Iraqi soldier shoots and kills U.S. troops

An Iraqi soldier shot and killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded at least six others Wednesday in Mosul, the American military said. As the shootings occurred in northern Iraq, violence continued in Baghdad, with at least 25 people killed in bombings across the capital. | 11/12/08 17:18:00 By - Leila Fadel

Opening of bridge reconnects Shiite, Sunni Iraqis

The Shiites approached the Aimma bridge from Baghdad's Shiite district of Kadhimiyah, and the Sunnis came from the Sunni side of Adhamiyah on Tuesday. When they met in the middle, they hugged and then cried over the waters of the Tigris River. | 11/11/08 19:07:00 By - Laith Hammoudi

Kurdish expansion squeezes northern Iraq's minorities

Murad Kashtu al Asi is a member of the ancient Yazidi sect, most of whom consider themselves Kurdish. In the complex and often violent landscape of Iraq, the community, estimated at a few hundred thousand, is at the center of a tug of war over land between mostly Arab Iraq to the south and mostly Kurdish Iraq to the north. | 11/11/08 16:08:00 By - Leila Fadel

Baghdad street sweepers clear bodies after bombings

Three or more explosions Monday ripped through a busy shopping district in northern Baghdad's Adhamiyah neighborhood, at killing at least 28 people and wounding at least 68. | 11/10/08 19:04:39 By - Hussein Kadhim and Leila Fadel

Need a job? Kentuckian suggests you consider Iraq

"Iraq is open for business," says Maurey Bond. He should know. He's been there since February. The 31-year-old Lexington native and University of Kentucky graduate is general manager of the Iraqi Airways International Business Center near the Baghdad International Airport. | 11/10/08 07:44:50 By - Jim Jordan

Iraqi refugees get help in adapting to U.S. life

It didn't take long for parishioners at St. Matthew Church in Ceres, Calif., to launch a plan to help a wave of Iraqi refugees who began settling in Stanislaus County last summer. Their church is a natural magnet for Iraqi Christians because many of its members are Iraqi immigrants themselves. | 11/10/08 07:43:56 By - Adam Ashton

Iraqis seek more 'withdrawal' talks; U.S. says they're over

The United States delivered Thursday what it said was the final text of the controversial accord on the stationing of U.S. forces in Iraq, but Iraq said more talks are needed before the government can accept it. "We have gotten back to the Iraqi government with a final text. Through this step, we have concluded the process on the U.S. side," said Susan Ziadeh, the U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Baghdad. "Iraq will now need to take it forward through their own process." | 11/06/08 17:53:00 By - Leila Fadel, Nancy A. Youssef and Warren P. Strobel

Iraqis worry about Obama, while many GIs celebrate

Iraqis didn't dance in the streets or hold late-night viewing parties to herald the election of a new president of the United States. Many didn't have electricity to follow the television coverage of Barack Obama's ascent to president-elect. | 11/05/08 16:22:00 By - Leila Fadel and Corinne Reilly

Iraqi minorities 'insulted' by new provincial assemblies law

The Iraqi parliament approved legislation Monday that allocates six seats in provinces to small ethnic and religious communities in the upcoming provincial elections, but Christians, Yazidis and Shabaks asked for the law to be overturned on the grounds that they remained underrepresented. | 11/03/08 17:23:00 By - Leila Fadel

Iraq still thirsting for water that's safe to drink

Violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq in recent months, but the fight for a better life is just beginning. From electricity and health care to education and the economy, Iraq has many needs, and safe drinking water is among the most urgent. | 11/03/08 14:15:00 By - Corinne Reilly

Amid Iraq's violence, a radio station gives people hope

Sumer FM is Iraq's most popular independent radio station. It broadcasts from a state-of-the-art, brightly decorated studio in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood, and its signal reaches every corner of the country. It's been the one thing Iraqis could count on, even through the most violent months when people were too frightened to so much as leave their homes. | 11/01/08 14:02:00 By - Corinne Reilly

Petraeus confronts his next challenge: Afghanistan

Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander who's been hailed for bringing stability to Iraq, became the 11th head of the U.S. Central Command on Friday, tasked with reshaping military efforts in America's other war, Afghanistan. | 10/31/08 16:48:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Another success? Iraqi mayor Bush once hailed flees to U.S.

Two years ago, President Bush hailed Najim al Jabouri as a symbol of success in the battle to curb Iraq's sectarian violence. Today, Jabouri is a symbol of how uncertain that success is. Last month, Jabouri quietly left Tal Afar, the ancient city near Iraq's desert border with Syria where he was the police chief and the mayor, collected his wife and four children and flew to safety in the United States. | 10/30/08 16:55:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

Iraq revises draft troop deal; U.S. likely to reject changes

Among the amendments: Iraqi authorities would have the right to determine whether a U.S. service member was on- or off-duty when he or she committed an alleged crime outside American bases and to decide where the service member would be tried. It also would allow authorities to inspect all U.S. cargo entering the nation. | 10/28/08 19:45:00 By - Leila Fadel

Iraqi may hang for murders of 2 U.S. soldiers

An alleged al Qaida in Iraq member should be hanged for his role in the 2006 kidnapping, torture and execution of two American soldiers, an Iraqi court decided Tuesday. | 10/28/08 15:55:00 By - Corinne Reilly

U.S. lists services it'll cut off if Iraq rejects pact on troops

Among the items the U.S. military has told Iraqi officials the U.S. will stop if a new agreement on U.S. troops isn't approved: air traffic control, SWAT team training, advisers in government ministries, and border patrols. The U.S. military would stop employing some 200,000 Iraqis and wouldn't refurbish 8,500 Humvees it's given to the Security Forces. | 10/27/08 18:26:00 By - Leila Fadel

As clock ticks, U.S. letting thousands of Iraqi prisoners go

The United Nations mandate that's allowed the United States to operate in Iraq will expire at the end of this year. What will happen after that, both to American military operations in the country and to the way the U.S. handles its prisoners, isn't clear. U.S. officials says most of the 17,000 people they hold aren't dangerous. | 10/27/08 14:30:00 By - Corinne Reilly

CIA led mystery Syria raid that killed terrorist leader

A CIA-led raid on a compound in eastern Syria killed an al Qaida in Iraq commander who oversaw the smuggling into Iraq of foreign fighters whose attacks claimed thousands of Iraqi and American lives, three U.S. officials said Monday. The body of Badran Turki Hishan al Mazidih, an Iraqi national who used the nom de guerre Abu Ghadiya, was flown out of Syria on a U.S. helicopter. | 10/27/08 13:58:01 By - Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef

Iraq's prime minister won't sign U.S. troop deal

Fearing political division in the parliament and in his country, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki won't sign the just-completed agreement on the status of U.S. troops in Iraq, a leading Iraqi lawmaker told McClatchy Friday. The accord's demise would be a major setback for the Bush administration. | 10/24/08 18:07:00 By - Roy Gutman

Iraqis take over security of once-violent province

The U.S. military formally handed control over Babil province to Iraqi security forces during a ceremony Thursday morning in the once-violent central state. The Iraqi army and local police are now responsible for security in 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces, though U.S. forces continue to assist across the country. | 10/23/08 13:59:00 By - Corinne Reilly

Suicide car bomber kills at least 13 in Baghdad

A suicide car bomber aiming for a government convoy killed at least 13 people and injured two dozen more in Baghdad on Thursday morning, police and government officials said. Some of the victims died when one of the cars in the convoy, blown into the air, landed on them. | 10/23/08 06:50:03 By - Corinne Reilly and Jenan Hussein

Enough Joe the Plumber; here's to Kareem the Soldier

"Joe the Plumber" was only one of two Americans injected into the presidential election this past week. The other was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, whom former Secretary of State Colin Powell invoked in his endorsement Sunday of Barack Obama.Khan was a 20-year-old soldier from Manahawkin, N.J., who wanted to enlist in the Army from the time he was 10. He was an all-American boy who visited Disney World after he completed his training at Fort Benning, Ga., and made his comrades in Iraq watch "Saving Private Ryan" every week. When he died in Iraq, his father said Tuesday, he was fighting for America — and his faith. | 10/21/08 19:25:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Iraq's unschooled children evidence of devastation's depth

At age 14, Ahmad Razaq has worked more jobs than he can count. He's painted houses, cleaned office buildings and supervised a janitorial crew. Lately he spends his days washing cars for a few dollars a week outside a dingy hotel in Baghdad. He's never set foot inside a classroom. He's only heard about school from friends. He can't read or write, and he figures he never will. | 10/21/08 15:21:00 By - Corinne Reilly

Thousands rally in Iraq against proposed U.S troop deal

Muqtada al Sadr, a widely influential Shiite cleric who called for the demonstration, issued a statement demanding that Iraq's parliament reject the deal that would allow U.S. troops to stay in Iraq until the end of 2011. The deal still must be approved by Iraq's parliament. | 10/18/08 14:11:00 By - Hussein Kadhim and Corinne Reilly

