Iraq

President Obama speaks to the media before meeting with his Cabinet in the White House Friday. The president is ordering up to 1,500 additional military personnel to Iraq, to help Iraqi and Kurdish forces fight the extremist group ISIS.

National

U.S. Will Send Up To 1,500 More Military Personnel To Iraq

4:37pm November 07, 2014

by Bill Chappell

The new personnel will serve "in a non-combat role to train, advise, and assist Iraqi Security Forces, including Kurdish forces," White House press secretary Josh Earnest says.

Citizens of Dhuluiyah, Iraq, must take boats to get in an out, since one of the town's two bridges was blown up by the Islamic State and the other was commandeered by tribesmen defending them.

World News

We Are Not Slaughterers: An Iraqi Village Rejects Islamic Militants

11:38am November 05, 2014

by Alice Fordham

A Sunni Muslim tribe in central Iraq braves nightly shelling and threats from the Islamic State, refusing the group's orders to join its movement. But they say they need help.

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Iraqi Yazidi women who fled the violence in the northern Iraq take shelter in the city of Dohuk on Aug. 5. The Yazidis, are a small community that follows an ancient faith and have been repeatedly targeted by jihadists. Yazidi leaders say several thousand

World News

Iraq's Yazidis Appeal For Help In Finding Their Missing Women

6:32pm November 04, 2014

by Michele Kelemen

U.S. airstrikes helped save thousands from the Yazidi community in northern Iraq in August. But the group says the Islamic State has seized many Yazidi women and is selling them as sex slaves.

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Four Americans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan visit Kabul as part of Operation Proper Exit, a program designed for wounded warriors. From left, they are Staff Sgt. Ben Dellinger, Capt. Casey Wolfe, Capt. John Urquhart (who is hidden) and Sgt. James "Eddi

Wounded In Combat, U.S. Troops Go Back For A 'Proper Exit'

12:35pm November 04, 2014

by Sean Carberry

For some U.S. troops who left Iraq and Afghanistan by medevac, a return trip to these countries allows them to depart on their own terms.

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Iraqi soldiers walk in Jurf al-Sakhr, south of the capital Baghdad, on Monday after Iraqi military forces retook the area from Islamic State militants. Iraqi forces, supported by U.S. airstrikes, have made limited gains in recent months, but critics are q

With Limited Gains, U.S. Bombing Campaign Faces Growing Criticism

2:25pm October 30, 2014

by Tom Bowman

U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State began nearly three months ago, yet there have been relatively few changes on the battlefield. Many analysts say the U.S. effort may not be sufficient.

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An explosion following an airstrike is seen in the Syrian town of Kobani from near the Mursitpinar border crossing in the southeastern town of Suruc, in Turkey's Sanliurfa province, on Wednesday.

World News

Kurdish Fighters Begin Using Turkish Crossing To Reach Kobani

11:00am October 29, 2014

by Scott Neuman

Syrian rebels and Iraqi peshmerga fighters have been allowed to use Turkish territory to enter the fight against militants of the self-declared Islamic State.

Three female members of Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and an Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighter stand near the front line in Makhmur, in northern Iraq, on Aug. 9. The Turkish and Iraqi Kurds have been fighting together against the Islamic State.

World News

Facing The Islamic State Threat, Kurdish Fighters Unite

1:17pm October 28, 2014

by Alice Fordham

Kurdish groups have often quarreled among themselves, or at least kept their distance. But Kurds from Iraq and Turkey have been fighting side by side in northern Iraq against the Islamic State.

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After The Blackwater Convictions, A Book On Iraq's Nightmarish Reality

8:58am October 27, 2014

by Brian Castner

Four former Blackwater guards were found guilty last week in connection with a fatal shooting in 2007. Author Brian Castner recommends a book on the toll violence has taken on Iraq.

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World News

Line Between Islamist Militants And ISIS Blurs In Egypt

8:55am October 26, 2014

Among more extreme Islamists, sympathies for the so-called Islamic State are growing — especially in Egypt, where some Islamists are being arrested and accused of terrorism by the police.

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Turkey Is A 'High-Maintenance Ally' In Fight With ISIS

11:57am October 25, 2014

How strong is the U.S.-Turkey alliance against the Islamic State? NPR's Scott Simon speaks with former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone.

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