Iraqi officials say that militants have attacked a prisoner convoy north of Baghdad, killing 52 prisoners and eight soldiers.
The United Nations envoy in Iraq has censured “gross” violations of human rights by Takfiri terrorist of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the crisis-hit state.
Veteran Iraqi politician Fuad Masum was almost guaranteed to become Iraq's next president after the main Kurdish blocs in parliament agreed on his candidacy Thursday.
Thousands of foreign extremists have joined the ranks of terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq in recent months, according to US officials, driving fresh concern about potential terrorist threats aimed at the United States or its allies.
Iraqi army forces backed by thousands of volunteers and tribal fighters have launched a major offensive against militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Anbar province.
The United Nations has blasted foreign-sponsored ISIL terrorists for war crimes in Iraq, including executing religious and other leaders as well as teachers and health workers, forcibly recruiting children and raping women.
A US-based rights group has expressed alarm at the extent of atrocities perpetrated by the ISIL terror franchise, warning that the Takfiri terrorists are engaged in killing or expelling all religious minorities from northern Iraqi city of Mosul and its suburbs.
Christians were fleeing Iraq's city of Mosul en masse Friday after the terrorist group of ISIL relayed an ultimatum giving them a few hours to leave, the country's Chaldean patriarch and witnesses said.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who has been in Germany for medical treatment since December 2012, will return home on Saturday, his party said in a statement.
Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has begun pumping oil from Kirkuk fields after they sized them from Iraqi army amid a massive insurgency launched by extremist militants in north of the country, an Iraqi oil official has said.