Iraq War Related Stories

‘Illegal Occupation’: US Soldier Refuses To Deploy To Iraq


Iraq: Military arrests 14 terror suspects


MOSUL, Iraq, May 16 (UPI) -- Multi-National Force and Iraqi soldiers took 14 terrorist suspects into custody in northern Iraq, an official said Friday.

A military source said anti-terror operations in the Mosul area lasted from Saturday until Thursday and led to 833 arrests, KUNA reported Friday.

In other news, a car blast hit an Iraqi law enforcement building in Fallujah, injuring four police officers, Press TV said Friday.

In another incidence of violence, armed fighters in Baghdad opened fire on an Iranian Embassy convoy, killing one person and injuring an Iraqi and three Iranians, officials said.

Two Iranian diplomats were severely wounded in the Thursday attack, which took place as the convoy was traveling to a Shiite shrine in Kazimiyah, Iranian Embassy spokesman Manoucher Taslimi said Friday.

McCain, Obama moving to center on Iraq


LOS ANGELES, May 16 (UPI) -- Despite the emotion the Iraq war causes among voters, analysts say the presumptive U.S. presidential nominees have moved toward a pragmatic center on the issue.

Republican hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., are getting close to meeting in the middle on Iraq, with McCain saying he'd like to get troops out by 2013 and Obama pushing a plan that would withdraw all combat brigades within 18 months, the Los Angeles Times said in a report published Friday.

McCain, the Times said, has bowed to the overwhelming unpopularity of the war after once saying he could envision a U.S. military presence there for many years, while Obama is acknowledging that withdrawing from Iraq could be a costly and time-consuming undertaking.

"It's one thing to stake out a relatively uncompromising position early in the presidential process," Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report told the Times. "But when the idea that you might move into the Oval Office hits you squarely between the eyes, it reminds you that there's a time to be pragmatic about these things."