Sunni

More than 7,000 Syrian refugees return from Iraq

Baghdad: More than 7,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq have crossed back to the rebel-held Syrian border town of Albu Kamal in recent weeks due to better security there, an Iraqi official said on Sunday.

The reverse flow coincides with a lull in battles and air raids by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military, which has been on the offensive elsewhere in Syria, especially in the western town of Qusair, around Damascus and in the south.

The mayor of the Iraqi border town of al-Qaim said 7,000 out of 11,000 Syrian refugees hosted there had returned home.

"Each week, we receive refugee requests to go back to their towns across the border, they are freely going back," Farhan Ftaikhan told Reuters by telephone....more    

Iraq says it has captured al Qaeda chemical gas team

Baghdad: Iraq has captured a suspected al Qaeda cell that planned to produce chemical poisons such as mustard gas to attack Iraqi forces and to ship overseas for attacks on Europe and the United States, the government said on Saturday. The announcement was made as investigators look into allegations over the use of sarin nerve gas in next-door Syria where rebels and President Bashar al-Assad's forces have blamed each other...  

Iraq violence: Baghdad bomb attacks leave 25 dead

Baghdad: A series of bombs battered Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 25 people in the worst wave of sectarian violence since civil war five years ago. The bloodletting reflects increasing conflict between Iraq's majority Shi'ite leadership and the Sunni minority, many of whom feel unfairly marginalized since the 2003 fall of strongman Saddam Hussein, a Sunni. The latest surge in violence began in...  

Iraq violence: Baghdad bomb attacks leave 27 dead

Baghdad: Car bombs and roadside explosions hit mainly Sunni Muslim districts of the Iraqi capital and a northern city on Wednesday, killing at least 27 people. The bombings were the latest in a wave of attacks since April that has intensified fears Iraq is sliding into the kind of sectarian conflict that killed thousands in 2006-2007. Two car bombs and a roadside bomb exploded near busy markets in southwestern and...  

Attacks in Iraq kill over 40, sectarian tensions high

Baghdad: A series of bomb and gun attacks across Iraq killed more than 40 people on Tuesday, a day after over 70 died in violence targeting majority Shi'ites that has stoked fears of all-out sectarian war with minority Sunnis. Nearly 300 people have been killed in the past week as sectarian tensions, fuelled by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, threaten to plunge Iraq back into communal bloodletting. Ten years...  

Iraq: Wave of attacks kills at least 86 in Shiite and Sunni areas

Baghdad: A wave of attacks killed at least 86 people in Shiite and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, officials said, pushing the death toll over the past week to more than 230 and extending one of the most sustained bouts of sectarian violence the country has seen in years. The bloodshed is still far shy of the pace, scale and brutality of the dark days of 2006-2007, when Sunni...  

Iraq: Series of car bombs kills at least 31

Baghdad: At least 20 people were killed by a series of car bombs in mainly Shiite districts of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on Monday and 11 others were killed by attacks in the southern city of Basra, police and medics said. Scores of people have been killed in attacks over the past week as tensions between minority Sunni Muslims and Shiites who now lead Iraq have reached their highest level...  

Iraq: Two blasts outside Sunni Muslim mosque kill 76

Baghdad: Bombs struck Sunni areas in Baghdad and surrounding areas on Friday, killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months, officials said, as a spike in violence has raised fears the country could be on the path to a new round of sectarian bloodshed. The attacks in Baghdad and surrounding areas pushed the three-day Iraqi death toll to 130, including Shiites at...  

Iraq: Two blasts outside Sunni Muslim mosque kill 43

Baquba: Two bombs exploded outside a Sunni Muslim mosque in the Iraqi city of Baquba as worshippers left Friday prayers, killing at least 43 people in one of the deadliest attacks in a month-long surge in sectarian violence. Several other bombings claimed lives around the country - with 19 killed near a commercial complex in the west of Baghdad, as mounting violence intensified fears of a return to all-out civil...  

US panel calls Pakistan world's worst violator of religious freedom

Washington: A panel in the United States has asked the government to continue its visa ban on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The same report has deemed Pakistan the world's worst violator of religious freedom. The report demanded that Pakistan be designated a country of particular concern. The report has also cited Afghanistan as being very poor for dissenting Sunni Muslims, Shias, Sikhs, Hindus and Christians. It also says that...  

