Democracy Now! June 13, 2012

June 13, 2012 from Democracy Now! via Creative Commons License BY-NC-ND

Has a full-blown civil war broken out in Syria? Hervé Ladsous, the UN under-secretary general for peacekeeping operations, became the first senior UN official to make the assertion on Tuesday. And more US soldiers have died this year by taking their own lives than on the battlefield, with at least 154 suicides among active-duty troops in 2012. Plus headlines, and more.

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Iraq

Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia encompassing the Mesopotamian alluvial plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the... Explore this topic

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of the Republic of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Province. The population of Baghdad as of 2011 is approximately 7,216,040, making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab World, and the second largest city in Western A... Explore this topic

Car bomb

A car bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device, is an improvised explosive device placed inside a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupa... Explore this topic

Kirkuk

Kirkuk is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate. It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, 236 kilometres north of the capital, Baghdad. Kirkuk city lies 83 km south of Arbil, 149 km southeast of Mosul, 97 km west of Sulaymaniyah, and 116 km northeast Ti... Explore this topic

Al Hillah

Hillah, also spelled Hilla or Al Hillah is a city in central Iraq on the Hilla branch of the Euphrates River, 100 km south of Baghdad. The population is estimated at 364,700 in 1998. It is the capital of Babylon Province and is located adjacent to the ancient city of Babylon, ... Explore this topic

Shia Islam

The Shia represent the largest schismatic sect in Islam, accounting for 10-20% of the world's normative body of Muslims. Adherents of Shia Islam are called Shi'ites or Shias. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase Shīʻatul ʻAlī, meaning "followers", "faction", or "par... Explore this topic

Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam; its adherents are referred to in Arabic as ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʻah, "people of the tradition of Muhammad and the consensus of the Ummah" or ahl as-sunnah. For short, in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis, Sunnites or... Explore this topic

Sectarian Violence

Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is violence inspired by sectarianism, that is, between different sects of one particular mode of ideology or religion within a nation/community. Religious segregation often plays a role in sectarian violence. Explore this topic

Explosion

An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. Supersonic explosions created by high explosives are known as detonations and travel via supersonic shock waves. Su... Explore this topic

Sectarianism

Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political mo... Explore this topic

Also See

Syria

Syrian Civil War

Civil war

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