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Supporters of the Iraqi national team wave their national flag during the international friendly soccer game between Iraq and Jordan at Basra International Stadium in Basra, Iraq, June 1, 2017.(photo byHAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/AFP/Getty Images)

Author:Mustafa Saadoun Posted July 9, 2017

BAGHDAD Iraq has been workingto get theFIFA banon its soccer stadiums lifted by hosting showcase gamesand wooing international soccer stars to tour the country's facilities.

The latest gameswere held June 26 and June 29 in Karbala between the Iraqi Olympic team and its Syrian counterpart. Iraq wonthe first game 2-0and the second game ended in a 1-1 tie.

The gamescome as Iraq is trying to getthe international governing body for soccer toliftits ban, which hasbeen in place since 2013. In May, FIFA agreed to let Iraq host unofficial games, or "friendlies," during a three-monthtrial period.Before its gamewith the Syrian Olympic team, the Iraqi national team playedJune 1 against the Jordanian team at Basra International Stadium in southern Iraq. About 65,000 spectatorsturned out to seeIraq win 1-0.

In addition to hostingunofficial games, Iraq is tryingto attractinternational soccer stars to visit its sports facilities.Iraq is preparing to receive a group of international soccer stars to participate in a friendly gamewith Iraq's standout players. On June 18, former Dutch midfielderEdgar Davids arrived in Iraq to explore Basra International Stadium, where the gamewill be played Aug. 1.

The Iraqi people have a passion for [soccer]and the promotional gameswill contribute to lifting the ban imposed on Iraqi soccer, Davids said during his visit.Ahmed Musawi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, greeted Davids.

Musawi told Al-Monitor, There are signs that the ban could be lifted, especially amid the games that Iraq played against Jordan and Syria. We have sensed a great [will] on the part of the Arab and international federations to lift the ban on Iraqi stadiums.

He added, There are international companiesready to cooperate with Iraq in organizing international games. Also, the most prominent gamebetween international and Iraqi soccer stars will take place in August.

Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, former Brazilian soccer stars,former Dutch soccer starClarence Seedorf and Davidsare among the sports celebrities who will be coming toBasra.

A source in the Ministry of Youth and Sports told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Once the friendly games to be held in Iraqi stadiums are over, Iraq will submit a special dossier about those games and the related organizational measures to the International Federation of Football [FIFA], along with videos showing the spectators.

Iraq has seen its share of bans on hosting games. The ban imposed since 2013 came after a coach was killed by security forces and the country wasexperiencingfrequent jihadiattacks. Other safety-related bans were imposed in 1985 during the Iran-Iraq War, in 1990 with the invasion of Kuwait and in 2003 during the US war on Iraq.In 2009, the Iraqi National Olympic Committee disbandedthe Iraq Football Association(IFA) andIraqi security forces took over the IFA's offices. TheFIFA Emergency Committee then suspended the IFA. The Iraqi Olympic Committee and the IFA hada long-running dispute over who was in charge of the country's soccer program.

In a promising sign,the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)allowed Iraq to host a conference game in May between two Iraqi teams:Air Forceand Al-Zawraa.

Though Iraq has had to play all of its official FIFA games outside its own stadiums in recent years, it has managed a number of achievements. It ranked No. 4at the 2004 Athens Olympics,took first place in the West Asian Games in 2005,won the AFC Asian Cup in 2007 and the Arab Cup for Juniors for the first time in 2014.

Thenational team also won the AFC Asian U-22 cup for Olympic teams in 2014, the AFC Asian U-16 cup in 2016 and the AFC Asian U-14 cup in 2014. Also, Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Iraqi soccer clubwon the AFC Cup in 2016. In 2013, Iraq won the World Military Championship for the fourth time.

During a June 1 meeting with theJordanian Football Association president in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, SportsuniteIraqisand lifting the embargo will be a good omen and a security message for a new stage.

Minister of Youth and Sports Abdul-Hussein Abtan also extended an invitationlast month to the US national soccer team to come to Iraq and play a friendly gamewith the Iraqi national team. US Embassy Charge d'Affaires Stephanie Williams said at the time that Iraq had earned a lifting of the ban in part because of thestate of its sports stadiums.

Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/iraq-basra-karbala-stadium-ban-sport-jordan-syria.html

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Iraq hopes to bring FIFA soccer back to its stadiums - Al-Monitor

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 9, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 25 strikes consisting of 75 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 18 strikes consisting of 26 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed two ISIS oil separator tanks, two oil tankers and a wellhead.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, four strikes destroyed 11 ISIS oil stills, three oil-still tanks, three oil tankers, an oil separator tank, a wellhead, and a pump jack.

-- Near Raqqa, 12 strikes engaged 10 ISIS tactical units and destroyed seven fighting positions, two vehicles, a front-end loader, an ISIS communications tower and communications equipment.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of 49 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Huwayjah, one strike destroyed an ISIS fuel point.

-- Near Beiji, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed a tactical vehicle and a bunker.

-- Near Kisik, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit.

