The white-haired, 61-year old exile has come to the hospital to see the refugees from Syria. He used to be a diehard Ba'athist Party member back in that country. But when some Baathists split in the 1980s, he joined the faction associated with the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Eventually, he abandoned it in disgust and chose to live in southern Turkey. For the past 20 years, he has lived away from politics. But now, the trim, mustachioed ...

The death of Osama bin Laden comes at a time when al-Qaeda in Iraq has been shifting strategies in an effort to recoup from years of setbacks. A source within the security department of the Iraqi government tells TIME that according to Baghdad's intelligence work, "Al-Qaeda is setting up new plans in Iraq — changes in their leadership and locations, moving them from south to north, from one city to another. That makes us more worried that ...

For years, Iraq's increasingly pro-Iranian government has threatened to evict the 3,400 Iranian members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq , a fiercely anti-Tehran group, from its sprawling former military base at Camp Ashraf, some 40 miles from Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, and 50 miles from the Iranian border. Despite the heated rhetoric, however, Baghdad has never fully articulated how it will uproot the exiles — who refuse to leave their decades-old enclave — beyond saying it ...

The force of the blast threw Rawnaq against the wall of her office at the Ministry of Justice. She instantly thought of her two children in the day care center just two floors below."The government What is it doing for us" she yelled. "Nothing, what have they done We have been widowed; we have orphans, car bombs, theft. What have they done for us Elections are coming up and they want us to vote, why would we" The blasts have ...

The death toll from twin car bombings in Baghdad climbed to 160, with hundreds more wounded in the deadliest attack in the capital in more than two years, the Interior Ministry said Monday.U.S. President Barack Obama called the attacks an attempt to derail progress in Iraq, and pledged to work closely with the country as it prepares for elections. Obama spoke with the prime minister and President Jalal Talabani to express his condolences and reiterate U.S. support. In August, ...

At least 65 people were killed and 420 wounded in a double bombing in central Baghdad on Sunday morning, officials said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki heads to the White House on Tuesday to meet President Barack Obama with the need for a timely election in Iraq dogging him. Waves of destabilizing violence across the country are feared if the January 16 parliamentary election is delayed. "Any attempt to postpone the coming election will lead to a constitutional vacuum that this country will face, because the current Iraqi parliament will lose its legitimacy after January 16, 2010, which will cause a ...

The bombings, shootings and fighting across Iraq in nearly five years of war have left more than 85,000 Iraqis dead, a government ministry said in a report. The Iraqi Human Rights Ministry said 85,694 people were killed from 2004 to October 31, 2008, in the violence across the country. There were 147,195 people wounded during the same period. The figures include civilians and Iraqi security forces but not insurgents and militias. The review is considered the first official report ...

It isn't clear whether the United States will ever be able to declare victory in Iraq, the top U.S. commander there said Thursday. "I'm not sure we will ever see anyone declare victory in Iraq, because first off, I'm not sure we'll know for 10 years or five years," Army Gen. Ray Odierno told reporters at the Pentagon. About 123,000 U.S. troops are in Iraq now, and President Obama says all combat forces will be gone by the end of ...

At least eight members of an Iraqi family were killed and a child was wounded Wednesday in a bombing in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, local police said.