Iraq war

(Newser) - American combat deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq fell to their lowest level last month since the US began fighting two wars, USA Today reports. Combat claimed 11 lives, and 7 others perished in non-combat incidents. Commanders credited major security improvements in Iraq for statistics there, but warned that the situation was more complex in Afghanistan. More »

(Newser) - A lawsuit filed against Halliburton and KBR accuses the military contractors of exposing troops and civilian workers on a US base in Iraq to spoiled food, contaminated water, and toxic fumes from a burn pit, the Military Times reports. The lead plaintiff in the suit said he still has nightmares after seeing a wild dog roaming the base with a human arm in its mouth after KBR dumped medical waste in a trash fire instead of a medical incinerator. More »

(AP) - Suicide bombers struck today near a Baghdad police academy and in Mosul against a joint US-Iraqi patrol, together killing 31 people, Iraqi officials said. In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside the heavily fortified academy. Minutes later, a suicide attacker blew himself up as police rushed to respond to the blast. Sixteen people were killed and 45 were wounded, police said. More »

(AP) - Iraq's parliament today passed a security pact with the US that lets American troops stay in the country for 3 more years. The ruling coalition's Shiite and Kurdish blocs as well as the largest Sunni Arab bloc backed the "yes" vote, the AP reports. The parliament speaker said an "overwhelming majority" lawmakers present voted in favor. PM Nouri al-Maliki appeared to have won the comfortable majority he sought to give the agreement additional legitimacy. More »

(Newser) - Ratification this week of a deal that would put an expiration date on the US deployment in Iraq stands to boost the prestige of PM Nouri al-Maliki, who in recent months has consolidated his power in moves that echo previous authoritarian regimes. As one Western observer tells the Los Angeles Times , Maliki is poised to become “a benevolent Shiite Saddam.” More »

(Newser) - A female suicide bomber killed at least five people at the entrance of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, and a second bomb killed 13 women traveling on a bus to their government jobs, reports Al Jazeera. The attacks came as Iraqi legislators prepare to vote this week on a security agreement with the US allowing American troops to remain in Iraq for up to three more years. More »

(Newser) - Iraq may be able to prosecute US contractors for misdeeds committed when they were thought to be operating under American immunity, McClatchy reports. The new security pact doesn’t block such retroactive legal action, news that came as a surprise to Blackwater, whose contractors have been involved in the most high-profile incidents. "We are still trying to make sense of it," said a company spokeswoman. More »

(Newser) - The will-he-won’t-she dance of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is drawing all the attention, but, writes Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal , that’s not the most important Cabinet pick. Instead we ought to watch whether Obama does the right thing and asks Defense Secretary Robert Gates to stick around. “He is a bipartisan figure of respect—truly an object of across-the-board admiration,” Noonan writes. More »

(Newser) - One of Britain's most respected judges struck out last night against the invasion of Iraq, which he declared illegal and worthy of a "world vigilante." Thomas Bingham, who held the UK's equivalent post to chief justice, used his first speech since retirement to decry "a serious violation of international law and the rule of law." More »

(Newser) - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is "comfortable" with the new US-Iraq security pact scheduling the start of an American troop pullout next year, but believes some major hurdles still exist, the Washington Post reports. Admiral Michael Mullen cautioned that the US has huge amounts of equipment and thousands of troops within the country, and it will likely take up to three years to get everything out of the nation safely. More »

(Newser) - A change in US military policy in Iraq has endangered some of its more useful local allies: Iraqi interpreters. Since September, translators have no longer been allowed to wear masks while on the job, something they say is necessary to protect their identities from extremists who target them as traitors, the Washington Post reports. More »

(Newser) - Small explosives dubbed "sticky IEDs" are contributing to a growing feeling of unease in Baghdad, the New York Times reports. The fist-sized bombs attached to magnets or adhesives are hard to detect, easy for a furtive bomber to put in place and have become the weapon of choice for militants thwarted by tighter security in their efforts to plant bigger bombs. More »

(Newser) - The government will hit security firm Blackwater USA with a multimillion-dollar fine for shipping hundreds of unauthorized guns to Iraq, McClatchy reports. A lengthy State Department investigation has concluded that the security contractor shipped some 900 weapons to the country—some of which likely wound up on the black market—without necessary permits, sources say. More »

(Newser) - Joe Biden’s son Beau, 39, will be sent to Iraq by Thanksgiving, Politico reports. Beau Biden, a captain in the Delaware National Guard and also the state’s attorney general, will leave Fort Bliss, Texas, for the Middle East in the next two weeks with the rest of Delaware’s 261st Tactical Theater Signal Brigade. More »

(Newser) - At least 28 people are dead and another 68 injured after two bombs exploded in quick succession in Baghdad this morning in the same spot, CNN reports. The first bomb detonated in a parked car just outside a marketplace, and a suicide bomber set off the second blast amid the crowd of onlookers who gathered to watch the scene. Al-Qaeda is suspected to be behind the attack, the deadliest in the city in four months. More »

(Newser) - A wave of optimism in the wake of Barack Obama's victory is causing a shift in Iraqi politics, the New York Times reports. Shiite politicians are signaling that they're more prepared now to sign a new security agreement with the US. They believe Obama will speed the pace of withdrawal, and trust him to respect the timetable. An agreement could be signed before the end of the month. More »