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Hard-Line Ex-Leader Ahmadinejad Stuns Iran With Election Bid New York Times TEHRAN, Iran Stunning Iran and disregarding the words of its supreme leader, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered Wednesday to run in the country's May presidential election and upended a contest largely expected to be won by its ... 'Ahmadinejad challenges Iran's power structures'Deutsche Welle In a surprise move, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad files to run for presidentLos Angeles Times What Ahmadinejad's run says about the state of Iranian politicsThe Sydney Morning Herald CNN -NPR -Wall Street Journal (subscription) all 163 news articles »

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Hard-Line Ex-Leader Ahmadinejad Stuns Iran With Election Bid - New York Times

Irannationalunder-20 football team, also known asIranYouthTeam,is scheduled to play two friendly fixtures againstSenegal as part of preparations for theforthcoming Fdration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) U-20 World Cup.

The Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) reported on Thursday that theSenegalnationalU-20 football team will travel to the Iranian capital of Tehran on May 4.

The friendly matches are scheduled to be played on May 7 and May 10.

During the official draw conducted at theSuwon Artriumin Suwon, located about 30 kilometers south of South Korea's capital, Seoul, on March 15,the Iranian outfit joined squads from Costa Rica, Portugal and Zambia inGroup C ofFIFA U-20 World Cup.

Argentina, England, Guinea and South Korea form Group A in the upcoming tournament.

Group B consists of Germany, Mexico, Vanuatu and Venezuela. Italy, Japan, South Africa and Uruguay are drawn in Group D.

While France, Honduras, New Zealand and Vietnam make up Group E; Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and the United States are pitted against each other in Group F.

The2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, whichwill be the 21st edition of the tournament, will be hosted bySouth Koreabetween May 20 and June 11.

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Iran U-20 football team to play demonstrations against Senegal - Press TV

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait Aim for $60 a Barrel Oil Price Wall Street Journal (subscription) Some of OPEC's biggest oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, are now targeting $60 a barrel as the level where they want to push crude prices, OPEC officials said, signaling they will support additional production cuts next month. Saudi Arabia, Iraq ...

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Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait Aim for $60 a Barrel Oil Price - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Since June 2014,when Islamic State attacked northern Iraq,the desks at Mar Ephrem seminary in Hamdaniya, a city 18 milessoutheast of Mosul, have stood empty. Today, they are dusty and rooms once teeming with priests and nuns in training are dark; student ID cards, with titles such asSyrian Catholic: Parish of Bashiqa, Iraq,litter the floor anda statue of the Virgin Mary lies smashed. Now, Isis are gone. But in their wake an eerie quiet remainsand the path of destruction is a visible reminder of their legacy, with thousands ofhouses destroyedin the fierce battle to retake the city lastOctober. And for the Christians who live in Hamdaniya, the question remains: will they ever be able to return to theplace they have called home for thousands of years?

Before Isis came, Hamdaniya (also known asQaraqosh and Bakhdida, the Turkish and Assyrian names for the same place, by locals) was the largest Christian city in Iraq. It formed part of a mosaic of communities stretching across the Nineveh plains to Mount Sinjar near the Syrian border. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis and Christians, and members of smaller local sects such as the Kakai, also lived there. Isis systematically sought to exterminate and cleanse these groups, and when its fighters arrived, the Islamists expelled Christians from Mosul. Those who left were among the lucky ones: in Sinjar, thirty mass graves of Yazidi men and women executed in August 2014 have been found by Kurdish Peshmerga who liberated the areas.Thousands of womensold into slavery by Isis are still missingand around450,000 Yazidisare living in internally displaced persons camps. Yet with Isis gone, the prospect of returning home for many of those forced to flee remains distant.The areas they used to live in Sinjar often lack electricity, schools and hospitals; much-needed international aid is nowhere to be seen. While for many, the continued conflict with Isis on the borders of their region makes life insecure.

Having travelledto Iraq half a dozen times in the last two years, Ive seen how communities are desperatelytrying to reconstruct and move on. The current reality is not reassuring. Across Nineveh plains, the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga have liberated communities but the Isis zealots left behind them a swath of destruction. They tunnelled under houses and through walls during two years of occupation. They blew up holy shrines, and built bomb factories in church buildings, hoping it would hide them from coalition airstrikes. They burned businesses and planted IEDs to kill civilians who return.

For local Christians, the damage is particularly devastating.Near Karemlesh, two ancient holy graves have been left ransacked during the war.In March 2015, Isis blewup a 10thcenturymonastery in Mosul and the 4thcentury MarBahnam monasterysouth of the city.Isis alsodestroyed the 3,300year old ancient city of Nimrud, which was once capital of the Assyrian empire. Their reign in this region was brief, but the damage the Islamists inflicted on precious artefacts of history is permanent.Austen Henry Layard, the 19thBritish century traveller and archaeologist who explored Nimrud in the 1840s wrote that the site was so large there is enough to fill twenty museums. He shipped some artefacts back which form the basis of exhibits at the British Museum. But now, many of the artefacts that were left in place are gone:the archaeology from Nimrud preserved in world museums serves as a reminder of what has been lost forever.

Despite the damage, locals are keen to return but those that do remain in the minority.Some Christians joined a local militia during the war named the Nineveh Plains Protection Units which guards the Christian towns. Maybe 15-20 per cent will come back, most are waiting for immigration, there is no water of electricity here, Anis Khader, a member of the militia told me. In the churches that were burned and ransacked by Isis, the Christians have put up new posters of Jesus, but the desecrations remain and cant be easily disguised. In one church, a wooden cutout of the Virgin Mary has been beheaded. A monument for St. George also had its head cut off, whilecrosses have been prised from the walls.

Matti Rafo, a local Christian born in 1957, says the area has witnessed the worst destruction since the Persian invasion of 1743. At the church of St. George he bent to enter an old mud and brick shrine, uncovering ancient markings of a rare sanctuary that Isis had left untouched. The timelessbuilding had seen assaults in the past and people had returned and rebuilt it. Can todays Iraqis do the same? Or will the churches of Nineveh now fade into history?

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Can Iraq's Christians ever recover from Isis? - Spectator.co.uk (blog)

SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 13, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, conducting 24 strikes consisting of 100 engagements against ISIS targets yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of 21 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Raqqa, seven strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and destroyed a vehicle and a fighting position.

Additionally, officials reported, eight strikes were conducted near Raqqa from April 11 into yesterday that engaged an ISIS staging area, a weapons storage cache and a command-and-control node.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted nine strikes consisting of 79 engagements against ISIS targets, coordinated with and in support of Iraqs government:

-- Near Beiji, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS fuel truck, a mortar system and a weapons cache.

-- Near Mosul, six strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units and destroyed 11 fighting positions, five vehicles, two vehicle bombs, two vehicle-bomb factories, a medium machine gun, a rocket-propelled-grenade system and a mortar system; damaged 15 ISIS supply routes and a fighting position; and suppressed 10 mortar systems, six fighting positions, two artillery systems and a rocket system.

-- Near Rawah, a strike destroyed six ISIS-held buildings and a vehicle bomb factory.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a fighting position, a weapons cache and an ISIS fuel truck.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect. For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

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Counter-ISIS Strikes Hit Terrorists in Syria, Iraq - Department of Defense