Deal on U.S. troops faces possibly fatal objections in Iraq

A draft agreement by U.S. and Iraqi negotiators that calls for withdrawing Amercan troops by 2012 appears to be facing obstacles in Iraq that could kill the deal before it's implemented, lawmakers in Baghdad said. Negotiators completed the draft this week. Now both governments are reviewing it. | 10/17/08 18:24:00 By - Corinne Reilly and Nancy A. Youssef

Al Qaida in Iraq leader killed in raid, U.S. says

A suspected terrorist killed by American troops in a raid earlier this month has been identified as al Qaida in Iraq's No. 2 leader, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Abu Qaswarah, also known as Abu Sara, died Oct. 5 in the northern city of Mosul during a firefight between suspected al Qaida members and American soldiers raiding a building where they believed Qaswarah was hiding. | 10/15/08 18:44:00 By - Corinne Reilly and Hussein Kadhim

3 Iraqis charged in torture and killing of 2 U.S. soldiers

U.S. and Iraqi authorities have gathered physical evidence and eyewitness statements linking three alleged al Qaida in Iraq members to the 2006 kidnapping, torture and execution of two American soldiers, American officials close to the case said Wednesday. | 10/15/08 17:38:00 By - Corinne Reilly

Iraqi VP: U.S., Iraq won't reach accord on troops this year

With the United Nations mandate authorizing U.S. forces to be in Iraq expiring on Dec. 31, that means the U.S. may not have a legitimate right to remain in the country, Tariq al Hashimi, Iraq's Sunni Muslim vice president, told McClatchy. Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki told a London newspaper that if there were no agreement "U.S. forces will be confined to their bases." | 10/13/08 19:12:00 By - Leila Fadel

Iraqis are being attacked and killed for returning to their homes

Haj Ali's family had been home for less than a month when a makeshift bomb blew off part of his garage. The message was clear: Go back to wherever you came from. In Baghdad, where most of the sectarian cleansing has taken place, about 8 percent of the people who moved within the country have gone back to their neighborhoods, according to the International Organization for Migration. | 10/13/08 17:33:00 By - Corinne Reilly

U.S. troops now serve as welcome wagon in Baghdad

It was dark, just after 8 p.m. in Ghazaliyah, a sprawling neighborhood in west Baghdad, and a platoon of American soldiers was out knocking on doors. Lucas Stump, a 26-year-old Army lieutenant from Michigan, pulled out a typed list of addresses. "I think it's here," he said, pointing to a gated house in one of Ghazaliyah's nicer, cleaner corners. The Iraqi Army officer accompanying the Americans nodded in agreement. | 10/13/08 16:52:00 By - Corinne Reilly

Thousands of Christians flee killings in Mosul

Christians in Mosul are fleeing their homes after a spate of killings this week that left 12 Christians dead in one of the largest Christian communities in Iraq. The killings follow large protests by the community last month against the passage of the provincial elections law. An article that would give representation to Christians and other minorities was removed from the law before its passage. | 10/11/08 18:43:00 By - Leila Fadel

Economy's bust is a boon for military's recruiting effort

The economic crisis could help the military recruit and retain troops, Pentagon officials said Friday, potentially ending years of extraordinary bonuses and waivers that have become necessary to keep enough troops to fight two wars. The U.S. military spent $750 million on recruiting bonuses in the past year. | 10/10/08 17:55:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Assassinations replacing car bombs in Iraq

U.S. and Iraqi officials are seeing a shift in violence in Iraq from mass car bombings to assassinations using magnetic bombs, weapons with silencers and bicycle bombs. As provincial elections approach, some officials worry that assassinations will increase as political parties try to eradicate their competitors. | 10/09/08 17:56:00 By - Leila Fadel

Iraqi provincial elections likely to be held early next year

Iraq's presidency council passed a critical law Wednesday to organize provincial elections that were originally scheduled for Oct. 1 and now are likely to be held sometime early next year. | 10/08/08 16:21:00 By - Leila Fadel

New U.S. intelligence report warns 'victory' not certain in Iraq

A nearly completed high-level U.S. intelligence analysis warns that unresolved ethnic and sectarian tensions in Iraq could unleash a new wave of violence, potentially reversing the major security and political gains achieved over the last year. | 10/07/08 17:15:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay, Warren P. Strobel and Nancy A. Youssef

Saddam now seen as 'Father of Martyrs' by visitors to his grave

In the hometown of Saddam Hussein, they still call the late dictator The President. Inside a hall that once held an office Saddam used once or twice a year lies his tomb. A sheet embroidered with gold covers the burial site: "There is no God but God and Mohammed is his messenger." | 10/07/08 16:14:00 By - Leila Fadel

Fewer black funeral banners blanket Baghdad

When a loved one dies in Iraq, hanging a black banner is the first order of business. It is a custom that existed here long before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, but over the last five and a half years, the banners have taken on new meaning. They are an informal measure of security, a way for residents to gauge whether their neighborhood is becoming more or less dangerous. | 10/05/08 14:47:00 By - Corinne Reilly

11 Iraqis killed in U.S. raid in Mosul

Eleven members of an Iraqi family were killed Sunday during a U.S. raid in Mosul, including three women and three children, officials said. Neighbors told Iraqi police in Mosul that the family was peaceful, but the U.S. military said five of the dead were terrorists who had targeted American soldiers. | 10/05/08 14:46:00 By - Corinne Reilly and Yasseem Taha

Displaced Iraqis, now told to go home, fear for their lives

For all the debate in the United States about whether the surge has succeeded, there's no debate in the camps of displaced people throughout Iraq. Forced from their homes by the years of sectarian violence, they've now been told to go home by Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration. But many are unwilling, saying friends and family have told them it would mean death. | 10/05/08 11:09:52 By - Leila Fadel

Iraq's presidency agrees to provincial-elections law

Iraq's presidency council has agreed to approve a long-delayed law that sets provincial elections for early next year. Iraq's parliament passed the elections law late last month, and approval from Iraq's three-man presidency council is the last formal hurdle the measure must clear. | 10/03/08 13:52:00 By - Corinne Reilly

Blasts kill 20 Shiite worshippers in Iraq on Muslim holiday

Two suicide bombers targeting Shiite worshipers killed at least 20 people and injured dozens more at Baghdad mosques Thursday morning, officials said. Both attacks took place around 8 a.m. in south east Baghdad, about four miles apart. They came as Shiites marked the first day of Eid, a three-day celebration that follows Ramadan, Islam's holy month. | 10/02/08 06:45:30 By - Corinne Reilly, Sahar Issa and Jenan Hussein

Surge test: Will Iraq's government back Sunni militias?

The success of the U.S. troop surge in Iraq was possible in large part because of the creation of Sunni Muslim militias that rose up against Islamic extremists and allied themslves with U.S. forces. Now the control of those forces is passing to the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. American officials are watching closely, worried that the transition won't go well. | 09/30/08 17:27:00 By - Leila Fadel

Cost of massive unemployment in Iraq could be paid in blood

For Raad Abdulsada, every day starts the same way. He wakes up at sunrise, heads to a busy, dusty corner in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood and waits for work. Most days, the waiting is in vain. Abdulsada's struggle is anything but rare here in Baghdad. | 09/30/08 15:52:00 By - Corinne Reilly

A bloody Sunday in Baghdad, in spite of the surge

The five explosions that ripped through central and southwestern Baghdad Sunday, killing at least 33 and injuring at least 111, were a bloody reminder that despite the drop in violence in Iraq the bloodshed is hardly over. | 09/30/08 07:42:48 By - Mohammed al Dulaimy and Leila Fadel

Once again, Iraq's Ramadan ends in violence

Every year since the U.S.-led invasion, violence has spiked across Iraq during Ramadan, the ninth month of lunar calendar, when the Koran is said to have been revealed to the prophet Muhammad. Muslims celebrate Ramadan, which ends this week, by fasting from dawn to dusk, asking forgiveness for their sins and doing good deeds. They break the fast with iftar, an evening meal. | 09/29/08 17:36:00 By - Corinne Reilly

Al Qaida gunmen kill dozens of Iraqi policemen in Diyala province

Gunmen thought to be affiliated with Al Qaida in Iraq ambushed and killed 27 Iraqi policemen and eight anti-Qaida fighters near Baqouba on Wednesday, police and hospital officials said. | 09/24/08 18:17:00 By - Corinne Reilly and Hussein Kadhim

Iraqi parliament approves crucial election law

After months of infighting, Iraq's parliament unanimously passed a crucial law Wednesday governing provincial elections. | 09/24/08 10:32:00 By - Corinne Reilly

Army ordered to discharge soldier who found religion in Iraq

A federal judge in Alaska has ordered the U.S. Army to grant conscientious objector status and an honorable discharge to Pfc. Michael Barnes, a Fort Richardson-based paratrooper who said he experienced a religious awakening in Iraq two years ago that left him opposed to war in any form. The decision by U.S. District Judge John Sedwick supersedes the Army's decision last year to deny Barnes' request. | 09/23/08 08:02:26 By - George Bryson

