Occupation of Iraq

Bulgaria commemorates on Sunday the five Bulgarian servicemen, who were killed in a suicide attack targeting their military base in the Iraqi city of Karbala on 27 December 2003.

The attack on the Bulgarian military base "India" was the first of the four suicide attacks targeting two bases of the coalition forces and an Iraqi police station.

Iraq's ambassador to the UN on Dec. 8 appeared to play down a dispute between Baghdad and Ankara over the deployment of Turkish troops in northern Iraq, saying bilateral talks between the neighboring states to end the row were proceeding favorably.

Years ago pundits warned Western inciters of the so-called Arab Spring, that if the fire of that "spring" was carried to Syria, not only would Syria catch on fire but the consequences of such a development would be felt all over the world. There were even some people who warned that Syria was neither a Libya, nor an Iraq or Tunisia.

Major wars, along with scientific and technological inventions, have shaped the course of history. The world has witnessed two major wars within a generation and several small ones in the twentieth century, which has been the most destructive era so far. Despite the pain and suffering they cause, armed conflicts continue to ravage the world.

Sixteen Turkish workers who were being held captive by Shiite militias in Iraq have been released, Turkish Ambassador to Baghdad Faruk Kaymakç? has said. 

"We took the workers 55-60 kilometers south of Baghdad on Karbala road in the morning and we are on the way back to the embassy right now," Ambassador Kaymakç? told the Hürriyet Daily News on Sept. 30. 

Sixteen Turkish workers who were being held captive by Shiite militias in Iraq have been released, Turkish Ambassador to Baghdad Faruk Kaymakç? has said. 

"We took the workers 55-60 kilometers south of Baghdad on Karbala road in the morning and we are on the way back to the embassy right now," Ambassador Kaymakç? told the Hürriyet Daily News on Sept. 30. 

At least 15,000 civilians have been killed and nearly 30,000 wounded during the armed conflict in Iraq since the start of 2014, the United Nations announced.

The UN on Monday published its "Report on the Protection of Civilians in the Armed Conflict in Iraq."

President Barack Obama is sending 450 additional US troops to help Iraqi forces seize back control of the western city of Ramadi from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists.  

The US delivered 2,000 AT-4 anti-tank weapons in Iraq, in order to help in the fight against ISIS.

A thousand of those were sent straight to the Baghdad government, while the rest are closely guarded in the area by the US-led coalition, in order to train locals and future-proof the attempt.

A former Blackwater security guard was sentenced to life in prison and three others got 30-year terms on April 13 in the massacre of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians at a Baghdad traffic circle in 2007, closing a case that had outraged Iraqis and inflamed anti-U.S. sentiment around the world.