Iraq's Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has appointed Hamida al-Jaf as head of the state-owned Trade Bank of Iraq, replacing Hussein al-Uzri amid investigations into alleged corruption, the bank’s deputy director general said. “The Trade Bank of Iraq is operating normally and people have confidence in the bank,” Deputy Director General Abdel Hadi Sadeq Abdel Mahdi […]
The discovery of two fake contracts in which officials from Baghdad municipality were involved has shed new light on the extent of corruption in the country, according to a report from Azzaman. The municipality claims that two of its senior officials were involving in doctoring two $164 million contracts for the construction of sports stadiums […]
The average weekly number of attacks has risen in Iraq over the last two months. Conditions gradually worsened in the first five months of the year, and while the increase in attacks has not been dramatic, it is nonetheless still a concern, particularly as the US prepares to withdraw its military by the end of […]
Overview Readers of the weekly update will recall that the last entry detailed one of the most hostile seven days since AKE began contributing to Iraq Business News. Fortunately conditions improved over the course of last week. There was a fall (by half) in the number of bombings reported, while shootings declined as well. Kidnap […]
The New York Times reports that two American businessmen have been charged with paying army officers more than $1 million in bribes to secure multimillion-dollar contracts to supply the American military and help rebuild Iraq. A federal indictment against the men, George H. Lee, and his son, Justin W. Lee, was unsealed on Friday. Both […]
Under the auspices of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), a meeting was held yesterday, 25 May 2011, by the Standing Consultation Mechanism to advance the resolution of the Disputed Internal Boundaries issues. Attention was given to the security arrangements in the respective areas. Furthermore the participants discussed ways for expediting the holding […]
MAG (pronounced “Mag”) – Mines Advisory Group – is a neutral and impartial humanitarian organisation that clears the remnants of conflict for the benefit of communities worldwide. Since beginning work in Iraq in 1992, MAG’s programme has grown significantly, improving life for hundreds more communities throughout the north of the country. Assessments conducted by Community […]
Overview Levels of violence rose considerably in Iraq last week, making it the worst week so far this year. A spate of bombings in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk left dozens of people dead and injured. The police and military suffered the majority of attacks, but Iraqi oil workers, US soldiers and even three European civilian […]
Reuters reports that Lockheed Martin hopes to sign sales contracts for up to 18 F-16 fighter jets with both Iraq and Oman by early 2012, and expects to book a total of about 100 additional orders by the end of the decade. Lockheed is gradually winding down production of the popular multi-role fighter, which is […]
Overview Levels of violence fell in Iraq last week, although there were still over 60 incidents recorded countrywide. There was a welcome fall in the number of casualties, and the week saw fewer fatalities than any recorded since February. Incidents were concentrated in Baghdad, which accounted for over half of all the attacks recorded countrywide. […]
The following article was published by Reidar Visser, an historian of Iraq educated at the University of Oxford and currently based at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. It is reproduced here with the author’s permission. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. […]
Overview Levels of violence rose in Iraq over the past week, mainly in the centre of the country, throughout the capital, in the east of Anbar province and the west of Diyala province. Other hotspots included Mosul, Kirkuk, Diwaniyah, Hillah and even Karbala and Basrah. Kurdistan remained largely quiet, although the risk of unexploded ordnance […]