Shell becomes first international oil firm to open Baghdad office since '70s

Royal Dutch Shell PLC opened an office Monday in Iraq, the first major oil and gas firm to set up a new operation here since the industry was nationalized in the 1970s. Iraq has some of the largest proven crude-oil reserves in the world, and other firms are expected to follow suit. | 09/22/08 18:08:00 By - Leila Fadel

U.S. strike kills civilians, Iraqis say

At least eight civilians including women were killed in a U.S. air strike near Tikrit, Friday, Iraqi police and witnesses said. The people were all from one family. The attack which a U.S. military statement said targeted a "terrorist" that is accused of running a bomb making ring happened in the town of Dawr, northwest of Baghdad. | 09/19/08 20:03:12 By - Leila Fadel and Laith Hammoudi

U.S. soldier in iraq shoots 2 American sergeants

An American soldier shot and killed two U.S. sergeants Sunday morning at a base southeast of Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said Thursday. The shooter's name and rank haven't been released, and the military would say only that the soldier is being held pending a review by a military magistrate. The dead men are Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson, of Pensacola, Fla., and Sgt. Wesley Durbin, of Dallas. | 09/18/08 16:51:00 By - Nicholas Spangler

Odierno: Former door-kicker now reflects Iraq progress

Soon after he took over as the new U.S. military commander in Iraq Tuesday, Gen. Raymond T. Oderino greeted the U.S. troops standing before him in Arabic: "As-Salam Alaikum," or peace be upon you. For a soldier once known for his aggressive tactics and his impatience with local residents, his budding Arabic marked an extraordinary evolution. | 09/16/08 19:11:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Suicide bomber attacks coming-home party in Iraq

A woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up Monday at a coming-home party for an Iraqi police sergeant detained by U.S. forces for almost a year, killing 22 people and wounding 33, a high-ranking official said. | 09/15/08 18:39:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Mohammed al Dulaimy

Petraeus, credited with Iraq progress, recalls agonizing day in '07

Nineteen months ago, when Gen. David Petraeus returned to Iraq to take command of the U.S.-led coalition, he toured Dora, a Sunni Muslim district of Baghdad that had been decimated in sectarian fighting, bombings and attacks on Americans, and wondered whether he'd made a big mistake. | 09/15/08 18:45:00 By - Leila Fadel

Iraqi lawmaker could face charges for traveling to Israel

Parliament on Sunday suspended legal immunity for secular Sunni lawmaker Mithal Alusi, opening him up to possible felony charges for traveling to Israel last week to participate in an international counter-terrorism conference. Alusi is the only Iraqi politician in recent years to publicly visit Israel, a country declared an enemy of state by Iraqi law. | 09/14/08 18:30:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Mohammed al Dulaimy

Television crew is slain in northern Iraq

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi TV crew brought the gifts that had come to be the trademark of their reality show: some basic household appliances and a delicious supper to break the Ramadan fast for a family of little means. | 09/14/08 18:02:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Hussein Kadhim

Iraqi government reassures the Awakening, but fighters are wary

The Iraqi government will not turn its back on the men who paid in blood for the country's fragile peace, said the officials on stage in the ballroom at Baghdad's al-Rasheed Hotel, referring to U.S.-paid Sunni militias. But the Awakening leaders listened warily. "I don't trust a word they said," said one, afterward. | 09/11/08 17:27:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Mohammed al Dulaimy

Displaced Iraqis live under stands in soccer stadium

Qader Abdullah Rasoul visited Kirkuk Stadium the day it opened and thought it beautiful. The lush turf was newly laid, and the stands were smooth concrete, steeply tiered to seat tens of thousands of soccer fans. Now Rasoul lives in the stadium along with 2,500 others, mostly Kurds. It's a dirty, sewage-ridden slum and Rasoul is the unofficial mayor. | 09/10/08 16:31:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Mohammed al Dulaimy

Iraqi parliament still gridlocked over provincial-election law

BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers returned from their summer recess Tuesday, still gridlocked over the critical law on provincial elections and with no new vote in sight. | 09/09/08 20:20:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Sahar Issa

Experts: Bush's Iraq withdrawal small because gains are, too

President Bush's announcement Tuesday that he'll maintain troop levels in Iraq through the end of his presidency suggests that despite his claim that the surge of additional U.S. troops in Iraq has succeeded, the security gains could be temporary, defense officials and experts said. | 09/09/08 19:23:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef and Jonathan S. Landay

Iraq signs a natural-gas deal; Iraqi guards shoot pedestrian

Under the agreement approved Sunday, Shell will build the infrastructure to capture and purify the 700 million cubic feet of gas now being burned off every day at the southern oil wells to relieve pressure on the reservoirs below. A Shell official said that's enough fuel to produce electricity for all Iraq. | 09/08/08 18:48:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Hussein Kadhim

Is Odierno ready to be the No. 1 U.S. commander in Iraq?

Gen. David Petraeus cast such an enormous shadow the last two years that only the most fervent Army watcher could probably say who the No. 2 was during the critical "surge" period in Iraq. For the record, he is Gen. Raymond Odierno, a mountain of a man who looks straight out of central casting for a butt-kickin’ Army general. | 09/08/08 06:51:53 By - Chris Vaughn

Iraqi minister in Kuwait to seek relief from war reparations

Iraq's finance minister traveled to Kuwait on Sunday to seek relief from paying the $8.3 billion in reparations that the U.N. awarded Kuwait as compensation for Saddam Hussein's 1991 invasion of that country. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called on Arab nations to forgive debts incurred by Saddam's regime, but they have been slow to do so. | 09/07/08 10:20:00 By - Nicholas Spangler

U.S. troops cast lines for elusive Saddam bass

By 8 in the morning it was hot, and Chief Warrant Officer Scott Henry, the custodian of the Baghdad Angler's Club and School of Fly Fishing, sat in the shadow of a palace pillar. More palaces were all around the lake, and directly across from him was al Faw Palace, bigger and uglier than the rest. | 09/03/08 17:23:00 By - Nicholas Spangler

Maliki's growing defiance of U.S. worries allies and critics

A week ago, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki at a meeting with tribal sheikhs insisted that a firm date be set for a U.S. withdrawal in a security agreement that has been under intense negotiations for months. That rankled U.S. officials, who'd publicly assured reporters that the deal was virtually done. | 09/01/08 06:00:00 By - Leila Fadel

Chalabi aide arrested on suspicion of Baghdad bombings

U.S. forces have arrested a deputy of Ahmad Chalabi, who was once the Bush administration's favorite Iraqi politician, and implicated him in bombings that killed Americans and Iraqis, Chalabi and Iraqi government officials said Thursday. | 08/28/08 19:05:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Hussein Kadhim

Car bomb kills at least 25 in Diyala province

At least 25 people were killed and 45 injured Tuesday morning when a car bomber detonated his vehicle at a police recruitment center in Jalula, northeast of Baqouba in Diyala province, Iraqi police said. | 08/26/08 11:14:00 By - Yasseen Taha and Leila Fadel

Iraq bombing kills at least 25 police recruits in Diyala

The bomber struck in Jalowlaa, northeast of Baqouba in Diyala province, outside a recruiting center where members of the U.S-backed Sons of Iraq militia were signing up to join the Iraqi government's security forces. A doctor who'd treated the wounded said there were at least 30 dead, higher than the police death toll. | 08/26/08 10:46:01 By - Yasseen Taha and Leila Fadel

Dazed Iraqi teen suicide bomber says she didn't want to die

The 15-year-old girl had the chubby cheeks of a child when she was arrested Sunday by an alert policeman who chained her to the bars of a window, stripped off her dress, found an explosive vest and deactivated the bomb. Had he not, Rania would have been this year's 31st suicide bomber in Iraq. On Monday, she spoke about the people who put her up to it: the relatives who drugged her; her husband, whom police accuse of being a member of al Qaida in Iraq, and her mother, who seemed to play a central role in turning Rania into a human bomb.

