: Possible Deal on Kirkuk Could Be a Stabiliser

A possible breakthrough over the fate of the contentious Iraqi province of Kirkuk appears to be underway, which could be a significant source of relief for the United States as it is trying hard to stabilise the country.

POLITICS-US: Winter Soldiers Hit the Streets

In a clear change of strategy to energise public anti-war sentiment, Iraq veterans led a determined demonstration of hundreds through the streets of downtown Seattle last Saturday, following regional Winter Soldier hearings at the Seattle Town Hall.

US/IRAQ: "Enough Is Enough, It's Time to Get Out"

Dozens of veterans from the U.S. occupation of Iraq converged in this west coast city over the weekend to share stories of atrocities being committed daily in Iraq, in a continuation of the "Winter Soldier" hearings held in Silver Spring, Maryland in March.

POLITICS-US: How Cheney Outfoxed His Foes on Iran and EFPs

For many months, the propaganda line that explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) that could penetrate U.S. armoured vehicles were coming straight from Iran has been embraced publicly by the entire George W. Bush administration. But when that argument was proposed internally by military officials in January 2007, it was attacked by key administration officials as unsupported by the facts.

IRAQ: Death Toll 'Above Highest Estimates'

The real number of the dead is far higher than even the highest declared in death tolls, many Iraqis say.

POLITICS: Who Will Make Peace for the Peacemaker?

An intensifying fight between Turkey and a reorganised Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) threatens to introduce a new element of instability to the Middle East at a time when some of the most chronic crises in the region are taken on by regional actors, ironically with Turkey itself playing a key role as a peace mediator.

CORRECTED REPEAT*/POLITICS: US-Iraq Deals Overshadowed by Rising Concerns

Iraqi parliamentarians are increasingly concerned that they are being left out of talks between Iraqi and U.S. officials over a strategic deal to determine the future relationship between the two countries, at a time when the U.S. Congress failed to include a provision in a bill to fund the Iraq and Afghan wars last week to restrict President George W. Bush's authority to sign such deals.

IRAQ: Through Occupation, The Very Dreams Change

After more than five years of U.S. occupation, the very dreams of the people of Baquba have changed. For a start, they are no longer about the future.

POLITICS-US: Senate Passes No-Strings War Funding Bill

While the future commander of U.S. military operations throughout South Asia and the Middle East assured lawmakers Thursday that the situation in Iraq is continuing to improve, the U.S. Senate approved an additional 165 billion dollars today to fund wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan at least through next winter.

POLITICS: Report Challenges Orthodoxy on Global Terror

A comprehensive new study from the Canadian research team that produced the Human Security Report in 2005 challenges the expert consensus that global terrorism is increasing.

POLITICS: Where Are Those Iranian Weapons in Iraq?

The U.S. military command in Iraq continues to talk about an alleged pipeline of Iranian weapons to Iraqi Shiites opposing the U.S. occupation, implying that they have become dependent on Iran for indirect-fire weapons and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).