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The article reports on the efforts of Iraqi government forces and allied Shiite militias to take control of the city of Tikrit and the bombings in the city of Ramadi by Islamic State militants in March 2015.

The article reports on the conflict between the U.S. and Iraq on how to combat terrorist group Islami State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The article reports on various militant attacks in Shiite in Iraq including the car bombing at Karbala near the shrine in Shiite Islam, the suicide attack in Shiite mosque in Baghdad, and the shootout at the boulevard of Karrada neighborhood.

The article reports that Iraq's Parliament has appointed two nominees such as Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban to lead the security forces of the nation and to fight against the militant group Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL), along with the struggle of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to fill cabinet posts.

The article reports that the issue of mistrust has been the major challenge of the Iraqi government under the administration of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as he attempts to win the support of the Sunni Iraqis to fight against the extremists.

The article reports on the move by the Iraqi lawmakers to approve a power-sharing government led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on September 8, 2014 but left some items unresolved.

The article reports on the mission of the U.S. Department of Defense to prevent Sunni militants from seizing the Haditha Dam in Haditha, Iraq.

The article reports on the views of U.S. President Barack Obama on the beheading of an American journalist named James Foley by Islamic militants, and its video recording to threaten the world.

BAGHDAD -- A recent spate of killings and intimidation aimed at gay Iraqis and teenagers who dress in brash Western fashions is sending waves of fear through Iraq's secular circles while casting doubt on the government's will to protect some of its most vulnerable citizens. Many details of what Iraqi newspapers have called the ''emo killings'' are murky, but the uproar comes at an awkward moment for Iraq. The country has been preparing to showcase itself to the world as host of a high-profile meeting of Arab leaders in late March, the first major diplomatic event here since American forces withdrew in December. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