-- Near Mosul, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units; destroyed 21 fighting positions, six improvised bombs, four medium machine guns, three staging areas, two rocket-propelled grenade systems and a vehicle-borne-bomb facility; and damaged six fighting positions.

-- Near Rawah, a strike destroyed a vehicle-borne bomb.

Additional July 7 Strikes

Officials today also announced results of nine July 7 strikes for which details were unavailable at the time of yesterday's update:

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, Syria, a strike destroyed an ISIS media facility.

-- Near Raqqa, Syria, six strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units; destroyed five fighting positions, an improvised-bomb factory and a vehicle-borne bomb; and damaged 15 fighting positions.

-- Near Mosul, Iraq, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit; destroyed four medium machine guns, four fighting positions, four garages, three ISIS-held buildings, two vehicles and a weapons cache and damaged four fighting positions and two garages.

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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Strikes Continue in Effort to Defeat ISIS in Syria, Iraq > U.S. ... - Department of Defense

A woman holds an injured girl as Iraqi forces continue their advance against ISIS in Mosul. Felipe Dana / AP

The U.S. military said its priority was to stop people suffering by defeating ISIS as quickly as possible.

"The longer this takes, the more the people will suffer under ISIS," it said.

However, humanitarian workers in Mosul said this sense of urgency trumped their efforts to make coalition forces more mindful of the civilian population packed into a city that had some 1.5 million residents before the conflict started.

Belkis Wille, senior Iraq researcher for Human Rights Watch, told NBC News that in the final push to take Mosul there was a "massive uptick in ground fire" and the use of large 500-1,000-pound crater bombs that cause huge destruction and many deaths.

Human Rights Watch made recommendations to the warring parties to take some of those powerful weapons off the table, Wille said.

But there was a "general feeling among the military forces, 'We need to keep the momentum up. Its better for the civilians of Mosul if we can get ISIS out,'" she said.

For the Iraqi military, ISIS' use of civilians as human shields made some casualties inevitable.

"It is a battle inside towns and cities, so there must be some casualties among civilians when you target ISIS terrorists who are hiding among civilians," Brig. Yahya Rasool, the spokesman of the Iraqi Joint Operation Command, told NBC News in a phone interview.

Rasool said the Iraqi forces' "main concern is to prevent civilian deaths." He defended the U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, saying they were "very precise" and rely on "precise intelligence information."

For the people caught in the crossfire in Mosul over the last few months, it's been a living hell.

"That place, it was absolute death," a man fleeing Mosul's Old City told the AP on Wednesday. "We will never be the same. Once the fear has been planted in your heart, you can't get rid of it."

Meantime, coalition forces have also been closing in on

The city of approximately 220,000 is considerably smaller than Mosul, but it is of immense strategic importance to ISIS militants because they have used it as a base to launch attacks on the West.

In June, the U.N. Human Rights Council denounced the

"Violence continues to be directed against civilians, with complete disrespect for civilian protection," Paulo Srgio Pinheiro, the head of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said in a statement.

The fighting has involved the "unrestrained use of airstrikes against residential neighborhoods, attacks against doctors and hospitals, [and] the use of suicide bombers that deliberately target civilians," he added. "Fighting remains brutal in purpose and reprehensible in method."

He also warned against tactics that involved civilian deaths as collateral damage.

"The imperative to fight terrorism must not, however, be undertaken at the expense of civilians who unwillingly find themselves living in areas where ISIL is present," Pinheiro said.

Kinda Haddad, the head of Syria research at Airwars, has been monitoring U.S.-led coalition air strikes, as well as Russian and Assad regime-led strikes, for the last two and half years. She said she used to see an average of three to ten alleged coalition airstrikes per week but now she regularly sees about 50 per week.

A graph from Airwars tracking the number of U.S. and allied airstrikes on Syria from December 2014-June 2017.

"Earlier the [local] monitors said they knew when the airstrikes were coalition strikes because they were so precise," said Haddad. "But that has changed."

"The trend is telling us something," said Hadid. "The fighting is too intense. Choices can still be made. The preservation of human life should be at the forefront, not an afterthought."

For the aid organizations trying to help civilians fleeing the violence, it has been an extremely challenging experience to say the least.

"This is a very sophisticated conflict," Jonathan Henry, of Doctors Without Borders, told NBC News by phone from Iraq last week. "It is an urban conflict akin to World War II. It is very challenging to work in."

Henry is the outgoing emergency coordinator for the organization, which is also known as Mdecins Sans Frontires, in West Mosul. He said that even for MSF, which specializes in sending medical teams to conflict zones, trying to provide medical care to civilians when doctors are in range of artillery and sniper fire has not been easy.

"The horrific theme of the conflict, where women and children are among the victims, is extremely traumatic," said Henry, who has worked for MSF for the past 12 years in places like Darfur, Ethiopia and Syria.

On one positive note, he said that within days of opening their most recent medical treatment center close to the front line in West Mosul, they had their first baby delivery.

"So life goes on, even in a war zone," he said.

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In Battle Against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, Civilians Suffer Most - NBCNews.com

A top law firm that brought war crime claims against British squaddies in Iraq is being probed over claims employees were ambulance chasing victims of the over the Grenfell Tower disaster .

