Osama al-Nujaifi, the Iraqi parliament speaker, has told Al Jazeera that the amount of Iraqi money unaccounted for by the US is $18.7bn - three times more than the $6.6bn we reported last week. Al-Nujaifi is scheduled to visit the US soon and discuss the missing Iraqi billions. He said that he received a report […]
A UN working group said on Thursday that Iraq should tightly regulate private security firms to prevent abuses by their employees when they stay on in the country after a scheduled U.S. military withdrawal. While the number of incidents involving private military and security companies in Iraq has decreased in recent years, the Government should […]
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ordered the army to increase its protection of the country’s pipelines and refineries. “Any breaches will cause problems at the Dora [Doura, Daura] and Baiji [Bayji] refineries (pictured) and the pipelines feeding the power stations,” Maliki said yesterday during a televised Cabinet meeting on the government’s performance during its […]
The exiled former head of the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI), Hussein Al-Uzri [Hussein al-Azri], has denied allegations of corruption and mis-management in a telephone interview with Reuters. "It's about control of this bank," the U.S.-educated banker, aged 48, told the news agency in his first media interview since fleeing Iraq. "Having control of the […]
Overview Levels of violence rose in Iraq last week, making it the worst recorded by AKE since the national elections were held in March 2010. There were over 90 separate attacks documented, mainly in Baghdad and the districts surrounding it, although the southern city of Basrah also saw a rare suicide attack, potentially conducted by […]
The Los Angeles Times reports that theft has not been ruled out by auditors trying to trace $6.6 billion [7.9 trillion Iraqi dinars] of missing cash. A total of $12 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills was flown to Iraq in 2003 and 2004 to pay for public services, contractors, and general reconstruction. More […]
A suicide bomber killed at least five police officers when he rammed a car laden with explosives` into a compound in Basrah. The attack on 13 June also left several more people injured. Suicide bombings are a favoured tactic of violent jihadi and predominantly Sunni terrorist organisations. This bracket includes groups such as the Islamic […]
Speaking to the Commission on Wartime Contracting, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy (pictured) said that the State Department intends to spend approximately $3 billion hiring 5,100 private security contractors to serve in Iraq. The State Department has repeatedly discussed the creation of this force for after the withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq, which […]
Iraq is open for business, and American companies should make an effort to invest there, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (pictured) has said, according to a report from CNN. The Secretary was addressing the Business Forum Promoting Commercial Opportunities in Iraq, which included executives from companies as far-ranging as Occidental Petroleum, JP Morgan Chase, General […]
Iraq will ask the US to keep troops in the country beyond an end-of-2011 pullout deadline, says outgoing CIA director Leon Panetta (pictured), the nominee to be the next US defence secretary. Speaking at a US Senate committee considering his nomination he said he had "every confidence that a request like that will be forthcoming", […]
Levels of violence rose in Iraq last week, although conditions were not as bad as a fortnight ago. Most incidents were concentrated in Baghdad, Anbar and Salah ad-Din provinces, with an overall decline in militant activity in the north of the country and a rise in attacks in the south. There has also been a […]
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 […]
