Iraqi leaders are trying their best to prove wrong all the naysayers who predicted that the U.S. military's withdrawal last December would precipitate the country's immediate collapse and de facto annexation to Iran. However, 10 days in Baghdad, after an absence of more than a year, made it apparent that post-American Iraq remains an unstable, deeply sectarian state that's verging on authoritarianism under the veneer of a U.S.-friendly Muslim democracy. » read more

Arab leaders who gathered Thursday in Baghdad broke no new ground on Syria or other regional crises, but their summit was still hailed as a success — for returning Iraq to the Arab fold after years of isolating war and occupation. » read more

It's a sweet irony for Iraq that the main organizer of this weekend's Arab League summit, an annual gathering of Middle Eastern potentates and diplomats, isn't even Arab. » read more

Fifty people died and more than 200 were wounded Tuesday in Iraq in a series of bombings and small-arms attacks that heightened worries about the safety of Arab leaders scheduled to attend a summit meeting here March 29. » read more

Attacks in Iraq killed 15 people on Wednesday, including 12 who died in a double bombing in Tal Afar in Nineveh province, a city that American officials once touted as an exemplar of counterinsurgency policy. » read more