Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Islamic State militants continued their campaign targeting cultural heritage sites in territories they control in northern Iraq, looting and damaging the ancient city of Hatra just one day after bulldozing the historic city of Nimrud, according to Iraqi government officials and local residents.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- "Learn how to drive!" a driver bellowed from his car. But Hassan Khudier just weaved through the bumper-to-bumper traffic on his motorbike. Angry drivers are among the lesser worries when you're a delivery guy in Baghdad.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's top military leader told Congress Thursday that the United States would consider dispatching a modest number of American forces to fight with Iraqi troops as they engage in more complex missions in the campaign against Islamic State militants.

BEIRUT (AP) -- Islamic State group fighters seized at least one cache of weapons airdropped by U.S.-led coalition forces that were meant to supply Kurdish militiamen battling the extremist group in a border town, activists said Tuesday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Iraq's prime minister said Thursday that captive Islamic State militants told his intelligence agents of an alleged plot to attack subways in the United States and Paris.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States said Sunday it "fully supports" Iraq's new president, just hours after embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused him of violating the constitution.

President Barack Obama's new military strategy in Iraq amounts to trying to contain -- not destroy -- the Islamic militant group that now controls much of the country's northern region. That leaves open the questions of how deeply the U.S. will be drawn into the sectarian conflict, and whether airstrikes alone can stop the militants' momentum.

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. unleashed its first airstrikes in northern Iraq against militants of the Islamic State group Friday amid a worsening humanitarian crisis. The extremists took captive hundreds of women from a religious minority, according to an Iraqi official, while thousands of other civilians fled in fear.

President Barack Obama's statement Thursday night on authorizing U.S. airstrikes against Islamic militants in Iraq and airdrops of humanitarian aid for Iraqi religious minorities threatened by the extremists, as provided by the White House:

BEIRUT (AP) -- The Syrian rebels that the U.S. now wants to support are in poor shape, on the retreat from the radical al-Qaida breakaway group that has swept over large parts of Iraq and Syria, with some rebels giving up the fight. It is not clear whether the new U.S. promise to arm them will make a difference.