Leigh Day suspended two trainee solicitors and launched an internal investigation yesterday after The Times discovered that they appeared to have been touting for business among survivors.

The firm said it had been completely unaware of the alleged activities of Harnita Rai and Sejal Sachania, whose names appeared on a poster offering to kick-start insurance claims, contact embassies and draft letters for people affected by the blaze in west London.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner are both examining the poster.

Leigh Day, which was cleared of professional misconduct over the Iraq war allegations, said the paralegals had been suspended.

The firm has no clients connected to Grenfell.

A spokesman said: "Leigh Day have no prior knowledge of the posters displayed around the Grenfell Tower brought to our attention.

"As soon as the posters were brought to our attention, a full internal investigation was commenced under formal protocols. The two individuals concerned have been suspended whilst this investigation takes place.

"Leigh Day would never have given authority for the posters or their display and we are taking this matter extremely seriously."

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Law firm that brought claims against British troops in Iraq is accused of 'ambulance chasing' Grenfell Tower victims - Mirror.co.uk

The late, great Jim White, overnight host on KMOX when radio was king, had certain rules he lived by. One of them was that he wouldnt let callers talk about religion. Reason: Religion is too touchy a topic and the discussions rarely get anywhere.

Nevertheless.

When religion enters the public sector, as it did prominently in two instances last week, the rule goes out the window. One instance was the assertion by Jack Phillips, the Colorado bakery owner whose refusal to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, that Jesus would not have baked such a cake in similar circumstances.

The second instance was the U.S. Department of Justices lawsuit against Hobby Lobby and its president charging that the crafts store had illegally imported thousands of Iraqi artifacts, mislabeling them and lying about their origin. This is the same company that won a 2014 Supreme Court case over its objection to providing contraceptive coverage to its employees because of its owners religious beliefs.

The Hobby Lobby decision was seen as an important religious freedom case. It is a key part of Phillips argument that he should have the religious freedom not to bake a cake for a gay couple.

My personal belief is that any God reflected in any religious text anywhere would look at the Jesus-bakes-a-wedding-cake furor and the apparent flexibility of Hobby Lobbys religious beliefs and say, Really? This is the kind of thing youre arguing about?

Religion, as we have learned through the millennia, is sort of like Spandex: It can be stretched to smooth out all sorts of bumps. Crusades? No problem. Slaughter some Muslims, well make you a saint and name a city in the Midwest after you. Spanish Inquisition? No problem. Hijack some planes and fly them into buildings? Seventy virgins for you, my friend.

Thus Phillips claim, made June 30 on ABCs The View, pales in comparison. I believe the Bible clearly teaches marriage is between one man and one woman, Phillips said. Im not judging these two gay men who came in. Im just trying to preserve my right as an artist to decide which artistic endeavors Im going to do and which ones Im not.

See, hes an artist, not a baker, because an artist might have First Amendment protection that a baker, operating merely under the Commerce Clause, might not. These religious freedom cases attract shrewd lawyers from well-funded legal groups.

Asked by one of The Views hosts what Jesus might have done in his situation, the artist known as Masterpiece Jack said, Would Jesus have made the cake? I dont believe he would have, because that would have contradicted the rest of the biblical teaching. I dont believe that Jesus would have made the cake if he had been a baker.

This touched off one of those social media flaps that make the Internet the worst invention since the hydrogen bomb. Careful reading would have led you to a discussion of Judean cuisine 2,100 years ago and the likelihood (sparse, was the consensus) that a Galilean carpenter of that era would have been taught to bake. The gospels references to Jesus and baked goods are limited to the loaves-and-fishes thing and the Last Supper thing, when he merely shared them.

So thats inconclusive, as are biblical admonitions about homosexuality. We know Jesus had a pretty open attitude about his followers and fierce opposition to Scribes, Pharisees and other hypocrites (whited sepulchers).

Speaking of which, Steve Green, the president of Hobby Lobby and son of the founder, is chairman of the Museum of the Bible. His company has donated $800 million toward the 430,000-square-foot edifice, scheduled to open this fall just two blocks from the National Mall in Washington. At least some of the 5,500 artifacts that the Justice Department said were illegally obtained in Iraq were destined for this temple.

Green admitted being involved in obtaining the artifacts, despite being warned that their provenance was sketchy. The artifacts, labeled as tile samples, were Fed Exd to various Hobby Lobby stores with labels describing Turkey as their country of origin. Payment for them was made with wire transfers to multiple personal bank accounts. The Ten Commandments do not proscribe wire transfers, but one of them concerns bearing false witness.

In a statement, the company said regrettable mistakes were made. Hobby Lobby, which has estimated annual revenues of $4.5 billion, will pay a fine of $3 million. Green said the whole affair had been consistent with the companys mission and passion for the Bible.

Concerning the Bible, its amazing how some people can read the words and not hear the music. Something else Jim White used to say: Protect me from the good people.

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Horrigan: Consult your Bible on Jesus' baked goods and looting Iraq - STLtoday.com