Middle East News

Turkish warplanes bomb PKK targets in Iraq

AP - 4 minutes ago

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's military says its warplanes have bombed 12 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq.

  • A Palestinian gunman from the Islamic group Hamas stands guard, during the funeral for five Hamas militants killed in an explosion, in Gaza City,Saturday, July 26, 2008. A powerful explosion ripped through a car on a busy Gaza City beach Friday night, killing five Hamas militants and a six year old girl and injuring 20, Hamas security officials said. It was the third mysterious blast of the day in Gaza after a relatively calm period that has followed a cease-fire between Israel and the territory's Islamic Hamas rulers. Hamas security arrested dozens of supporters of the rival Fatah group Saturday, and hurled grenades at the home of one Fatah leader and set up checkpoints across Gaza, Palestinian sources said. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
    Hamas says militant killed in West Bank AP - 1 hour, 10 minutes ago

    HEBRON, West Bank - Israeli troops killed a Hamas militant in the West Bank town of Hebron early Sunday, according to a statement from the Islamic group and Palestinian officials.

  • Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) spokewoman Sozdar Avesta carries an assault rifle in Mount Qandil in northern Iraq July 13. Turkey carried out fresh air strikes in the early hours of Sunday on Kurdish rebel positions inside northern Iraq, the Turkish military announced.(AFP/File/Shwan Mohammed)
    In Iraq, car bomb wounds local Sunni politician AP - 2 hours, 16 minutes ago

    BAGHDAD - Police say a car bomb attack wounded a member of a Sunni political party and his son and killed two of his bodyguards.

  • State TV report: Iran hangs 29 convicts AP - Sun Jul 27, 12:55 AM ET

    TEHRAN, Iran - State television's Web site says 29 people convicted of murder, drug trafficking and other criminal charges have been hanged in Tehran's Evin prison.

  • In this Thursday, April 10, 2008 file photo, Gen. David Petraeus, left, listens to Ambassador Ryan Crocker, right, during a news conference in Washington. The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File)
    Analysis: US now winning Iraq war that seemed lost AP - Sat Jul 26, 10:45 PM ET

    BAGHDAD - The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost. Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace — a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.

  • The top U.S. Commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, talks to Iraqi police and army commanders during a patrol with the Second Stryker Cavalry Regiment in Muqdadiyah, in the Diyala province July 26, 2008. Sunni Islamist al Qaeda has sought to stoke tensions in Iraq's ethnically and religiously mixed northern cities, such as Diyala and Mosul, after military campaigns pushed its militants out of former strongholds in western Anbar province and Baghdad. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj (IRAQ)
    US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,124 AP - Sat Jul 26, 7:34 PM ET

    As of Saturday, July 26, 2008, at least 4,124 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

  • US military: Iraq inmates imposed Islamic justice AP - Sat Jul 26, 5:59 PM ET

    BAGHDAD - For years, extremist Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody held self-styled Islamic courts and tortured or killed inmates who refused to join them, military officials said, disclosing new details about the use of American prisons to recruit for the insurgency.

  • Vice President and head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, addresses the media following talks with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday July 24, 2008. These talks come less than a week after a meeting between a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator and the six world powers ended with no progress. (AP/Hans Punz)
    Report: Iran now has 6,000 centrifuges for uranium AP - Sat Jul 26, 5:37 PM ET

    TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's president said Saturday his country now possesses 6,000 centrifuges, a significant increase in its nuclear program that is certain to further rankle the United States and others who fear Tehran is intent on developing weapons.

  • A Palestinian Hamas police officer stands guard as others inspect a damaged car following an explosion in Gaza City, Friday, July 25, 2008. A powerful explosion ripped through a car on a busy Gaza City beach Friday night, killing three and injuring 20, Hamas security officials said. It was the third mysterious blast of the day in Gaza after a relatively calm period that has followed a cease-fire between Israel and the territory's Islamic Hamas rulers. No one in Gaza blamed Israel for Friday's violence and it is likely a result of internal Palestinian battles.(AP Photo/ Ashraf Amra)
    Fatah activists detained in Gaza AP - Sat Jul 26, 2:42 PM ET

    GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas security arrested about 200 supporters of the rival Fatah group, hurled grenades at the home of a Fatah leader and set up checkpoints across Gaza on Saturday after a mysterious beachside blast that killed five Hamas members and a 6-year-old girl.

  • Clashes continue in northern Lebanon, 3 die AP - Sat Jul 26, 9:05 AM ET

    BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese security officials say three people have been killed in the second day of sectarian clashes in northern Lebanon.

  • Unexplained explosions kill 5, wound 20 in Gaza AP - Fri Jul 25, 6:10 PM ET

    GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A powerful explosion ripped through a car on a busy Gaza City beach Friday night, killing a Hamas field commander and three other people, security officials said.

  • Chinese girls show each other their forms moments before the opening ceremony for the Athletes village in Beijing Sunday, July 27, 2008. The opening came on a hot muggy morning, made more uncomfortable by the thick haze of pollution hanging over the village, which is to house about 16,000 Olympic athletes. (AP Photo/ Elizabeth Dalziel)
    Iraq talks on Olympic ban, but says no compromise AP - Fri Jul 25, 5:44 PM ET

    BAGHDAD - Iraq's banned Olympic Committee has opened negotiations to try to regain its place in next month's Beijing Games after being shut out for political interference in Olympic affairs, a government spokesman said Friday.

  • In this Thursday, July, 24, 2008 file photo, U.S. Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., places a not in the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in Jerusalem's Old City. A written prayer that Barack Obama left this week in the cracks of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, asking God to guide him and guard his family was published Friday in an Israeli paper.'Lord _Protect my family and me,' the Democratic presidential candidate wrote in the note published in the Maariv daily. 'Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.' (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehil,File)
    Israeli newspaper publishes Obama's private prayer AP - Fri Jul 25, 4:26 PM ET

    JERUSALEM - An Israeli newspaper's decision to publish a handwritten prayer left by Barack Obama in the cracks of Jerusalem's Western Wall drew criticism Friday as an invasion of his privacy and his relationship with God.

  • Ali Saleem Badran, 2nd left, a blast wall artist, looks at a blast wall painting in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, July 23, 2008. This art ornaments life with murals of soothing landscapes and historical heroes covering the blast walls that are now as much a part of Baghdad's cityscape as date palms and desert dust. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
    Baghdad muralists resist push for sectarian themes AP - Fri Jul 25, 1:39 PM ET

    BAGHDAD - It's art ornamenting life: murals of soothing landscapes and historical heroes covering the blast walls that are now as much a part of Baghdad's cityscape as date palms and desert dust.

  • In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI shakes hands with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the pontiff's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo south of Rome, Friday, July 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Francesco Sforza, L'Osservatore Romano)
    Pope Benedict urges help for Iraqi Christians AP - Fri Jul 25, 11:34 AM ET

    VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI urged the world to help Iraqis who have fled their country and called for better protection for Christians inside Iraq during talks Friday with Iraq's prime minister, the Vatican said.

  • Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures as he speaks during a news conference after the Eight Developing Islamic Nations summit in Kuala Lumpur July 8, 2008. Iran is running more than 5,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium, its president was quoted as saying on Saturday, in comments suggesting continued expansion of work the West fears is aimed at making bombs. (Zainal Abd Halim/Reuters)
    Iran to increase cooperation with IAEA AP - Fri Jul 25, 5:15 AM ET

    VIENNA, Austria - A senior envoy said Friday that Iran wants to expand its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but said the IAEA should not be cast as a "U.N. watchdog" looking for signs of secret nuclear weapons programs.