Middle Orient News

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq said on Wednesday it was committed to meeting a deadline for a long-term security pact with the United States, as Washington confirmed it dropped a demand concerning the divisive issue of immunity for private contractors.

AMARA, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraqi security forces launched a crackdown on Shi’ite militias in the southern city of Amara on Thursday, the commander of the operation said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A powerful car bomb exploded in a crowded market area of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 51 people and wounding 75, in the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital in months. Police said the bomb was placed in a pickup truck parked next to minibus taxis near the …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s parliament will relocate just outside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone compound in September for the first time since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, a sign security is improving, the first deputy speaker said on Tuesday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The U.S. military said it killed four al Qaeda militants in a raid in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, but Iraqi police said the three brothers and their father shot in the operation were not insurgents.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s top court will hold its first hearings in early July in a case aimed at outlawing the ruling AK Party for Islamist activities, a court source said on Tuesday. A state prosecutor will give evidence to support his bid to close the governing party on July …

GAZA (Reuters) – An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip that could ease a crippling Israeli blockade of the coastal territory will begin Thursday, Egypt and Hamas said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A Lebanese political leader allied to Hezbollah indicated on Tuesday a prisoner swap deal between the militant Islamic group and Israel may be close.

ANKARA (Reuters) – The Turkish military said on Tuesday it had opened fire on 21 Kurdish PKK fighters trying to enter Turkey from northern Iraq. The General Staff, in a statement on its Internet site, said its forces opened fire on the guerrillas late on Monday 3 km (2 miles) …

GAZA (Reuters) – Envoys from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction visited the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to brief members there on his bid for reconciliation with the territory’s Islamist Hamas rulers, officials said. It was the first Fatah mission to Gaza since Hamas took over a year ago, triggering …