Maliki demands 'specifc deadline' for U.S. troop pullout

In a direct challenge to the Bush administration, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said there would be no security agreement with the United States without a fixed timetable for U.S. troops to leave. "There should be a specific deadline and it should not be open," Maliki said. | 08/25/08 15:17:00 By - Leila Fadel

In search of song amid sounds of war in Baghdad

"I am living between heaven and hell /My day is night and my night is day /Grief and pain" — Umm Kulthoum, the late Egyptian singer | 08/23/08 06:00:00 By - Leila Fadel

Diyala raid was rogue operation, Iraqi government says

The Iraqi paramilitary unit that stormed a government complex in Iraq's Diyala province earlier this week usually is directed by the prime minister's office. But the Iraqi government said the unit was acting without orders when it arrested a provincial official and killed another, the Iraqi government said Friday. | 08/22/08 18:02:00 By - Nicholas Spangler

Petraeus: Iraq slows hiring of former insurgents

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, said Thursday that the Iraqi government had been purposefully slow in absorbing into its security forces tens of thousands of mostly former Sunni insurgents who'd joined U.S.-financed militias. "This is how you end these kinds of conflicts. That's why they call it reconciliation," he said. | 08/21/08 18:55:00 By - Leila Fadel

Iraq still demanding withdrawal date, right to try U.S. troops

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Iraq Thursday in an effort to convince Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to consent to an agreement governing the conduct of U.S. forces in Iraq that will be needed when the U.N. mandate for U.S. military operations in Iraq expires at the end of this year. | 08/21/08 18:31:00 By - Leila Fadel and Jonathan S. Landay

Key U.S. Iraq strategy in danger of collapse

The Iraqi government is failing to absorb tens of thousands of former Sunni Muslim insurgents who'd joined U.S.-allied militia groups into the country's security forces and may soon move to disarm and arrest them. Some militia members say such a move would force them into open warfare with the government again. | 08/21/08 07:58:00 By - Leila Fadel

Rice meets with Iraq's Maliki on U.S. troop agreement

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Thursday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki in an effort to close the gap between U.S. and Iraqi negotiators on an agreement that would govern the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year. Iraqi officials have said Maliki has held up completion of the agreement because he is seeking greater authority over the conduct of American troops. | 08/21/08 05:00:01 By - Jonathan S. Landay

U.S. denounces chaotic Iraqi raid

The U.S. military on Wednesday denounced a chaotic raid conducted by an Iraqi special forces unit Tuesday morning that killed an Iraqi government employee and sparked a gunfight with police in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad. | 08/20/08 15:44:00 By - Nicholas Spangler

Iraqi army seizes 2 Sunni officials in chaotic pre-dawn raid

Iraqi forces raided the provincial government compound in Diyala Province in a chaotic operation early Tuesday, killing the governor's secretary and seizing computers and cars before local police engaged them in a two-hour gun battle, police and local officials said. | 08/19/08 17:36:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Laith Hammoudi

Iraqi army raid in Diyala leaves provincial official dead

Iraqi forces raided the provincial government compound in Diyala early Tuesday morning, killing the governor's secretary and confiscating computers and cars before local police engaged them in a two-hour gun battle, police and local officials said. | 08/19/08 12:12:40 By - Nicholas Spangler and Laith Hammoudi

Iraqi forces move en masse against insurgent hotbed

More than 600 arrests of high-level and not-so-high-level al Qaida in Iraq suspects have been made here in the last two weeks. There've been some major rough spots — insurgents have mounted at least three lethal attacks against Iraqi security forces, and they tried to kill the provincial governor Tuesday — but it seems that Operation Glad Tidings, which brought more than 30,000 Iraqi troops and policemen into Baqouba and the surrounding countryside of Diyala province, is moving from the clear-and-hold phase to the public relations phase. | 08/12/08 17:03:31 By - Nicholas Spangler and Hussein Kadhim

Jordan's King Abdullah makes first visit to post-Saddam Iraq

On Monday, King Abdullah II of Jordan became the first Arab head of state to visit Iraq since Saddam Hussein's regime collapsed in 2003. Iraqi officials heralded the brief and previously unannounced visit as a sign that their Arab neighbors finally were shedding their fear of a government that they'd seen as religiously and ethnically divided. | 08/11/08 16:29:00 By - Leila Fadel

Violence continues in Iraqi province despite amnesty offer

The Iraqi government on Monday suspended a massive military operation in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, offering a limited amnesty to insurgents who surrender by the end of the week. | 08/11/08 14:50:00 By - Nicholas Spangler

Sadr promises to disband militia if U.S. sets Iraq withdrawal date

| 08/08/08 16:19:00 By - Leila Fadel

Looking for suicide bombers in Iraq is no easy task

The Iraqi National Police came in the middle of the night and roused the three women from their sleep. For 14 days, they were held, suspected of preparing to carry out deadly suicide attacks and recruit other women to do the same. On Thursday, they were sent home. Were they future bombers? Maybe. Maybe not. | 08/08/08 15:39:00 By - Leila Fadel

First person: Embedded with Iraqi army, where saluting is optional

I flew into Diyala province, hoping to meet some Iraqi soldiers taking the offensive against Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias there. Instead, I got embedded with the guard company of an Iraqi general, and the closest I got to any fighting was the night when somebody fired his Kalashnikov rifle by mistake during a feast at the provincial governor's house. | 08/08/08 14:25:00 By - Nick Spangler

Iraq's Sadr offers to give up fight if U.S. withdrawal date set

Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr has agreed to disband an elite fighting force within his militant movement designed to fight Americans if negotiations between the United States and Iraq set a firm timetable for withdrawal of American troops, his top aide said Friday. The offer is a potent incentive to the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to continue to press U.S. for a firm withdrawal date in talks over a security agreement. | 08/08/08 10:16:13 By - Leila Fadel

U.S. agrees to set withdrawal date with Iraq

The United States and Iraq are nearing completion of negotiations on a security agreement that would pull American troops out of Iraqi cities by next July and foresees all U.S. combat troops gone from Iraq by 2011, according to two Iraqi officials who are familiar with the negotiations. | 08/07/08 19:03:00 By - Leila Fadel

Iraqi parliament adjourns without setting elections

After weeks of late-night negotiations and under intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi lawmakers failed to pass a much-debated provincial elections law Wednesday before adjourning for the month.The latest move by parliament underscores the great divide between security and political progress in Iraq. While violence is at a record low, progress on the political front is lagging. | 08/06/08 17:30:00 By - Leila Fadel

GAO: Iraq's oil profits huge as U.S. bears reconstruction load

Iraq has benefited handsomely from this year's surge in oil prices and is well-positioned financially to shoulder a greater share of its own economic and security needs, the GAO reported Tuesday. Yet Iraqi government expenditures have declined since 2005, even as the U.S. Congress has appropriated roughly $48 billion since 2003 for efforts to stabilize and reconstruct the invaded nation. | 08/05/08 18:41:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Squatters in Iraqi buildings fear they'll soon be on the street

Tens of thousands of Iraqis found shelter in government and abandoned public properties after the U.S.-led invasion upended their lives. Now the government has ordered many out of their temporary homes, from Kirkuk in the north to Basra in the south, worsening Iraq's already enormous problem of displaced people. s. | 08/04/08 15:16:00 By - Leila Fadel

In Iraq, waiting for a lift to Baqouba with Tila Tequila

If you ever have a chance to hitch a ride from Baghdad to Baqouba on a Black Hawk helicopter at night in the middle of a minor sandstorm, don't take it. This isn't a knock on the pilots of the 1st Infantry Division's Combat Aviation Brigade, who are experts at their trade. But to save wear and tear on their machines from sand can mean hours on metal chairs and no snacks, unless you count Special K cereal in one-portion plastic cups. | 08/04/08 14:25:00 By - Nicholas Spangler

Battle over oil-rich city threatens to derail Iraqi elections

Despite intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi legislators Sunday failed to reach an agreement to solve an increasingly bitter dispute over the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk. The parliament's inability to resolve the dispute over the city mirrors Iraqi political leaders' inability to make progress on other fronts despite the recent improvements in security. | 08/03/08 17:24:00 By - Leila Fadel and Sahar Issa

Iraqis no longer ask, 'Are you Sunni or Shiite?'

The deadly sectarianism that has been so much a part of Iraq in the past few years seems to be fading. Residents say they can now visit relatives in neighborhoods of opposite sects without fear. Taxi drivers can travel around blast walls to neighborhoods outside their own sect. Sunnis can get medical care at Shiite-run hospitals. Shiites who used to signal their religious affiliation at checkpoints to avoid harassment say such moves now are likely to earn a rebuke. | 08/03/08 13:14:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Iraq is safer, but the war isn't over, U.S. commander says

It seemed like another routine trip as the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq boarded his helicopter in Amara, where a battalion of U.S. troops is based. Only two months ago, however, the smuggling hub on the Iranian border was a stronghold of Shiite Muslim militants, a place that no American general without a death wish would visit. The climate has changed, said Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III. | 07/31/08 17:31:00 By - Leila Fadel

Firebrand cleric tells followers not to attack Iraqi government forces

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr on Wednesday offered full support for Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's government if it refuses to sign an agreement President Bush has sought to allow semi-permanent stationing of U.S. troops in Iraq. Sadr warned at the same time that he would oppose any agreement between Iraq and the United States. | 07/30/08 19:02:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Mohammed Al Dulaimy

Some Iraq athletes will go to Olympics

After a seven-hour meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, the International Olympic Committee and Iraq's interim National Olympic Committee agreed to a truce in their dispute over the legitimacy of Iraq's committee that will allow two Iraqi track and field athletes to compete in next month's Summer Games in Beijing. But five other athletes have missed the deadline for signing up for their events. | 07/29/08 19:09:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Laith Hammoudi

