(BAGHDAD) — The U.S. on Wednesday ordered all nonessential government staff to leave Iraq, and Germany and the Netherlands both suspended their military assistance programs in the country in the latest sign of tensions sweeping the Persian Gulf region over still-unspecified threats that the Trump administration says are linked to Iran. Recent days have seen allegations of sabotage targeting oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a drone attack by Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthi rebels, and the dispatch…

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s Commission of Integrity on Monday revealed corruption marred contracts between the state-run Basra Oil Company and two international firms over the purchase of loading arms.  The contracts between the parties valued the purchase of loading arms at a total of $126 million, while the actual price should not have exceeded $40 million, the commission said in a statement, of which Kurdistan 24 received a copy. The statement did not specify the name of the two international companies…

BAGHDAD — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a lightning visit to Baghdad on Tuesday to show U.S. support for the Iraqi government as Washington steps up warnings to Iran against any action against American interests in the Middle East. The unannounced trip began and ended after nightfall and under heavy security. Pompeo’s visit came as the Trump administration is intensifying its pressure campaign against Iran. The U.S. said this week that it is rushing an aircraft carrier group to…

Political forces in Nineveh continued to exchange corruption and bribery accusations, despite being close to agreeing on a new governor for the governorate to replace Noufal Akkoub.Akkoub was dismissed by parliament on charges of corruption after the deadly Mosul ferry sinking that killed dozens of people in March.Nineveh MP Mansour al-Mareed, of al-Ataa coalition led by Faleh al-Fayyad, accused Axis Coalition MP Falah Hassan Zeidan of corruption. Mareed issued a statement saying that he has been trying to remove the Nineveh…

WASHINGTON — Senior American officials said on Monday that new threats by Iran against United States troops in Iraq were behind the sudden deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and Air Force bombers to the Persian Gulf. The White House and Pentagon made the decision after seeing intelligence that showed new activity on the part of Iranian-aligned forces since Friday, said two senior officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Additionally, one official noted new concerns in waterways where…

COPENHAGEN — An estimated 45,000 children in Iraq who were born under the rule of the Islamic State group are being excluded from society because the government denies them documentation and ID papers, an international charity said Tuesday. Jan Egeland, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s secretary general, is warning that these children — most of whom are in camps for the displaced today — are a “possible human time-bomb.” “Undocumented children risk remaining left on the margins of society if this…

In the few days following an Iraqi civilian self-immolating when walking out of one of Baghdad’s civil offices, a young groom attempted taking his own life in the Southern Maysan Governorate, prompting a serious social and public discussion to address the rise of suicidal tendencies in Iraq. Reports have documented at least 131 suicide attempts having been made across the Middle Eastern country since the start of 2019.As a counteractive measure, a proposal has been put forth to curb the hiking…

Some 132 people Iraqis have committed suicide during the first three months of 2019, the High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) announced yesterday. In an official study, IHCHR said that Iraq’s central city of Karbala had registered the highest suicide rates, with around 20 people committing suicide. “Twenty suicides were committed in the Iraqi province of Karbala, 19 in Basra, 15 in Kirkuk, and 14 in Dhi Qar,” the rights organisation pointed out. Sixteen years after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq…

Iraqi officers have continued to torture detainees in the country's second largest city of Mosul, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday. HRW documented new torture allegations early this year at the Faisaliya prison in northern Iraq, around six months after publishing a report on what it said were "chilling" abuses there and in two nearby facilities. The rights group said it had reached out about last year's allegations to the Iraqi prime minister's office, the foreign ministry and the interior ministry,…

CAIRO – 17 April 2019: Speaking to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)-run Tasnin news agency, Sheik Mo'ein Daqiq said on Tuesday that the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has called upon all young Lebanese and members of the armed group to join Iranian Armed forces, "jihadi" elements, and Iranian Red Crescent to help the flood-hit Iranians. "Currently, a significant number of young Lebanese are involved in relief operations across Iran, while many more are on their way to the flood-stricken…