Word: iraqi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...about four days, the most powerful armed factions in Iraq were girding for war. Fighting tribesmen from Anbar province were openly threatening violence against political rivals they accused of trying to steal the provincial elections by stuffing ballot boxes in the Jan. 31 vote. Iraqi security forces in Anbar braced for trouble, at one point imposing a curfew, an increasingly rare move these days. U.S. forces in the province watched the situation warily, wondering whether the relative calm Iraq has known for roughly the last year would unravel in a matter of days or even hours. "The levels of violence...
...Saturday, the top official in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq voiced anger over what he described as provocative troop movements by the central government around Kirkuk, the disputed oil-rich city. The Associated Press reported that the Kurdish prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani, denounced a move by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to deploy Iraqi soldiers ahead of the provincial balloting on the outskirts of Kirkuk, which both the Iraqi central government and Kurdistan regional authorities claim. The Iraqi government denied the accusation, saying its movements in the area were routine. Then on Sunday Shi'ite worshippers...
Ayad Allawi answers with the practiced evasion of a seasoned politician when asked whether he'd like another shot at the job of Iraq's Prime Minister. "Definitely not in a sectarian regime," Allawi told TIME at the Baghdad headquarters of his political party, the Iraqi National Accord. "I respect religion. But religion needs to be de-politicized." Despite the gains made by Allawi's secular list in last weekend's provincial elections, the big winner at the polls was the Shi'ite-led alliance of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - who remains the man to beat in the national...
...Allawi, a Shi'ite and former Baathist who was tapped by the U.S. occupation authority to be Iraq's first Prime Minister after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, has always billed himself as stridently secular. But when Iraqis were given the right to choose their leaders at the polls, Allawi lost out to the parties based on Shi'ite and Sunni identity. Since then, he and his party have been working to promote a more secular approach to Iraqi governance, and the preliminary returns released on Thursday for Iraq's provincial elections show they are making gains - at least relative...
...used his tenure as Prime Minister to emerge as the preeminent political figure in Iraq, enjoying a groundswell of popularity following his government's largely successful efforts alongside U.S. forces to battle militias and insurgents throughout southern Iraq and Baghdad. Still, Allawi's party is pleased with its performance: Iraqi National Accord-backed candidates drew 13.9% of the votes to finish second in the northern Salahuddin province, while in Baghdad they won 8.6% of the initial returns - in fourth place, although with a share of the vote close to that of the lists that finished second and third...