Afghanistan surpasses Iraq as deadliest spot for U.S. troops

With only 11 American troops killed so far in July, the month is likely to see the lowest American death toll in Iraq since U.S. troops invaded in 2003. Troop deaths in Afghanistan stood at 23, making July the first month when more Americans died there than in Iraq. | 07/29/08 16:44:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Iraqi, U.S. forces meet no resistance in Diyala operation

Iraqi infantry, supported by artillery elements of the Iraqi air force and U.S. forces, began a major operation in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, early Tuesday morning. | 07/29/08 10:52:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Laith Hammoudi

Iraqi bombings kill dozens, wound more than 200

Women suicide bombers targeted religious pilgrims in Baghdad and Kurdish political protesters in Kirkuk Monday in a jarring reminder of the sectarian conflicts that nearly ripped Iraq apart. At least 36 died and 182 were wounded in the four explosions, U.S. military officials said. | 07/28/08 10:52:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Hussein Kadhim

U.S. concedes Iraq victims were law-abiding, not insurgents

The U.S. military said Sunday that the three people killed last month after U.S. soldiers shot at their car in one of the most secured areas of Iraq were civilians, not criminals as the military initially reported. A military statement said that neither the civilians who were killed nor the soldiers were at fault for the deaths. | 07/27/08 19:40:00 By - Leila Fadel

Petraeus won't join bandwagon for Iraq withdrawal timetable

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama may agree that U.S. combat troops should be gone from Iraq by the end of 2010 — and John McCain may be shifting positions. But Gen David Petraeus, the top U.S. military officer in Iraq, tells McClatchy that the situation in Iraq remains too volatile to "project out, and to then try to plant a flag on, a particular date." | 07/27/08 17:45:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Discus thrower's Olympic dreams are crushed

Haider Nasir knew the news was coming but it still landed like a punch to the gut. The Olympic delegation has been barred from competing, said Dr. Talib Faisal, the head of the interim Iraqi Track and Field Federation. He is the same man who'd told Nasir in February that Nasir was going to throw the discus in the Beijing 2008 Olympics. | 07/25/08 18:26:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Sahar Issa

N.C. tigers set to go to Iraqi zoo

These big tigers, raised in captivity deep in the Caswell (N.C.) County woods, represent 500 pounds of fur-covered progress in a war that seldom brings good news. Soldiers and Iraqis describe the zoo as the rare spot in Baghdad where you can forget about war. Sitting just outside the Green Zone, it reminds visitors of normal life. | 07/25/08 18:30:50 By - Josh Shaffer

Some Guardsmen, Reservists back from Iraq didn't get benefits

The Department of Veterans Affairs failed to send benefit packages to nearly 37,000 National Guard and Reserve members who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan because it mistakenly thought they were ineligible. | 07/24/08 20:24:31 By - Les Blumenthal

Iraqi athletes banned from the Summer Games

Five Iraqi athletes invited to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games have been barred from competing in August, the International Olympic Committee said Thursday. "We suspended (the Iraqi National Olympic Committee) back in June because of the clear interference of the government," spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said. "When we did that we also invited the Iraqi government to discuss possible solutions, but we haven't received any positive response from them." | 07/24/08 17:19:00 By - Nicholas Spangler and Sahar Issa

Army begins treating PTSD in the field

Sgt. Seth "Doc" Musikant could be a recruiting poster for the Army's new approach to PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Last April, Musikant and his team were driving around a traffic circle in the city of Tuz. It was their second time through the roundabout that day, and between trips somebody had planted a homemade bomb. It blew up their Humvee. | 07/24/08 16:53:00 By - Mike Tharp

Iraqi forces aren't quite ready to take charge

It wasn't yet dawn, and the Iraqi army unit was already behind schedule. It was about to launch a major operation against another cluster of towns overrun by Shiite Muslim militiamen, and this time American forces would remain at the rear of the convoy, behind their Iraqi counterparts. | 07/23/08 18:15:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Iraqi army prepares assault in Diyala as election law vetoed

Iraqi army troops headed Wednesday into Diyala, one of Iraq's last remaining restive provinces, in preparation for the next major government offensive, as Iraqi president Jalal Talabani vetoed a long-awaited elections bill, casting into doubt provincial elections widely viewed as critical for national reconciliation. | 07/23/08 17:55:38 By - Nicholas Spangler

Kurds storm out as Iraqi parliament OKs Oct. 1 elections

The Iraqi parliament approved a bill Tuesday that calls for crucial provincial elections on Oct. 1, but the secret ballot alienated Iraqi Kurds and very likely will lead to the postponement of the process until next year, several members of parliament told McClatchy. | 07/22/08 17:47:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

U.S. military advisers say they're treated as misfits

Standing next to a screen illuminating a long list of tips, Maj. Anthony Nichols looked out at the classroom of neophyte military trainers and began a lecture about the ways that fellow soldiers will look down at them while they serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. Top Pentagon officials say that developing a new corps of military advisers is a priority as part of the new emphasis on counterinsurgency. But the military, which continues to use the Army Special Forces to train foreign troops for combat in Iraq and elsewhere, hasn't fully embraced the program to train trainers in counterinsurgency. | 07/22/08 15:38:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Iraqi leader meets Obama, calls for U.S. troops out by end of 2010

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki took advantage of Barack Obama's internationally watched visit Monday to set a two-and-a-half-year timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. | 07/21/08 18:01:11 By - Nancy A. Youssef

After battling for U.S., Iraqi fights for American citizenship

Julian Polous was born in Mosul, Iraq, graduated from college and learned to speak four languages. He found asylum in the United States. He passed multiple background checks. Yet the United States is not ready to let him become a U.S. citizen. His application for citizenship has been circling in naturalization purgatory since April 2007, caught in a backlog of FBI name checks. | 07/20/08 18:36:04 By -

Sunnis rejoin Iraqi government, raising reconciliation hopes

Until now, some Iraqis questioned how well Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's Shiite-led government represented the nation's Sunnis. But on Saturday, the Sunnis rejoined the government and were given six Cabinet ministries. | 07/19/08 16:27:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Sadr backers seethe over Iraqi army but avoid violence

Under sweltering heat Friday, the prayer leader urged the crowd of thousands to show forbearance and not to retaliate for what he called daily humiliations at the hands of the Iraqi army. | 07/18/08 18:30:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

For first time, Bush agrees to 'time horizon' for Iraq pullout

The United States and Iraq have agreed to a "general time horizon" for further reductions of U.S. combat troops in Iraq, the White House said Friday, the first time the Bush administration has agreed to set any kind of timeline for U.S. troop withdrawals. The new agreement was announced after talks this week between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. | 07/18/08 16:29:00 By - Warren P. Strobel

HBO's Generation Kill: life governed by morons and maniacs

A seven-part miniseries that debuted Sunday on HBO, Generation Kill is adapted from the nonfiction book of the same name by Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone reporter embedded with a Marine reconnaissance platoon during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. With a cast of outstanding if mostly unknown actors, it offers an unapologetic grunt's-eye view of the military. | 07/16/08 17:51:03 By - Glenn Garvin

Calmer Iraq a big boost to non-profit's work

The sharp drop in violence across Iraq recently and a buildup of hybrid civilian-military reconstruction teams have given RTI International's long-running reconstruction project there a big boost. RTI is working under contract to the U.S. Agency for International Development. Its job is mainly to train local government workers and officials in such things as developing an annual budget, delivering clean water, collecting garbage and treating sewage. | 07/16/08 06:32:10 By - Jay Price

DeMint wants to hold Afghanistan hearings with Obama

With Barack Obama and John McCain trading blows over Afghanistan, South Carolina Sen. Jim Demint, a McCain ally, called on Obama to hold hearings. Obama is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on European affairs, and DeMint is its senior Republican member. The subcommittee has jurisdiction because NATO troops are fighting in Afghanistan. | 07/15/08 18:20:00 By - James Rosen

In a day of jockeying, Saddam's VP issues a call to arms

Throughout Iraq, legislators, armed factions and former members of Saddam Hussein's regime were electioneering Tuesday — some with bombs, others through vitriolic audio messages — in an effort to bolster themselves for the scheduled fall provincial elections | 07/15/08 10:17:04 By - Nancy A. Youssef and Sahar Issa

'Standup soldier' who killed Iraqi journalist had troubled past

Dr. Yasser Salihee was working for Knight Ridder Newspapers in Iraq when an American sniper shot and killed him on June 24, 2005. The Army's investigation absolved the shooter and blamed Salihee. But the investigator was never told that Sgt. Joseph J. Romero was under investigation for drug trafficking, and that three weeks after the Salihee killing those allegations would lead to his being stripped of his sniper rifle and barred from further missions. | 07/14/08 17:12:33 By - Russell Carollo

Bush officials' 'lack of recall' thwarted Tillman, Lynch probes

In a report released Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said it was thwarted in its efforts to determine whether Bush administration officials intentionally hid the details of Patrick Tillman's friendly fire death and Jessica Lynch's capture. The committee said top Bush administration officials showed "a near universal lack of recall" when asked about the incidents, which were widely misreported. | 07/14/08 14:08:22 By - Mark Seibel

Pre-service crimes often go uncited when vets claim PTSD

California and Minnesota both have passed laws that give judges leeway to lower sentences of Iraq war veterans involved in crimes. News media coverage often blames post-traumatic stress disorder for criminal problems after Iraq service. But records show that some Iraq veterans had had the same problems before they ever went to Iraq. | 07/14/08 00:11:04 By - Russell Carollo

Suspect soldiers: Did crimes in U.S. foretell violence in Iraq?

