Deutsche Welle - "Islamic State" militants have captured a military training camp in western Iraq as they move to completely take over Anbar province. Blasts were also reported in the outskirts of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Jihadist militants from the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" (IS) on Monday seized an army base near the Iraqi town of Hit, local media and witnesses reported. Iraqi soldiers were forced to withdraw from the area after hours of clashes with the militants, the Al-Mada Press…

Baghdad (AFP) - Shiite militias backed by the Iraqi army are committing war crimes against civilians in their fightback against the Islamic State jihadist group, rights watchdog Amnesty International said Tuesday. It accused the Baghdad government of supporting and arming groups of Shiite fighters who have carried out a string of kidnappings and killings against Sunni civilians in response to IS's lightning capture of swathes of Iraqi territory in June. Amnesty said it had seen evidence of "scores" of "deliberate…

Amnesty International - Shi’a militias, supported and armed by the government of Iraq, have abducted and killed scores of Sunni civilians in recent months and enjoy total impunity for these war crimes, said Amnesty International in a new briefing published today. Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq provides harrowing details of sectarian attacks carried out by increasingly powerful Shi’a militias in Baghdad, Samarra and Kirkuk, apparently in revenge for attacks by the armed group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS). Scores…

AFP, Cairo - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday it was ultimately up to Iraqis to fight back against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group advancing in Iraq despite U.S.-led airstrikes."Over time we believe that the strategy will build, the capacity will build, Daesh will become more isolated," he said, referring to ISIS militants by its acronym in Arabic. "But ultimately it is Iraqis who will have to take back Iraq. It is Iraqis in Anbar who…

Middle East Online, BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed the police chief of Iraq's battleground province of Anbar Sunday, officials said, after the Pentagon expressed concern about a renewed offensive by jihadists in the area. The attack came near the provincial capital of Ramadi, one of the few areas between Baghdad and the Syrian border not controlled by fighters loyal to the Islamic State group, provincial and police officials said. "Major General Ahmed Saddag was killed by an IED (improvised…

BAGHDAD / NINA / A source, close to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Abadi, revealed that he started a campaign to root out corrupt elements, which are suspected of corruption from state institutions. The source said: "Abadi is determined, within the reforms he plans to do, to build a state of institutions and eliminate administrative and financial corruption in government departments, and open an investigation with the corrupted , and the committees will be charged by him to detect abuses and suspicions…

Baghdad (AIN) - Not long after American forces defeated the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein in 2003, caravans of trucks began to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on a regular basis, unloading an unusual cargo — pallets of shrink-wrapped $100 bills. The cash, withdrawn from Iraqi government accounts held in the United States, was loaded onto Air Force C-17 transport planes bound for Baghdad, where the Bush administration hoped it would provide a quick financial infusion for Iraq’s new…

Baghdad (AFP) - The Islamic State group has executed at least four women, including two doctors and a politician, in their northern Iraq strongholds this month, relatives and rights activists said on Saturday. In the IS hub of Mosul, the jihadists executed three women on Wednesday including two doctors, Hanaa Edwar, a human rights activist who heads the Al-Amal organisation, said. A medical source in Mosul confirmed their deaths and named the two doctors as Maha Sabhan and Lamia Ismail.…

-Euronews- While the world’s attention has been on ISIL battling to take the Syrian town of Kobani, Iraqi officials in the country’s western Anbar province say they are desperate for help. The region’s provincial council says the area could soon fall to extremists. It has sent a request to the Iraqi government asking for US ground troops to help them, according to an Iraqi TV channel. If ISIL succeed in taking Anbar it would give them control of a stretch of territory across much…

-Al Jazeera- At least 50 people have been killed and scores more wounded in a series of bombs in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, medical and police officials said. At least 38 people were killed in two car bombings in Shia-dominated areas of western Baghdad on Saturday night. A third blast caused by a suicide bomber killed another 12 people and injured 40 others. Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad, said the explosions happened within minutes of each other and…