Irak

The Pentagon is immediately sending 750 more troops to the Middle East after pro-Iranian protesters tried to storm the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday.

The State Department plans to dramatically downsize the number of American personnel in Iraq, according to a memo sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and obtained by CNN.

Deliberate killings, abduction and arbitrary detention are among abuses that continue against Iraqi anti-government demonstrators by unknown groups, according to a UN report released Wednesday.

On 11 December 2019, Christoph Buik was appointed as new head of mission for the European Union Advisory Mission in Iraq (EUAM Iraq). He will take up his duties on 1 January 2020. Christoph Buik, a German national, is currently Director of the UN Standing Police Capacity.

A third anti-government activist has been murdered in Iraq in less than 10 days, police and medics said Wednesday, as the United Nations accused militias of killing and abducting demonstrators.

Iraq's parliament has approved the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi following weeks of unrest. … Some 400 people have been killed since protests began in Baghdad and other cities at the start of October.

UN chief António Guterres has expressed deep concern over reports of the continued use of live ammunition against demonstrators in Iraq. … Earlier on Friday, the head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said on Twitter that the increasing numbers of deaths and injuries in the country cannot be tolerated.

At least 13 people have been killed in Iraq in a fresh wave of protests in the southern city of Nasiriya. Security forces opened fire and used tear gas on Thursday to clear two bridges blocked by protesters.

Denmark’s government offered to lead the NATO mission to train Iraqi forces, saying it was prepared to send 200 personnel to Iraq next year. The year-old NATO mission, which provides more than 500 personnel to train and advise Iraqi troops, is currently led by Canada, whose time in charge ends in 2020.

United Nations investigators have so far identified 160 Islamic State militants accused of massacres of Yazidis in northern Iraq in 2014 and are building legal cases against them, the head of the team told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.