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US Advises Citizens Not to Travel to Iraq after Recent Attacks

FILE PHOTO: People enter the State Department Building in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People enter the State Department Building in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
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US Advises Citizens Not to Travel to Iraq after Recent Attacks

FILE PHOTO: People enter the State Department Building in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People enter the State Department Building in Washington, US, January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

The US State Department said on Sunday US citizens should not travel to Iraq after recent attacks on American troops and personnel in the region.

The travel advisory says, "Do not travel to Iraq due to terrorism, kidnapping, armed conflict, civil unrest, and Mission Iraq’s limited capacity to provide support to US citizens."

There has been a spike in attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria since the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza broke out. Last week, a US warship shot down more than a dozen drones and four cruise missiles fired by Iranian-backed Houthis from Yemen.
The advisory followed the ordered departure of eligible family members and non-emergency US government personnel from US Embassy Baghdad and US Consulate General Erbil "due to increased security threats against US personnel and interests," the State Department said in a statement.
Washington is on heightened alert for activity by Iran-backed groups as regional tensions soar during the Israel-Hamas war

"Because of security concerns, US government personnel in Baghdad are instructed not to use Baghdad International Airport," the State Department said on Sunday.

Katyusha rockets on Sunday targeted the Ain al-Asad air base, which hosts US and other international forces in western Iraq, and one blast was heard inside the base, two army sources said.

On Saturday, defense systems at Ain al-Asad intercepted and shot down two drones while they were hovering near the base.

Ain al-Asad air base is located in the western Anbar province.

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Arab World

Israel’s Security Cabinet Approves 19 New Settlements in West Bank

A helicopter flies over the Israeli settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank on December 14, 2025. (AFP)
A helicopter flies over the Israeli settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank on December 14, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel’s Security Cabinet Approves 19 New Settlements in West Bank

A helicopter flies over the Israeli settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank on December 14, 2025. (AFP)
A helicopter flies over the Israeli settlement of Shilo in the occupied West Bank on December 14, 2025. (AFP)

Israel's security cabinet approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total number approved over the past three years to 69, an official statement said Sunday.

"The proposal by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz to declare and formalize 19 new settlements in Judea and Samaria has been approved by the cabinet," a statement from Smotrich's office said, without specifying when the decision was taken.

"On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state. We will continue to develop, build, and settle the land of our ancestral heritage, with faith in the justice of our path," Smotrich said in the statement.

Arab World

Iraq Top Judge Says Armed Factions to Cooperate on Weapons

Cars drive through central Baghdad as a thick fog blankets the Iraqi capital on December 11, 2025. (AFP)
Cars drive through central Baghdad as a thick fog blankets the Iraqi capital on December 11, 2025. (AFP)
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Iraq Top Judge Says Armed Factions to Cooperate on Weapons

Cars drive through central Baghdad as a thick fog blankets the Iraqi capital on December 11, 2025. (AFP)
Cars drive through central Baghdad as a thick fog blankets the Iraqi capital on December 11, 2025. (AFP)

The head of Iraq's highest judicial body said Saturday that the leaders of armed factions have agreed to cooperate on the sensitive issue of the state's monopoly on weapons.

However, the powerful Kataib Hezbollah group said that it would only discuss giving up its arms when foreign troops leave the country.

"The resistance is a right, and its weapons will remain in the hands of its fighters," the group said in a statement.

The leaders of three other pro-Iran factions designated by Washington as terrorist groups said that it is time to restrict weapons to state control, although they too have stopped short of committing to disarm -- a long-standing US demand.

Faiq Zidan, the head of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, in a statement thanked "faction leaders for heeding his advice to coordinate together to enforcing the rule of law, restrict weapons to state control, and transition to political action after the national need for military action has ceased".

After Iraq's general elections in November, the United States demanded that the new government exclude six groups it designates as terrorists and instead move to dismantle them, Iraqi officials and diplomats told AFP.

But some of the groups have increased their presence in the new parliament and are members of the Coordination Framework, a ruling alliance of Shiite parties with varying ties to Iran that holds the majority.

The blacklisted groups are part of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces, a former paramilitary alliance that has integrated into the armed forces. But they have also developed a reputation for sometimes acting on their own.

They are also part of the Tehran-backed so-called "Axis of Resistance" and have called for the withdrawal of US troops -- deployed in Iraq as part of an anti-ISIS coalition -- and launched attacks against them.

These groups include the powerful Asaib Ahl al-Haq faction, which won 27 seats in the elections.

Earlier this week, the group's leader, Qais al-Khazali, a key figure in the Coordination Framework, said "we believe" in "the slogan to restrict weapons to the state", and "we are now part of the state".

Two other groups, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya and Kataeb Imam Ali, said on Friday that it is time to "limit weapons to the state".

Arab World

Israeli Military Says Killed Two Palestinians in West Bank

A Palestinian flag flutters in front of Israeli soldiers standing near their military vehicle parked at the entrance of the Nur Shams Palestinian refugee camp, in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank on December 15, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian flag flutters in front of Israeli soldiers standing near their military vehicle parked at the entrance of the Nur Shams Palestinian refugee camp, in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank on December 15, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Military Says Killed Two Palestinians in West Bank

A Palestinian flag flutters in front of Israeli soldiers standing near their military vehicle parked at the entrance of the Nur Shams Palestinian refugee camp, in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank on December 15, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian flag flutters in front of Israeli soldiers standing near their military vehicle parked at the entrance of the Nur Shams Palestinian refugee camp, in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank on December 15, 2025. (AFP)

Israel's military said it killed two Palestinians in the north of the occupied West Bank Saturday, accusing one of throwing "a block" and the other an explosive at its soldiers.

In a statement the military said that during an operation "in the area of Qabatiya, a terrorist hurled a block toward the soldiers, who responded with fire and eliminated the terrorist".

"Simultaneously, during an additional operation in the Silat al-Harithiya area, a terrorist hurled an explosive toward the soldiers, who responded with fire and eliminated the terrorist."

Both locations are near the city of Jenin.

The Israeli military reported no injuries among its troops.

The Palestinian health ministry said that a 16-year-old boy died "from wounds caused by a bullet of the Israeli occupation forces", according to the official Wafa news agency.

It also reported that a 22-year-old man was killed by "a bullet to the chest during an occupation forces raid" on Silat al-Harithiya.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has soared since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 triggered the Gaza war.

It has not subsided despite the truce between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in October.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, many of them gunmen, but also scores of civilians, in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.

At least 44 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations, according to official Israeli figures.