Iraqis call for U.S. military aid after Nusra-linked assault on ‘innocent Syrians’

Top Iraqi officials called Tuesday for the United States to step up its promised delivery of major arms after an ambush well inside Iraq by suspected Islamist militants that left more than 50 Syrians and a dozen Iraqi troops dead. | 03/05/13 19:15:40 By - By Roy Gutman

Lewis-McChord Col. Darron Wright shares Iraq war's ugly, bad and good in memoir

Col. Darron Wright thought he knew who the bad guys were on his first deployment to Iraq. They were Sunni Muslim insurgents giving his soldiers hell in the communities around Saddam Hussein’s hometown. | 02/18/13 07:28:40 By - Adam Ashton

Iraq unstable, sectarian, with signs of authoritarian rule

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. | 04/06/12 14:02:09 By - Hannah Allam

Arab summit a symbolic win for Iraq, but with no breakthrough on Syria

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. | 03/29/12 18:13:45 By - Hannah Allam and Sahar Issa

Baghdad hopes Arab League summit stakes its place in changing Middle East

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. | 03/26/12 19:23:46 By - Hannah Allam

Bombings in Iraq kill 50, heighten security concern for planned Arab summit

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. | 03/20/12 18:44:57 By - Sahar Issa

15 die in Iraq bombings as nation prepares for Arab League summit

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. | 03/07/12 18:16:38 By - Sahar Issa

Student kills teacher at Christian school in northern Iraq

An Iraqi student shot his American gym teacher to death and then killed himself Thursday at a private Christian school in the usually peaceful Kurdish north of Iraq. The shooting in Sulaimaniyah, the second largest city in the semiautonomous region of Kurdistan, came after a heated argument between the two at the English-language Medes School, local police said. | 03/01/12 20:28:35 By - Sahar Issa

Iraq war vet from S.C. to dine with Obamas

When she attended Blackville-Hilda High School in South Carolina, Nytayia Jamison never imagined that she would dine at the White House, much less with the first black president. But then, Jamison didn't envision herself serving in Iraq. | 02/28/12 20:40:35 By - James Rosen

Bombs in 6 Iraqi provinces shatter calm, kill 33 people

More than a month of relative calm in Iraq was broken Thursday by a series of apparently coordinated attacks that killed at least 33 people and wounded at least 266. | 02/23/12 15:43:00 By - Sahar Issa

Iraq officials: Violence drops as al Qaida group moves to Syria

The departure of al Qaida-affiliated fighters from Iraq to join the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad in Syria has had one benefit, Iraqi officials say: Violence has dropped in this country, in some areas by as much as 50 percent in just a few months. | 02/20/12 16:10:40 By - Sahar Issa

Army drops last Stryker case

The Army today dropped its case against the fifth soldier it accused of murdering Afghan civilians during a 2010 deployment with a Joint Base Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade, his attorney said. | 02/03/12 19:23:32 By - Adam Ashton

With U.S. troops hardly gone, Iraq's government is coming apart

Is the country headed for another round of sectarian strife? Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, is driving to consolidate control and sideline more secular politicians in a battle that increasingly appears to be a fight to the finish in which there can be no compromise. | 01/22/12 14:34:43 By - Roy Gutman

Iraq's Maliki accused of detaining hundreds of political opponents

Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's security services have locked up more than 1,000 members of other political parties over the past several months, detaining many of them in secret locations with no access to legal counsel and using "brutal torture" to extract confessions, his chief political rival has charged. | 01/19/12 18:17:53 By - Roy Gutman, Sahar Issa and Laith Hammoudi

Rockets hit Turkey's embassy in Iraq amid rising acrimony

A rocket attack on Turkey's embassy in Baghdad this week has highlighted the rapid deterioration in relations between Turkey and Iraq, a development tied to Turkish criticism of the detention of opposition politicians by the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. | 01/19/12 15:39:42 By - Sahar Issa

Sacramento's Iraqi refugees community continues to grow

A Carmichael, Calif., living room has become an oasis for Iraqi refugees tortured by opposing sides of Iraq's brutal sectarian conflict.

It's the home of Sarmed Kamal Ibrahim, an engineer who built bridges, highways and apartments in Baghdad and now helps connect Sacramento's 1,500 Iraqi refugees with doctors, schools and jobs. | 01/09/12 06:58:10 By - Stephen Magagnini

Iraqi immigrants settle quietly in Idaho

In the past year, more than 9,000 of the 56,000 refugees who came to the U.S. came from Iraq. Iraqis now represent one of the largest groups of refugees in Idaho. | 01/03/12 12:51:13 By - Anna Webb

Iranian dissident group in Iraq agrees to quit Camp Ashraf

The diplomatic standoff over a group of Iranian dissidents in Iraq appeared to be resolved Wednesday when the dissidents agreed to abandon their camp north of Baghdad and move to a former U.S. Army base, where the United Nations will process their applications for refugee status in Europe and elsewhere. | 12/28/11 18:38:18 By - Roy Gutman

