Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has thousands of confirmed COVID-19 cases, many times more than the 772 it is has publicly reported, according to three doctors closely involved in the testing process, a health ministry official and a senior political official.

The sources all spoke on condition of anonymity. Iraqi authorities have instructed medical staff not to speak to the media.

Iraq’s health ministry, the only official outlet for information on the coronavirus, dismissed the sources’ reading of the spread of the disease.

31 Mar 2020; MEMO: Mohammad Mohi, a spokesman for the Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq (Kata’ib Hezbollah), has said that the US withdrawal from some of its military bases in Iraq is not real, and it is rather a “repositioning act after being subjected to strong blows from the Iraqi people’s factions.”

Mohi stressed that the Iraqi people have the right to confront US presence.

BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition in Iraq withdrew Sunday from a military base in the country’s north that nearly launched Washington into an open war with neighboring Iran.

The K1 Air Base is the third site coalition forces have left this month, in line with U.S. plans to consolidate its troops in two locations in Iraq.

BAGHDAD, March 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Iraqi government said that it will extend a countrywide lockdown it imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic until April 11.

Schools, universities, shopping centres and other large gathering places will remain closed, as will the country’s international airports.

Authorities have confirmed that at least 29 Iraqis have died from COVID-19 and nearly 350 others have contracted the disease.

But there are fears the real number is much higher, as only around 2,000 of Iraq’s 40 million people have been tested.

26 Mar 2020; MEMO: Iraq’s Prime Minister-designate Adnan Al-Zurufi has started consultations to form a government without the Shia parties which rejected his designation, Anadolu reported yesterday.

Faleh Al-Ziyadi, an MP from Al-Nasr Alliance which has 42 seats out of 329 in the parliament, told Anadolu that the Shia blocs did not agree on the designation of Al-Zurufi.

21 Mar 2020; MEMO: Iraqi political sources revealed on Thursday that Shia blocs have agreed to form a committee to inform President Barham Salih of their rejection of the appointment of Adnan Al-Zurfi as the new prime minister-designate.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Troops from the U.S.-led coalition pulled out from a base in western Iraq on Thursday as part of a planned drawdown, Iraqi and coalition officials said, while training activities by the coalition were suspended amid concerns about the coronavirus.

Coalition forces withdrew from al-Qaim on the Iraq-Syria border, with others planned across Iraq in the coming weeks. The plan was in the works since late last year, a senior coalition military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

BAGHDAD, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Shiite politician Adnan al-Zurfi has been named Iraq's prime minister-designate to go through the tough task of forming the new government amid divisions among political parties over his nomination for the post.

On Tuesday, Iraqi President Barham Salih officially handed al-Zurfi, who is seen as a moderate Shiite voice with good ties with the West, the challenging mission of forming an interim government to prepare for early elections.

18 Mar 2020; MEMO: The Iraqi army yesterday said two rockets had hit a military base that hosts US-led coalition troops near the country’s capital Baghdad.

“Two rockets hit the Besmaya base 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of the capital Baghdad, where the US-led coalition and NATO have forces stationed,” the army’s media office was quoted by Anadolu Agency as saying.

BAGHDAD, Mar 18 (NNN-NINA) – Three Katyusha rockets fired, on Tuesday, at the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.

The incident took place in the night, when unknown militants fired the rockets at the zone, which houses some of the main Iraqi government offices and the U.S. embassy, the official said.

Sirens were heard in the zone, as the rockets landed inside the zone, but there were no immediate reports about casualties, the official said.