From 2003 to 2007, the percentage of Army recruits receiving so-called "moral conduct" waivers more than doubled, from 4.6 percent to 11.2 percent, as the U.S. military desperately sought to fill the demand for troops to send to Iraq. How that increase has affected the military is open to debate. But an examination of civilian and military records show that many soldiers and Marines involved in controversial incidents in Iraq had histories that should have made recruiters suspicious of how they would perform in the military. | 07/13/08 06:00:00 By - Russell Carollo

A soldier's tale: Wounded in Iraq, struggling for a life

Staff Sgt. Victor Dominguez was a gifted Army Ranger two years ago when the Bradley Fighting Vehicle he commanded rolled over a roadside bomb in Iraq's Diyala province. Now, out of the Army and facing years more plastic surgery, Dominguez is finding that good days may mean nothing more than playing game of ball with his son. | 07/12/08 23:55:09 By - Nicholas Spangler

2 kidnapped U.S. soldiers found dead in Iraqi desert

The remains of the two soldiers were found after a U.S.-captured suspect led soldiers to their location. Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, 25, and Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, were members of the 10th Mountain Division whose observation post was overrun in the early morning hours of May 12, 2007. Four other U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in the attack. | 07/11/08 18:00:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef and Sahar al-Issa

Father who joined after sniper killed son deploys to Iraq

In a few days, Francisco Martinez will land in Iraq. When Martinez steps off the airplane, he will be in the country that took his only son, a 20-year-old skateboarder and budding graphic artist whose loss is felt every single day of his father's life. | 07/11/08 07:38:09 By - Chris Vaughn

U.S. commander in Kirkuk lowers profile, raises popularity

For the past 11 months Col. David Paschal has back-slapped, noogied and high-fived his soldiers. He's been kissed on both cheeks by local Iraqis, and he's upbraided or atta-boyed his counterparts in the Iraqi army and police. He's sent his gunfighters after the "bad guys." He's balanced that with a reconciliation program for about 350 former insurgents, a six-step process that's becoming something of a model for other provinces. | 07/07/08 16:14:00 By - Mike Tharp

U.S. military in Iraq celebrates the 4th with reenlistments

One thousands two hundred and fifteen soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen raised their hands and re-upped in what was called the largest re-enlistment ceremony ever. Gen. David Petraeus administered the oath amid John Phillip Sousa marches. Patriotism — and big reenlistment bonuses — drove the fervor. | 07/04/08 16:41:00 By - Mike Tharp

After 42 months in Iraq, soldier still feels guilty he's not there

As Command Sgt. Maj. Philip Johndrow was getting off the airplane at the end of his third tour in Iraq, his wife, Vickie, simply said: "We have to talk." Johndrow had served 42 months, about three-fourths of the Iraq war, on the ground, more combat time than almost any other American soldier. | 07/04/08 06:00:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

U.S., Iraq narrow differences over forces pact, Iraq says

Iraq's foreign minister said Wednesday that the wide gap between Iraq and the United States over the future of U.S. forces in Iraq had narrowed after the American side had shown "excellent flexibility" on some key issues that had threatened to derail or postpone the accord. | 07/02/08 18:34:00 By - Mike Tharp

Alcohol is flowing again in Baghdad

Iraqis no longer have to settle just for thick Turkish coffee, cardamom-laced tea, strawberry-flavored milk or bottled water to quench their summertime thirst. Beer and alcoholic beverages are readily available once again. There are no bars outside the American-controlled Green Zone and parts of Kurdish territory in northern Iraq, for booze is sold retail only. But more shop owners are reopening behind iron gates. | 07/01/08 15:38:00 By - Laith Hammoudi

In Maliki's hometown, grief and questions after deadly U.S. raid

U.S. troops who Friday struck the town of Janaja, Iraq, where Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki grew up, killed a cousin who was serving as Maliki's sister's bodyguard, family members at the bodyguard's funeral said Sunday. U.S. officials acknowledged that "a local security guard" was killed, but did not identify him or explain why American forces had been operating so close to Maliki's sister's house. | 06/29/08 16:11:00 By - Qassim Zein and Hannah Allam

Crisis grows in Iraq over U.S. raid that killed Maliki relative

A U.S. Special Forces counterterrorism unit conducted the raid apparently without telling Iraqi officials even though the U.S. had handed control of security in Karbala province to Iraq forces in October 2007. Iraqis said the raid, which killed a relative of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, deepened their reluctance over Iraqi-U.S. talks on a continued U.S. presence in Iraq. | 06/28/08 19:29:01 By - Hannah Allam

Iraqi officials outraged by U.S. raid in prime minister's hometown

Outraged Iraqi officials demanded an investigation into an early morning U.S. military raid Friday near the birthplace of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, saying the operation violated the terms of the handover of Karbala province to Iraqi security forces. An Iraqi killed in the operation reportedly was a relative of the U.S.-backed prime minister. | 06/27/08 18:05:09 By - Hannah Allam

3 Marines among dead in attack on Iraqi tribal leaders

An explosion ripped through a gathering of U.S military officials and allied Sunni Muslim tribesmen Thursday, killing three Marines, two interpreters and 20 Iraqis in the rural western town of Karmah, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said. | 06/26/08 12:14:16 By - Hannah Allam and Jamal Naji

Blast kills 11, including 4 Americans, in Sadr City building

The explosion struck a municipal building in Baghdad's Sadr City just as the local council was about to select a chairman. Among the four Americans killed was a civilian who was part of a team advising local officials. It was the third incident in two days of violence involving members of local town councils. | 06/24/08 07:58:12 By - Hannah Allam

U.S.-allied Iraqi politician kills 2 U.S. troops, wounds 4

A U.S.-allied Iraqi council member sprayed American troops with gunfire Monday, killing two soldiers and wounding three and an interpreter, Iraqi authorities and witnesses said. The attack occurred minutes after they emerged from a weekly joint meeting on reconstruction. | 06/23/08 10:28:00 By - Mohammed al Dulaimy and Hannah Allam

Iraqis' drubbing of U.S. troops shows who rules the soccer field

A soccer game on a dirt field between two amateur teams — one made up of U.S. soldiers, the other, local Iraqis — may not seem like a big deal in the scope of the wider war. But the recent match between members of the 87th Infantry's 1st battalion and several young men from the Sons of Iraq meant much more than the Iraqis' 9-0 victory. For one, the U.S. side wasn't wearing body armor. | 06/22/08 14:35:00 By - Mike Tharp

Haditha victims' kin outraged as Marines go free

Khadija Hassan still shrouds her body in black, nearly three years after the deaths of her four sons. They were killed on Nov. 19, 2005, along with 20 other people in the deadliest documented case of U.S. troops killing civilians since the Vietnam War. Eight Marines were charged in the case, but in the intervening years, criminal charges have been dismissed against six. A seventh Marine was acquitted. The residents of Haditha, after being told they could depend on U.S. justice, feel betrayed. | 06/21/08 15:38:00 By - Leila Fadel

New Iraqi operation against militants produces scant resistance

Iraqi security forces met little resistance Thursday on Day 1 of the government's crackdown in the southern city of Amarah as they sought to disarm gunmen loyal to the militant Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr. Iraqi defense officials said there were no casualties or gun battles as military and national police units easily spread through northern Amarah, a mostly Shiite oil and agricultural city that borders Iran and for decades has served as a smuggling hub. | 06/19/08 19:47:16 By - Hannah Allam and Ali al Basri

Vehicle bombing in crowded Baghdad marketplace kills 51

The explosion struck in Hurriyah, a Baghdad neighborhood that is now predominantly Shiite Muslim after some of the worst ethnic cleansing in the last two years. Still, U.S. officials blamed Shiite rebels, not Sunni insurgents, for the attack, which also wounded another 75 in the deadliest bombing in the capital in months. | 06/17/08 17:46:17 By - Hannah Allam

U.S., Iraqi forces claim big weapons cache

BAGHDAD -- In a weekend blitz that U.S. military officials said "severely degrades" the capability of Iraqi insurgents, American and Iraq troops seized one "huge" and three smaller weapons and munitions caches in Baghdad. | 06/15/08 16:50:00 By - Mike Tharp

