The Pentagon issued a proposal on Monday to sell weapons worth $4.2bn to Iraq, including 18 F-16 fighter aircraft, Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, laser-guided bombs and reconnaissance equipment, according to a report from the Financial Times. The Pentagon said the proposed arms sales would make Baghdad “a more valuable partner in an important area of the […]
Iraq inaugurated the first of its fleet of new US-built patrol boats on Sunday, part of the effort to boost its naval capacity and secure key oil platforms ahead of the American pullout next year, according to an AFP report. The rapid build-up of the Iraqi navy is seen as crucial to protecting the terminals […]
National Overview The national total number of officially reported hostile incidents dropped drastically from 140 to 75 this week – the lowest number of incidents recorded in a week this year. The Eid Festival which saw heightened security measures in parts of the country seems to have been the main factor in the reduction of […]
Russia's Lukoil has awarded a mine clearing contract at Iraq's West Qurna 2 oil field to G4S Risk Management, a division of the London-based G4S Ordnance Management, Lukoil said in a statement sent to Dow Jones Newswires. Lukoil did not disclose the value of the contract, but said work should finish in early 2011, when […]
Patrick Fitzgerald, director of the US Defense Contract Audit Agency, told the Commission on Wartime Contracting that his agency lacks the resources to track all the money being spent in Iraq. The Pentagon’s top auditor said on Thursday that there may not be enough auditors to oversee all of the billions of dollars being spent. […]
National Overview The national level of hostile incidents increased in this reporting period from 126 to 140. The number of incidents peaked towards the start of the reporting period but declined as the Eid Festival approached. The number of incidents during 2009 Ramadan was higher than for the same period this year, although the August/September […]
National Overview The total number of officially reported hostile incidents nationally was 126 last week, consistent with the number of incidents recorded during the last reporting period. The number of incidents in the west rose by a quarter this week and incidents in Baghdad also rose significantly. The south east saw a very minor rise […]
Iraq has tightened security around oil infrastructure and oilfields in the south, in response to intelligence suggesting al Qaeda and other insurgent groups plan to attack oil facilities, a security official said. Reuters reports that Ali al-Maliki, head of the municipal security committee in the southern oil hub of Basra, said the information indicated that […]
Seven years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, Iraq largely has been unable to revamp business laws that would help make the country more attractive to investors, according to a report from Bloomberg. “Investors still note security concerns, but now are more likely to cite regulatory hindrances and other practical barriers to doing business,” […]
National Overview The total number of hostile incidents reported nationally was 125 this week, down from 132 incidents during the last reporting period. There was a significant rise in the number of recorded incidents in the north central region with slight rises in the west, south central and south east regions. The north dropped slightly, […]
AFP reports that 90 percent of the $1.9m batch of US-purchased computers destined for schoolchildren but allegedly sold off on the cheap have been recovered. As we reported on Saturday, an unnamed senior official at Umm Qasr port had reportedly misappropriated the gift and auctioned the computers for just $45,700. But customs chief Nofal Salim […]
The U.S. military is demanding to know what happened to $1.9 million worth of computers purchased by American taxpayers, and intended for Iraqi schoolchildren, that have instead been auctioned off by Iraqi officials for less than $50,000. Reports from Associated Press and al Jazeera say the shipment of computers intended for schoolchildren in the central […]