Maryam Rajavi expresses gratitude to Secretary Hillary Clinton

Maryam Rajavi expresses gratitude to Secretary Hillary Clinton for humanitarian approach to safety and security of Ashraf residents and to UN Secretary General, Special Representative of Secretary General for Iraq, EU High Representative, and UNHCR | 12/28/11 17:53:28 By -

Iraq arrests four security officials following Baghdad bombings

The Iraqi government has arrested four of its own security officers in connection with a devastating wave of car bombs that killed 65 and wounded more than 200 civilians in Baghdad on Thursday, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki disclosed Saturday. | 12/24/11 16:41:08 By - Roy Gutman and Laith Hammoudi

Car bombs kill 65 in Baghdad, worsening crisis

A dozen car bombs detonated Thursday in the Iraqi capital, killing 65 people and wounding more than 200, in the latest blow to Iraqi stability following the departure of U.S. troops last weekend.The attacks came amid a serious government crisis. | 12/22/11 06:16:30 By - Roy Gutman and Sahar Issa

Iraq's Maliki rebuffs Biden, signals move to Shiite rule

Rebuffing a plea by the Obama administration, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki signaled Wednesday that he's ready to gradually drop his key partner party, the largely Sunni Iraqiya bloc, and move toward a government run by the country's Shiite majority at the expense of minority Sunnis and Kurds. | 12/21/11 18:50:51 By - Roy Gutman

Iraqi VP denies terror charges as sectarian dispute continues

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al Hashimi struck back at the Shiite Muslim-led government Tuesday, dismissing official allegations that he had masterminded multiple assassinations of security officials as based on fabricated evidence. | 12/20/11 19:10:04 By - Roy Gutman

As U.S. troops exit, Iraq's political crisis deepens

Iraq's political crisis deepened Sunday as Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ordered the country's vice president off of a plane and had him held temporarily at Baghdad airport, on suspicion that members of his security detail took part in a string of assassinations. | 12/18/11 17:49:39 By - Roy Gutman

As U.S. departs Iraq, it leaves two allies that aren't speaking

More than five years have passed since Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah last received Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al Maliki. The Saudi monarch views Maliki as untrustworthy and, even worse, "an Iranian agent." | 12/18/11 00:01:00 By - Roy Gutman

NATO ends Iraq mission as drama unfolds in Green Zone

NATO closed down its small training mission here Saturday even as there was high drama in Baghdad's international zone, as troops and tanks surrounded the homes of three prominent Sunni politicians | 12/17/11 16:55:26 By - Roy Gutman

Last U.S. base in Iraq prepares to turn out the lights

The young Army officer who's in charge of logistics at the last U.S. base in Iraq is a Sudanese refugee, one of the "lost boys" who fled their war-ravaged homeland in the mid-1990s. His staff sergeant survived a deadly improvised-explosives attack during his third tour here in 2005, then returned for two more. When they and the five other members of their team process the final load of equipment from what was once a network of more than 500 American bases, the nearly nine-year U.S. occupation and military presence in Iraq will be history. | 12/15/11 18:40:48 By - Roy Gutman

A second Iraqi province seeks autonomy from Baghdad

A split provincial council in Diyala has signed a request for the province to be granted regional status, a first step in seeking greater autonomy from the Baghdad government, council members said Tuesday. | 12/13/11 15:24:32 By - Laith Hammoudi

Obama to meet Iraq's Maliki on Monday, champion U.S. troop withdrawal

The White House this week plans to showcase the close of the war in Iraq, looking to highlight what it says is a 2008 campaign promise made good — and likely previewing a 2012 campaign theme. | 12/12/11 06:24:46 By - Lesley Clark

Insurgents target Iraqi pilgrims ahead of U.S. withdrawal

Insurgents in Iraq targeted Shiite Muslim pilgrims on their way to the sacred city of Karbala to commemorate a religious holiday on Monday, killing at least eight and wounding 49, security officials said. | 12/05/11 15:21:53 By - Sahar Issa

Search VA disability database by state or ZIP code

McClatchy analyzed a Department of Veterans Affairs database that details each of the 3.2 million veterans receiving monthly disability payments. You can search by state or zip code to see the number of veterans on the VA’s disability rolls broken down by period of war. | 12/03/11 23:54:50 By -

Biden makes surprise visit to Iraq on eve of U.S. troop withdrawal

Vice President Joe Biden arrived Tuesday in Iraq for a surprise visit aimed at touting the administration's promise to end the war, and also to thank U.S. and Iraqi troops — and to start talks on a "new phase" in U.S.-Iraqi relations. | 11/29/11 18:27:54 By - Lesley Clark

First suicide blast since '07 hit Iraq's restricted Green Zone

An explosion Monday in Baghdad's Green Zone that Iraqi officials at first attributed to a rocket that landed harmlessly in a parking lot was in fact a suicide car bomb that detonated at the entrance to the parliament building and killed five people, officials revealed Tuesday. | 11/29/11 18:09:43 By - Sahar Issa