Sadr plots new steps to gain influence in Iraq's fall voting

BAGHDAD-- Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr, foe of the United States' presence in Iraq, announced a strategy Sunday for influencing Iraq's fall elections, including backing independents, technocrats and tribal figures. | 06/15/08 14:51:00 By - Mike Tharp

Maliki raises possibility that Iraq might ask U.S. to leave

The Iraqi prime minister said Iraq won't sign a status of forces agreement with the United States if that agreement infringes on Iraq's sovereign rights. His statement came as radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr announced he'll create a special branch of his militia authorized to attack American troops. | 06/13/08 19:38:36 By - Leila Fadel and Mike Tharp

Maliki says talks over U.S. troop presence at an impasse

Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said talks with the U.S. on a Status of Forces Agreement "have reached an impasse" but that they are continuing. Meanwhile, Muqtada al Sadr said he was creating an armed contingent that would be authorized to attack American troops. | 06/13/08 10:38:20 By - Mike Tharp

Kidnapped, threatened, Iraqi doctor won't abandon post

With his British residency and comfortable savings, Dr. Muthaffar Kurukchi could leave Iraq, joining more than 15,000 Iraqi medical professionals who've fled the country since the war began. But he's determined to stay, and every morning, he shows up at the private hospital he runs, smiling and bespectacled, and he works his way through 60 wounded patients before 4 p.m. | 06/12/08 16:01:00 By - Hannah Allam

N. Carolina unit's tear-filled return ends tough Iraq tour

The 1132nd Military Police Company's deployment to Iraq was the deadliest deployment by any North Carolina National Guard company since World War II. When its men and women returned home Tuesday, the crowd and the soldiers themselves bawled in an emotional outpouring rare for a homecoming. | 06/11/08 14:57:50 By - Jay Price

U.S. security talks with Iraq in trouble in Baghdad and D.C.

A proposed U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that would set the conditions for a defense alliance and long-term U.S. troop presence appears increasingly in trouble, facing growing resistance from the Iraqi government, bipartisan opposition in Congress and strong questioning from Barack Obama. | 06/10/08 19:26:00 By - Leila Fadel and Warren P. Strobel

U.S. seeking 58 bases in Iraq, Shiite lawmakers say

The Iraqi government rejected the proposal during talks on a Status of Forces Agreement that would allow the U.S. to stay in Iraq after its U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year. Another U.S. demand the Iraqis say was rejected would let the U.S. decide when a hostile act had been committed against Iraq. Lawmakers said they feared it would trap them in a war between Iran and the U.S. | 06/09/08 19:13:00 By - Leila Fadel

Does a calmer Iraq mean that U.S. troops can come home?

Real peace has hardly broken out, and the improved security environment may be fleeting. But recent substantial gains by the Iraqi army, flagging insurgent violence and civilians reclaiming a sense of confidence have produced expectations that are higher than at any time since 2003 and has some asking whether it doesn't mean American troops can go home. | 06/08/08 06:00:00 By - Mike Tharp

Blackwater opens San Diego training center

A new counterterrorism training facility operated by military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide echoed with the grunts of Navy sailors, a day after a federal judge ordered the city to let classes begin. | 06/06/08 08:37:41 By - Allison Hoffman

Did Iranian agents dupe Pentagon officials?

Pentagon counterintelligence investigators in 2003 urged a comprehensive probe into whether Iran might have used a small group of defense officials' contacts with an Iranian exile to influence U.S. policy toward Iraq and Iran. But a senior aide to then-defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld shut the investigation down, and there was no followup. The counterintelligence investigators' suspicions were revealed in a Senate Intelligence Committee report released Thursday. | 06/05/08 19:49:11 By - John Walcott

Iraqi fishermen risk death to pursue livelihood

Since the U.S. invasion, at least 15 fisherman have been killed and tens more have been wounded along the Shatt al Arab, territory that's been disputed since the time of the Persian and the Ottoman empires and a flashpoint for war during Saddam Hussein's reign. | 06/05/08 16:37:00 By - Leila Fadel

United Arab Emirates to be first Gulf state to appoint ambassador to Iraq

The United Arab Emirates will be the first Gulf Arab nation to open an embassy in Iraq since the war and subsequent American occupation began five years ago, its foreign minister announced Thursday. | 06/05/08 15:55:00 By - Leila Fadel

Restaurateur defies Baghdad bombers

American restaurateurs gripe about how much fat comes with their free-range chickens. Or how there's been a run on their Pinot Noir. Or how a diner won't get off her cell phone. At the Al Sa'ah restaurant in Baghdad, manager Anwar Mohammed deals with a whole different set of problems. | 06/03/08 16:32:00 By - Jenan Hussein

As violence drops, some ponder faster Iraq troop withdrawals

Violence against civilians and U.S. and Iraqi military forces dropped to some of the lowest levels of the war in May even as Iraqi troops are leading offensives in three major cities. So far this month, 20 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq. If that number holds through Saturday, May will have the lowest death toll since February 2004. | 05/30/08 19:33:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Iraqi officials worry about security deal with U.S.

Thousands of followers of militant Muqtada al Sadr peacefully took to the streets Friday following his call to protest a bilateral pact that would govern the economic, security and political relationship between Iraq and the United States. | 05/30/08 16:58:00 By - Leila Fadel

Army suicides rise again despite new focus by military

A study found a "significant relationship" between the risk of suicide to the number of days a soldier serves in Iraq and Afghanistan. About one-quarter died while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the report found. | 05/29/08 20:52:22 By - Nancy A. Youssef

More Sunnis joining Iraq's National Police

Some 800 Sunni Muslims are among 2,000 newly trained recruits in the Iraqi National Police, a force that a Pentagon report a year ago called a brutal organization infiltrated by Shiite militias and even death squads. | 05/29/08 16:46:00 By - Mike Tharp

U.S. reassigns Marine for passing out Bible verses to Muslims

The U.S. military confirmed Thursday that a Marine in Fallujah passed out coins with Gospel verses on them to Sunni Muslims, a military spokesman in the Iraqi city said. The man was immediately removed from duty and reassigned. | 05/29/08 12:43:44 By - Leila Fadel and Jamal Naji

Iraqis claim Marines are pushing Christianity in Fallujah

Residents said some Marines at the western entrance to their city have been passing out coins imprinted with a Gospel verse in what they call a "humiliating" attempt to convert them to Christianity. The U.S. military said it is investigating the claims. Such proselytizing would violate military regulations. | 05/28/08 20:00:00 By - Jamal Naji and Leila Fadel

Bush wants $600 million for Iraq police, but cuts aid to U.S. cops

The White House earlier this year proposed slashing the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program, which helps local law enforcement officials deal with violent crime and serious offenders, to $200 million in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. In 2002, the year before the Iraq war, the program received $900 million. | 05/27/08 17:33:02 By - David Lightman

Iraqi Olympic Committee again at center of sports dispute

Last Tuesday, the Iraqi government dissolved the country's Olympic committee, accusing it of corruption. On Monday, the organization that governs international soccer suspended Iraq for government interference in sport. It's just the latest problem for athletes in a country where the Olympic committee head and 30 others were kidnapped in 2006 and never heard from again. | 05/26/08 16:42:00 By - Mohammed al Dulaimy and Leila Fadel

Violence still taking toll on Baghdad education

| 05/26/08 16:05:00 By - Raviya H. Ismail and Sahar Issa

Poll finds low opinion of military medical care

WASHINGTON — A majority of Americans believe that wounded troops don't receive high quality medical care in military and Veteran's Administration hospitals, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health poll. | 05/25/08 00:15:00 By - Federica Narancio

U.S. and Iraq forces raided Shiite areas during prayers

U.S. and Iraqi forces detained nearly 200 people during operations that targeted two predominantly Shiite Muslim neighborhoods during Friday prayer services. The timing of the searches between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the Muslim sabbath carried heavy symbolism for Shiites, who were forbidden to pray in public during the rule of Saddam Hussein. | 05/24/08 18:19:00 By - Raviya H. Ismail

Basra sings again as Iraqi army patrols the streets

For the past three years, musicians have lived in fear in Basra, Iraq's second largest city. Shiite Islamist groups enforced their version of morality with grenades, guns and closed fists. But the Islamists are now in hiding, thanks to a government offensive, and musicians are celebrating in a city known as "the mother of the lute." | 05/24/08 17:44:00 By - Leila Fadel

In Iraq, a Marine's best friend is a dog with 42 teeth

Although getting bitten or attacked by their partners is an occupational hazard, Marines on the al Asad airbase northwest of Baghdad say theirs is the most coveted job in the military. After all, they're paired up with what Westerners — although not all Muslims — consider man's best friend. | 05/23/08 16:11:33 By - Raviya H. Ismail