FALLUJA, Iraq -- Not so long ago, Syrians worked to send weapons and fighters into Iraq to help Sunnis fighting a sectarian conflict; suddenly, it is the other way around. A belated celebration of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday on the outskirts of this western Iraqi city on Saturday quickly took on the trappings of a rally for Syria's rebels. Young boys waved the old green, black and white flag Syria adopted in the 1930s after declaring independence from the French. Others collected money to send aid and weapons to the fighters opposing President Bashar al-Assad's government across the border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BAGHDAD -- It was one of the deadliest insurgent groups in Iraq in recent years, an Iranian-backed militia that bombed American military convoys and bases, assassinated dozens of Iraqi officials and tried to kidnap Americans even as the last soldiers withdrew. But now the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is welcoming the militant group into Iraq's political system, a move that could tilt the nation's center of gravity closer to Iran. The government's support for the militia, which only just swore off violence, has opened new sectarian fault lines in Iraq's political crisis while potentially empowering Iran at a moment of rising military and economic tensions between Tehran and Washington. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BAGHDAD -- One of the largest and most powerful political groups in Iraq began a boycott of Parliament on Saturday, signaling fresh waves of political dysfunction that threaten to unravel Iraq's year-old governing coalition just days after the formal end to the American military mission here. The standoff pits Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a Shiite, against one of his most nettlesome partners in Iraq's government, the Iraqiya coalition, a multisectarian group with wide support among secular Iraqis and Sunni Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- At a crowded market in the city center here, the flotsam of the war is for sale. Ripped Fuel workout supplement. Ready-to-eat meals, macaroni and cheese ''Mexican style.'' Pistol holsters. Nothing seems off limits to the merchants out for a quick dinar, not even a bottle of prescription pills from a pharmacy in Waco, Tex., probably tossed out by a departing soldier. The concrete blast walls that shielded the shopping stalls have lately come down. Since then, three explosions have struck the market, killing several people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- Sheik Kamal Maamouri, the leader of one of the largest Shiite-dominated tribes in Iraq, used to call the United States troops here occupiers, demanding that they withdraw because he said they killed and imprisoned innocent members of his tribe. But now he is not so sure he wants the Americans to go, at least not yet. Like many others across Iraq, he felt conflicted, and a bit frightened, after it was revealed last week that the United States may keep 3,000 to 4,000 troops in Iraq next year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BAGHDAD -- Fifteen months after an election that was supposed to lay the groundwork for Iraq's future, the government remains virtually paralyzed by a clash between the country's two most powerful politicians, who refuse to speak to each other. The paralysis is contributing to a rise in violence, and it is severely complicating negotiations on the most difficult and divisive question hanging over the country: Whether to ask the United States to keep a contingency force here after the scheduled withdrawal of American troops at the end of the year. The longer the deadlock persists, the harder it becomes for the American military to reverse or slow the withdrawal of the roughly 48,000 troops, the pace of which will pick up over the next few months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's shaky power-sharing government suffered another setback on Thursday when former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi rejected a high-ranking advisory job that had been created to end the country's protracted political deadlock. The decision by Mr. Allawi, who leads a political coalition backed by much of Iraq's Sunni minority, exposed new fissures in a coalition government forged with American backing late last year. The coalition brought together Iraq's main ethnic, religious and political factions, with Mr. Allawi playing a crucial part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BAGHDAD -- A suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims home from Samarra on Saturday, killing at least 33 people in the latest of several recent assaults on pilgrims. It was the second attack in three days against Shiite pilgrims near Samarra, whose gold-domed shrine was damaged in a 2006 bombing that led to waves of sectarian killings between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BAGHDAD -- As unrest shakes Egypt, Iraq is seizing the moment to make an audacious pitch to thousands of its citizens living abroad: Come back -- we're stable by comparison. The government is offering free plane tickets and about $250 in cash to smooth the return home for Iraqis in Egypt and Yemen in what a State Department official called ''an impressive effort.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- Suicide bombers launched a series of deadly assaults on Thursday against pilgrims marching toward a shrine sacred to Shiite Muslims, the police said, and dozens were killed in a third straight day of attacks against an array of targets. The annual pilgrimage, banned under Saddam Hussein, is expected to draw as many as 10 million people this year to the city of Karbala over 10 days. It has long been a target of sectarian violence. Until this week, the holiday had been free of major bloodshed, and Iraqi security forces had claimed progress in their ability to protect the populace from violent extremist groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BAGHDAD -- Moktada al-Sadr, the populist cleric who emerged as the United States' most enduring foe in Iraq, returned Wednesday after more than three years of voluntary exile in Iran in a homecoming that embodied his and his movement's transition from battling in the streets to occupying the halls of power. ''Long live the leader!'' supporters shouted as a grayer Mr. Sadr made his way from the airport in the holy city of Najaf to his home and then to prayers at the gold-domed Shrine of Imam Ali, one of the most sacred places in Shiite Islam. Supporters there hailed his return as another show of strength for a movement that is now more powerful than at any time since the United States invaded in 2003. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BAGHDAD -- Only three hours into a parliamentary session called on Thursday to begin the process of approving an agreement on a new unity government, members of an alliance led by the former prime minister, Ayad Allawi, walked out in protest. While the walkout did not immediately scuttle the agreement, which was reached only the night before, it was a stark illustration of the fragility of a broad coalition that was not yet 24 hours old, and was a portent of the political struggles ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- As the top American military officer arrived here to press Iraq's leaders for a resolution to their political impasse, the country's new Parliament canceled an already postponed session on Tuesday and announced that it would not even try to meet again until further notice. The latest delay intensified a sense of a country adrift, something the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki sought to address. Mr. Maliki's administration agreed to demands to call itself a caretaker government and promised to make no strategic decisions before the formation of a new government, even as it continued, with mixed results, to oversee security and basic services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- Attackers wearing military uniforms tried to storm the Central Bank of Iraq on Sunday, setting off explosions and engaging in gun battles with the police and soldiers that lasted hours during the afternoon rush and paralyzed parts of the capital. At least 15 people were killed and 50 were wounded, officials said. The bedlam in the crowded neighborhood, filled with banks, markets and shops, came a day before Iraq's new Parliament was to convene, underscoring the deep sense of uncertainty here over when a new government will be formed after months of deadlock. The scene itself was reminiscent of the strife that the country experienced during the worst sectarian bloodshed in 2006 and 2007, when Iraq teetered on the edge of anarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- The secular party of Ayad Allawi, a former interim prime minister once derided as an American puppet, won a wafer-thin victory in Iraq's election, setting the stage for a protracted period of political uncertainty and possible violence that could threaten plans to withdraw American troops. The outcome, announced Friday, was immediately challenged by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and his supporters in the State of Law coalition, who hurled accusations of fraud and made vague references to the prime minister's power as commander in chief. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BAGHDAD -- Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki endorsed the mounting calls for a recount of Iraq's parliamentary election, as the latest results on Sunday showed his main competitor with a slight lead. President Jalal Talabani, using more direct language, also called for a recount on Sunday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Iraq's political crisis deepened on Wednesday after an appeals court overturned a ban on hundreds of candidates in next month's election for having ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki then disputed that ruling. The ban had prompted threats of election boycotts and warnings that the credibility of the election itself was at stake if political groups, particularly Sunnis, felt disenfranchised. And it stoked fears of renewed violence as American troops were beginning to withdraw. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Iraqi officials have done little to clarify who, exactly, has been disqualified from running for Parliament in March because of ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. They did, however, make clear on Sunday that, contrary to Iraqi television news, the government's own spokesman was not among those declared a Baathist and therefore unfit for office. The fate of the country's defense minister was another matter. So was that of dozens of members of a political alliance led by one of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's top rivals, Jawad al-Bolani, the interior minister since 2006. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An Iraqi accused of being behind the killings in 2007 of five American soldiers has been released by the Iraqi government, according to an Iraqi official. ''According to my personal information, he was released two days ago,'' the official, Alaa al-Taei, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said Tuesday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A British man captured along with four others in a brazen kidnapping from an Iraqi government office more than two years ago was freed Wednesday morning, the Iraqi and British authorities announced. The man, Peter Moore, is believed to be the only survivor among the five captives. He was healthy and in a ''remarkable frame of mind,'' the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, said in London. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A British man captured along with four others in a brazen kidnapping from an Iraqi government office more than two years ago was freed Wednesday morning, the Iraqi and British authorities announced. The man, Peter Moore, is believed to be the only survivor among the five captives. He was healthy and in a ''remarkable frame of mind,'' the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, said at a news conference in London. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Iranian government said Saturday that an oil field that its troops occupied a day earlier was on its side of the border with Iraq, despite Iraqi claims to the contrary. A group of about 11 Iranian soldiers seized a portion of the remote Fakka oil field in Maysan Province in southeastern Iraq early Friday, according to Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During an auction of Iraq's best undeveloped oil fields that concluded Saturday, Baghdad awarded international companies development rights to seven fields that within a few years could nearly double the country's oil production. The revenues from production would be critical to helping this oil-dependent country rebuild from the war, but significant obstacles remain to the development of the fields, including continuing violence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The televised confessions came quickly in the days after each of the deadly bombings in August and October that rocked the capital and killed 280 people. The broadcasts, heavily edited images of men, some in orange jumpsuits, seated alone against a stark backdrop, did little to answer who was actually behind the attacks. In fact, the confessions contradicted public statements by other officials. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

More than six and a half years after the United States-led invasion here that many believed was about oil, the major oil companies are finally gaining access to Iraq's petroleum reserves. But they are doing so at far less advantageous terms than they once envisioned. The companies seem to have calculated that it is worth their while to accept deals with limited profit opportunities now, in order to cash in on more lucrative development deals in the future, oil industry analysts say. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]