The advance of the Al-Qaeda splinter group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and its allies towards Baghdad appears to have been "stalled" but the "grave" situation in Iraq needs to be dealt with militarily as well as politically, a top UN official has said.
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Sandhu, a 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, is currently posted as high commissioner of India in Sri Lanka.
Pakistan is making efforts at multiple levels for the Taliban government to have a soft landing, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
US President Barack Obama has decided to send 300 additional American Special Operations troops to assist in Iraq's fight against the advancing Sunni, Al Qaeda-inspired extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which has captured several cities and has its sights set on Baghdad.
The United States is deploying up to 275 military personnel in Iraq to protect its citizens and property as the war-torn country battles a dramatic sweep by insurgents there.
"We have intelligence from multiple sources including our alliance and our own intelligence and the evidence indicate that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface to air missile. This may have been unintentional," Trudeau said during a conference. The Boeing 737 jet with 176 people on board including 63 Canadians crashed minutes after taking off from Tehran on Wednesday morning.
India is monitoring the situation very closely and will see how it develops in the next few days.
The direction comes hours after Iran fired over a dozen ballistic missiles targeting at least two American bases in response to the killing of its General Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike.
In return for Pak's gesture, the US has authorised the reinstatement of a military training and educational programme which had remained suspended for 2 yrs. Pak blamed Iran's Maj Gen Soleimani for Baloch militant attacks against its forces.
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Secret documents obtained from freedom of information requests have revealed that the United States army predicted the rise of the Islamic State militant group even before it started making headlines around the globe.
Remember the US withdrawal agreement was signed in February 2020. In the intervening period, a proper evacuation plan ought to have been in place. It was not. Consequently, tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked as interpreters, drivers, suppliers of goods and services, etc, face brutal retribution from the Taliban, Virendra Kapoor points out.
Iraq's National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie said the bombings bore the hallmarks of insurgent leader and Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The two men were dragged out of their cars and dismembered with shovels by an angry crowd.
The finance chief of Islamic State has been killed in a United States-led coalition airstrike, an American military spokesperson said.
A special National Investigation Agency court on Saturday remanded alleged Islamic State recruit Arif Majeed in the probe agency's custody till December 8, observing that his custodial interrogation was necessary.
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At least 127 people were injured in the bombings in western Iraq.
"His remains were disposed of appropriately in accordance with our SOP (standard operating procedure) and the law of armed conflict," the top general said.
The Iraqi journalist, who threw shoes at outgoing US President George W Bush during a press conference in Baghdad last month, will seek political asylum in Switzerland, according to his lawyer.
Arif Majeed (23) from neighbouring Kalyan, who until now was believed to have been killed while fighting for militant group ISIS in Syria, was on Friday night arrested hours after he landed in Mumbai.
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Several journalists were based in the hotel in downtown Baghdad.
United States President Donald Trump has warned Iran of "major retaliation" if Tehran carries out any attack against America to avenge the killing of top military commander Qasem Soleimani and hinted at striking its cultural sites. His statement came hours after Iran announced it will no longer abide by the limits contained in the 2015 landmark nuclear deal.
Iran has supplied Iraq with fighter jets to help it counter the belligerent offensive by Islamist militants who have taken over large swathes of territory, a media report said in London.
Seven countries, including Italy, France and the United Kingdom, have joined the American effort to arm the Kurdish forces in northern Iraq against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a terrorist outfit that has gained control of large parts of Syria and Iraq.
India has evacuated 17 more of its nationals from the conflict zone of Iraq with the help of local authorities taking the total number of those rescued so far to 34 and also advised its citizens to leave on voluntary basis by commercial means in view of the "fragile" security situation.
But why should India be talking to the Taliban in the first place? There is no love lost there. India will never forget or forgive the humiliation to which the Taliban subjected it in the IC-814 hijack, notes Shekhar Gupta.
The location of the 40 Indian construction workers kidnapped in Mosul town of strife-torn Iraq has been identified by Iraqi authorities, the government said on Thursday.
Nearly 600 Indian nationals will come back from conflict-hit Iraq over the next two days of whom 200 will return by an Iraqi Airways special chartered flight from Najaf to Delhi on Saturday, External Affairs Ministry said.
The Iraqi leadership assured full cooperation and support in the matter.
A local court on Friday allowed National Investigation Agency to seek details of the conversations and chats carried out by the alleged ISIS `recruit' Arif Majeed through the telecommunication apps Skype and Tango.
They were shot on Friday as they headed for Karbala in a bus, officials said.
Pompeo defended the killing of Soleimani saying he was making efforts for an attack on Americans in the region.
American military officials have spent days huddled in meetings with Iraqi officers in a race to turn blueprints drawn up in Washington into a plan that will work on the ground in Baghdad, The New York Times on Tuesday said.
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