Iraq: Series of blasts kill at least 20 across Baghdad

Baghdad: Bomb blasts in Baghdad killed at least 20 more people on Friday at the end of a week of bloodshed that prompted a United Nations envoy to warn Iraq was "at a crossroads". More than 160 people have been killed since Tuesday, when troops stormed a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk, triggering clashes that quickly spread to other Sunni areas in western and northern provinces. Although well below the...  

Nearly 50 killed as sectarian violence flares in Iraq

Baghdad: Nearly 50 people were killed in clashes on Thursday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, sources said, on the third day of the most widespread violence in Iraq since US troops withdrew in December 2011. More than 100 people have been killed in fighting since Tuesday, when troops stormed a Sunni protest camp, triggering clashes that quickly spread to other Sunni areas in western and northern provinces. Thousands...  

Iraq: Series of explosions kill 22, injure dozens

A series of bombings struck Baghdad and towns south of the Iraqi capital on Thursday, killing at least 22 and wounding dozens in areas that are home to mostly Muslim Shiites - the latest evidence of rising sectarian discord in Iraq. The attackers struck a day before tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims are expected to take to the streets in what have become weekly protests against the Shiite-led government...  

Pakistan: Government spokesman shot dead

Police say gunmen killed a provincial government spokesman in southwest Pakistan in an apparent sectarian attack and then shot to death two nearby policemen. Police official Hamid Shakeel says the attackers shot dead Khadim Hussain Noori on Monday in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. ...  

Iraq blasts, shootings kill 32, wound scores

Baghdad: A dozen bombings and shooting attacks killed at least 32 people across Iraq on Thursday, underscoring the country's struggle to stamp out a stubborn insurgency more than seven months after the US military withdrew. In the worst blast, at least 11 people were killed and more than 40 wounded when a car bomb exploded near an ice cream shop in Baghdad's Sadr City neighbourhood as Iraqis ended daily fasting...  

Attacks across Iraq kill 107, injure hundreds

Baghdad: At least 107 people were killed in bomb and gun attacks in Iraq on Monday, a day after 20 died in explosions, in a coordinated surge of violence against mostly Shi'ite Muslim targets. The bloodshed, which coincided with an intensifying of the conflict in neighboring Syria, pointed up the deficiencies of the Iraqi security forces, which failed to prevent insurgents from striking in multiple locations across the country. As...  

Iraq: Car bombs targeting Shi'ite pilgrims kill 70

Baghdad: Bombers struck at Shi'ite pilgrims celebrating a religious festival in Baghdad and across Iraq on Wednesday, killing more than 70 people in one of the bloodiest days since the last US troops left the country in December. The bombings appeared to be the work of Sunni insurgents who often hit Shi'ite targets to try to reignite the intercommunal violence that killed tens of thousands of people in 2006-2007. With...  

Wave of bombings across Iraqi capital kills 69

Baghdad: A wave of 16 bombings ripped across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 69 people in the worst violence in Iraq for months. The apparently coordinated attacks struck days after the last American forces left the country and in the midst of a major government crisis between Shiite and Sunni politicians that has sent sectarian tensions soaring. The bombings may be linked more to the US withdrawal than the...  

Bombs in Iraq market kill 19, wound scores

Iraq: Three bombs exploded in a busy market in Iraq's southern oil city of Basra on Thursday, killing at least 19 people and wounding 65. Basra, 420 km (240 miles) southeast of Baghdad, is the largest city in the mainly Shi'ite south and the heart of Iraq's oil industry. It hosts a major conference for international oil executives and industry officials starting on Friday. The first bomb was hidden in...  

Bombs hit police in Baghdad, 14 dead: sources

Baghdad: Two suicide car bombers and a car bomb hit police in separate districts of the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people and wounding around 60, interior ministry and police sources said. One bomber rammed an explosives-filled car into a police station in central Alwiya district, killing 6 people including four policemen, and another bomber blew up his car outside a police building in northwestern Hurriya...