DefenceTalkThe top manager in Iraq of the notorious private security firm Blackwater threatened to kill a US State Department investigator for probing the company’s performance, The New York Times reported Monday. The Times, citing an internal State Department memorandum, said the threat came just weeks before Blackwater guards shot and killed 17 civilians on September […]https://www.defencetalk.com/blackwater-threatened-to-kill-us-official-in-iraq-report-59990/

DefenceTalkThe US military has started flying armed drones over Baghdad to defend American troops and diplomats as Iraqi forces took their fight against Sunni insurgents to the strategic militant-held city of Tikrit. Iraq’s top Shiite cleric urged the country’s leaders to unite, after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki conceded political measures are needed to defeat the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-drones-over-baghdad-as-iraq-battles-for-tikrit-59987/

DefenceTalkMilitants fighting in Syria’s war put to use for the first time on Sunday American-made Humvees that they seized during a lightning offensive in Iraq this month, a monitor said. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, used the armoured vehicles to capture the villages of Eksar and Maalal in Aleppo province, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/syria-militants-now-using-humvees-seized-in-iraq-59961/

DefenceTalkBaghdad asked Washington Wednesday to carry out air strikes on militants who attacked Iraq’s main oil refinery and seized more territory in the north, amid warnings the country’s future was at stake. The appeal for strikes — which the White House said US President Barack Obama has not ruled out — came as fighters, led […]https://www.defencetalk.com/iraq-appeals-for-us-air-strikes-on-advancing-militants-59947/

DefenceTalkIslamist militants have rolled over the Iraqi army because the Shiite-led government has pursued a sectarian agenda that alienated Sunnis, the top-ranking US military officer said Wednesday. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed that Baghdad had requested US “air power” to fend off the onslaught of Sunni extremists. But he […]https://www.defencetalk.com/iraqi-leaders-sectarianism-fueled-militant-advance-us-59949/

DefenceTalkBarack Obama returned to Washington on Monday after a brief family break in California to find himself confronted once again by the nightmare from which America thought it had escaped: Iraq. Obama ran for the White House as a young leader who opposed the 2003 US invasion, and then won re-election as the steady hand […]https://www.defencetalk.com/break-over-obama-returns-to-iraq-nightmare-59932/

DefenceTalkWashington said Monday it might use a critical fifth round of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers to discuss with Tehran possible cooperation on tackling the crisis raging in Iraq. The United States and Iran, which have been bitter foes for more than 30 years, are both deeply concerned by a major insurgency by […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-iran-may-use-nuclear-talks-to-discuss-iraq-59929/

DefenceTalkThe government in Baghdad has hundreds of thousands of soldiers and armed police under its command. But a raft of deep structural problems is crippling the Iraqi army’s ability to fight ISIS militants. In many of Iraq’s northern and western cities, the nation’s army has simply been overrun. In January, the militant group Islamic State […]https://www.defencetalk.com/weak-iraqi-army-no-match-for-isis-insurgents-59906/

DefenceTalkCiting the “huge investments and sacrifices” Americans have made in Iraq, President Barack Obama said today that he has asked his national security team to prepare a range of options to help Iraqi security forces stop rapidly advancing Sunni insurgents who have overrun much of the country’s north, control most of Anbar province and are […]https://www.defencetalk.com/obama-weighs-options-for-intervention-in-iraq-59904/

DefenceTalkWestern embassies began evacuating staff from Baghdad Monday despite Iraq’s claim it was repelling militants who have captured vast amounts of territory in a lightning offensive that has shaken regional stability. The possibility of direct talks between the US and Iran, foes for decades, has even been broached in a bid to resolve the crisis […]https://www.defencetalk.com/west-evacuates-iraq-staff-as-us-iran-talks-broached-59892/