Iraq's ports thriving, now that the government's in charge

Since government troops seized control of southern Iraq's three ports, through which the government, commodities producers, and private companies import and export products, including food rations, extortion and looting has dropped. | 05/22/08 19:06:14 By - Leila Fadel

Petraeus says he'll call for troop withdrawals from Iraq

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, told Congress Thursday the security situation in Iraq continues to improve. But he also said Iraqis are unlikely to be able to hold provincial elections in October, as planned, and probably won't hold that vote until November. | 05/22/08 18:17:57 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Gunfire takes the lives of two more Iraqi journalists

Two Iraqi journalists were killed in separate incidents in Baghdad and in the restive Diyala province, a Baghdad watchdog group for journalists said Thursday. This brings the number of media employees killed since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to 237. Of those, 215 were Iraqi. | 05/22/08 16:32:00 By - Raviya H. Ismail

California veteran, wounded in Iraq, recalls long road back

Three years ago, Derek McGinnis balanced himself on his one leg and cradled his infant son while mom rested. In that moment, McGinnis knew he'd triumphed over near death and a traumatic injury because he did what dads do. | 05/22/08 16:17:57 By -

Bush defends Iraq war before troops at Fort Bragg (video)

President Bush offered a rousing defense of the war in Iraq today, telling soldiers at Fort Bragg that early withdrawal would "jeopardize the safety of future generations." | 05/22/08 13:45:10 By -

Petraeus says he'll call for more Iraq troop withdrawals

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, told Congress Thursday he expects to announce further troop withdrawals this fall because the security situation there continues to improve. But he also described the Iraqi government as politically stalled, saying U.S. hopes that critical provincial elections will be held Oct. 1 won't be fulfilled. | 05/22/08 15:05:47 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Republican senators revise their version of veterans education bill

Republican Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina cribbed a few details Wednesday from a Democratic colleague for their version of the GI Bill, which helps pay for college for military veterans. | 05/21/08 20:22:52 By - Barbara Barrett

VA opposes much of bill to improve care for women veterans

A top VA official admitted during a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing that the agency may not be prepared for the anticipated influx of women veterans. Still, the agency opposes provisions that include requiring mental health workers be trained to deal with female sexual trauma. | 05/21/08 19:08:41 By - Les Blumenthal

Wars can wound soldiers' sex lives, too

Wounds and mental disabilities of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan can mess up their sex lives, too, health experts said Wednesday. But those wounds often go untreated because the topic is taboo and has gone unstudied. | 05/21/08 18:20:35 By - Federica Narancio

Iraqi troops welcomed in Sadr City for first time

Iraqi security forces entered Baghdad's Sadr City in large numbers on Tuesday for the first time since followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed two weeks ago to allow them in. No U.S. troops accompanied the Iraqi forces. The agreement specifically bars them. | 05/20/08 13:46:00 By - Raviya H. Ismail

U.S. announces deployment of seven combat brigades to Iraq

The Defense Department announced Monday that it will send seven combat brigades to Iraq by the end of the year, suggesting that the Pentagon is planning to maintain its troop levels in Iraq through next year. | 05/19/08 16:56:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

U.S. removes soldier from Iraq after he defaces Quran

U.S. military officials, fearing a backlash as a result of the desecration, moved quickly to resolve the case after Iraqi police found the desecrated book May 11 at a shooting range in western Baghdad. They briefed tribal leaders on their investigation and expressed regret for the damage to the holy book. | 05/18/08 15:32:00 By - Raviya H. Ismail

Doughnuts and coffee come to the Green Zone in Baghdad

An idea was born one Thursday night to the hum of the generator and in the midst of weeks of heavy rocket attacks launched by militias outside the walls of Baghdad's Green Zone: coffee and doughnuts. | 05/16/08 17:15:00 By - Leila Fadel

Sanchez on Iraq errors: Don't blame me, I was just a general

To hear retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez explain it, the mistakes of the Iraq war that happened while he was in command there weren't his fault. Not Abu Ghraib, not the birth of the insurgency, not the decision to let rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr survive. Sanchez was a soldier, and according to him, a general's job is to give advice. What the civilian leaders decide after that is out of a general's hands. | 05/16/08 16:50:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Money for Fort Benning hospital in Iraq supplemental bill

WASHINGTON -- Tucked into the hotly debated Iraq war emergency spending bill is roughly $1 billion for four of the nation's aging military health facilities -- places that some Democratic House leaders have said do not meet current standards for medical care and need immediate attention in order to prevent the types of problems that faced Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. | 05/15/08 22:29:32 By - Halimah Abdullah

Iranian embassy employees shot in Baghdad

As the Iranian men pulled into a Shiite area in Baghdad on the way to the shrine, two men on a motorbike pulled up to the vehicle and riddled their car with bullets, Iranian and Iraqi officials said. | 05/15/08 19:44:00 By - Leila Fadel

U.S. again cuts off Chalabi, this time over rivalry with Maliki

U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Baghdad have cut off contact with controversial Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, a former Pentagon favorite, because of his increasingly strained relationship with U.S.-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington told McClatchy. | 05/15/08 17:48:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef, Leila Fadel and Warren P. Strobel

McCain predicts victory, with most troops out of Iraq by 2013

McCain has been under attack for weeks by Democrats and liberal interest groups for his remarks that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for 100 years or more. Thursday was the first time he put a timetable on when he thinks most U.S. troops will be out of Iraq if he is elected president. | 05/15/08 14:18:47 By - Matt Stearns

Khalid Sheik Mohammed gets June 5 court date

The chief judge of the Guantánamo Bay war court has set June 5 for the first court appearances of alleged 9/11 architect Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four alleged co-conspirators. | 05/14/08 17:12:38 By - Carol Rosenberg

Magistrate in Alaska backs soldier on discharge request

Pfc. Michael Barnes, a paratrooper based at Fort Richardson, Alaska, asked to be discharged as a conscientious objector because he was disturbed by what he saw in Iraq. The Army said no. But U.S. Magistrate John D. Roberts concluded that the Army had failed to show "any basis in fact" to support its decision. The Army has till Friday to appeal. | 05/14/08 08:36:46 By - George Bryson

Sadr City residents fear a cease-fire means more violence

After six weeks of fighting, the signs of battle are common in Sadr City. Wires snaked out of potholes and from underneath tires — signs of past or future roadside bombs. Abandoned pickup trucks, destroyed by airstrikes, littered the streets, and pock marks from bullets or shrapnel scarred the houses. Residents wondered if an agreement really means peace. | 05/11/08 18:04:00 By - Leila Fadel

In big concession, militia agrees to let Iraqi troops into Sadr City

The agreement would end six weeks of fighting and mark the first time Sadr City has been under government control since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. On Friday, 15 people were killed and 112 were injured in fighting, officials at the neighborhood's two major hospitals said. | 05/09/08 22:47:25 By - Leila Fadel

U.S. soldier fulfills his mission of getting Iraqi girl new legs

BAGHDAD — Staff Sgt. Luis Falcon, 38, was patrolling the streets of Baqouba, north of Baghdad, when he saw Shahad Abbas. The 11-year-old girl was in a large decrepit wheelchair, and the stumps of her legs where her calves should have been were crusted with dried blood. | 05/09/08 17:53:47 By - Leila Fadel

Iraqi military orders Sadr City residents to evacuate

The military's call could indicate the possibility of stepped-up military operations. Five hundred tents are to be set up on two soccer fields to accommodate the evacuees. Sadr City has been the scene of intense combat for 40 days. | 05/08/08 17:47:00 By - Leila Fadel

Charity work shows another side to Sadr's movement in Iraq

In Iraq's Sadr City, fiery cleric Muqtada al Sadr plays the role of humanitarian-in-chief — gifting money to families of the dead and injured, resettling displaced families free of charge and, every month, helping to feed tens of thousands of Sadr City's most impoverished people. Sadr offers the funds for any victim of American weapons in Sadr City. | 05/08/08 17:19:00 By - Shashank Bengali

Judge threatens to suspend Guantanamo terror trial

A military judge in the trial of Canadian captive Omar Khadr threatened Thursday to suspend the terror trial unless the prison camp releases a detailed log of Khadr's treatment in more than five years of detention as an alleged al Qaeda terrorist. | 05/08/08 14:24:17 By - Carol Rosenberg

Iraq asks U.S., Iran to stop accusing and start talking

After months of stalled talks between the United States and Iran, the Iraqi government said it was time for the two nations to stop trading accusations and come to the table. | 05/07/08 17:00:00 By - Leila Fadel

Iraq has all but given up on bringing U.S., Iran together

The Iraqi foreign minister said his government has proposed four dates for another meeting between Iranian and U.S. diplomats, but that the overtures have been rejected. "I don’t think we will succeed," he said. | 05/07/08 14:53:49 By - Leila Fadel

Drama fills Guantanamo war court but sound remains off

The Pentagon took its new $12 million war court complex at Guantanamo out for a test run Wednesday with the arraignmen