top news - "iraq"

A Marriott International official said yesterday that the company was evaluating whether to open a hotel in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, responding to a request from U.S. government officials who are eager to help revive iraq with foreign investment and economic activity.

Iraqi security forces have detained a man suspected of being the leader of al Qaeda in iraq after a captured associate led them to him sleeping in a house in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said on Friday.

U.S. intelligence officials say they are skeptical about reports that Iraqi police had arrested the leader of al Qaeda in iraq. A man who identified himself as Abu Ayyub al-Masri was found Thursday sleeping on a thin mattress in Mosul. But a number of U.S. officials have been unable to confirm the report.

Thousands of families are fleeing the Sadr City neighborhood in Baghdad as Shiite militiamen battle U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces. The fighting includes almost continuous air and ground strikes, aimed at disrupting mortar strikes from Sadr City into the Green Zone.

Iran's nuclear program and its involvement in iraq present formidable foreign policy challenges for any U.S. president. The public comments of the current presidential candidates have lacked complexity, but their actual positions are more nuanced.

Sen. Barack Obama today said the most important thing he could achieve as president would be to deal with iraq and the threat of al Qaeda in Afghanistan while improving 'our influence around the world.' In his first interview since Tuesday's primaries, Obama downplayed headlines and stories that have declared him the Democratic presidential nominee.

The leader of al-Qaida in iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, was arrested in the northern city of Mosul, the Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday. Mohammed al-Askari said the arrest of al-Masri, also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, was confirmed to him by the...

Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday said the most important thing he could achieve as president would be to deal with iraq and the threat of al Qaeda in Afghanistan while improving 'our influence around the world.'

'There is an implied future risk to U.S. and allied interests with every detainee who is released or transferred from Guantanamo' A Kuwaiti freed from Guantanamo Bay carried out a suicide car bombing recently in iraq, the U.S. military said Wednesday, confirming what is believed to be the first such attack by a former detainee at the U.S. military detention center in Cuba.Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi took part in one of three suicide bomb attacks last month that targeted Iraqi security forces in the northern city of Mosul, said U.S. Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye, a military spokesman in Baghdad. At least seven people were killed in the attacks.

Congress thinks it's being cute in dealing with all of the funding for iraq this year in one fell swoop.