KARBALA (AFP) — More than a million Shiites, many beating their heads with knives, marked the mourning ceremony of Ashura Thursday amid heavy Iraqi security presence to prevent stampedes and attacks. Commemorations of Ashura, which remembers the slaying of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hussein in the southern Iraqi city …

KIRKUK (AFP) — Iraqi army units are searching for Al Qaeda members in a remote hilly area where they are believed to have fled after falling out of favour with tribal leaders in former strongholds. For the past two days, Iraqi army units, with US air support, have been moving …

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel has long pursued a policy of preemptive attack as its preferred form of defence. But when it comes to tackling arch-foe Iran, that option may have been put on hold under a protective “umbrella” on offer from the United States.