Violence on the rise in Baghdad as U.S. drawdown continues

Two bombs and a rocket attack struck the Iraqi capital on Monday, just weeks before the final pullout of American forces from the country. The explosions brought to 100 the number of people killed in the capital so far in November, up from 62 in October. | 11/28/11 15:18:46 By - Sahar Issa

Baghdad suicide car bomb targets prison gates, kills 11, injures 26

Security officials said a car driven by a suicide bomber killed at least 11 people and wounded 26 others at the entrance of al Hoot prison in north Baghdad on Monday, just weeks before the final pull-out of U.S forces from Iraq. | 11/28/11 10:36:35 By - Sahar Issa

Bombings in Baghdad claim at least 15 lives as U.S. drawdown continues

At least 15 Iraqis were killed and 41 others wounded in two separate incidents in the Iraqi capital Saturday, police said | 11/26/11 10:21:22 By - Laith Hammoudi

Iraq's Maliki lashes out at Sunni province seeking autonomy

Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki Saturday lashed out at politicians

seeking regional status for the mostly Sunni Salahuddin province, charging that they were seeking a "safe house for Baathists," the banned party of the late dictator Saddam Hussein. | 10/30/11 12:17:23 By - Laith Hammoudi

13 Americans believed killed in Kabul bombing

Thirteen Americans were among at least 17 people killed here Saturday when a Taliban suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into an armored NATO shuttle bus, officials said. | 10/29/11 12:26:43 By - Habib Zohori

Twin explosions in Baghdad neighborhood kill 36, wound 78

Thirty-six people died and 78 were wounded in two explosions Thursday night in the Iraqi capital, the highest casualty toll from an insurgent assault in 10 weeks, police said. | 10/28/11 16:27:48 By - Laith Hammoudi

‘Black Hawk Down’ writer to entertain troops in USO

It’s not your granddad’s USO. The organization that typically sends musicians and comics to perform for American troops abroad says its latest batch of Middle East-bound entertainers are writers, including Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden. | 10/27/11 18:37:11 By - Carol Rosenberg

Saddam's home province declares regional autonomy in Iraq

Salahuddin, home region of the late dictator Saddam Hussein, declared itself a semi-autonomous region Thursday, a move that local officials said will bring more revenue to the region north of Baghdad but which critics said will weaken the Iraqi state. | 10/27/11 15:49:22 By - Laith Hammoudi

White House challenges McClatchy story, but provides no facts to counter it

The White House on Wednesday said a McClatchy news story was false when it reported that President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were not deeply involved in talks with Iraqi officials over whether to leave a residual force of U.S. troops in the country before deciding to withdraw all U.S. troops by the end of this year. | 10/26/11 20:12:06 By -

Did Obama engage as U.S.-Iraqi troop talks faltered?

Throughout the summer and autumn, as talks on a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq foundered, President Barack Obama and his point man on Iraq, Vice President Joe Biden, remained aloof from the process, logs released by the U.S. Embassy here suggest. | 10/25/11 21:10:29 By - Roy Gutman

U.S. departure will leave Iraq on its own in a sea of conflict

The failure of the Obama administration to reach an agreement on a continued U.S. troop presence in Iraq will increase pressure from all directions on the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, testing the resiliency of this country's fragile national institutions and a political class that had long relied on a U.S. safety net. | 10/22/11 03:00:01 By - Roy Gutman

Obama: All U.S. troops will leave Iraq by year's end. The war is over.

The United States will withdraw all of its troops from Iraq by the end of this year, officially ending the long, divisive war that began in March 2003, President Barack Obama announced Friday. | 10/21/11 19:04:02 By - Lesley Clark and Roy Gutman

Obama will bring back troops from Iraq by end of 2011

President Obama today announced that all U.S troops in Iraq will be home. "As promised, the rest of our troops will be coming home by the end of the year." | 10/21/11 13:04:44 By - Lesley Clark

Iraq condemns PKK's raids into Turkey but won't move against group

Iraq's central government and Kurdish regional authorities on Thursday condemned Kurdish PKK militants for their latest lethal attacks on Turkish security forces. But they left it to Turkey to crack down on the movement, which operates out of northern Iraq. | 10/20/11 19:32:31 By - Roy Gutman

Turkish planes, troops attack Kurdish rebels inside Iraq

Turkish combat planes and ground troops crossed into northern Iraq Wednesday to hunt down Kurdish guerrillas who had killed 29 members of Turkey's security forces and five civilians in a series of raids over the last two days. | 10/19/11 19:05:17 By - Roy Gutman and Ipek Yezdani

Turkey invades Iraq after Kurdish rebels kill 26 Turkish soldiers

BAGHDAD — Turkey sent troops and fighter jets into Iraq Wednesday in "hot pursuit" of Kurdish rebels who killed more than 25 Turkish soldiers in multiple attacks in the southern Turkish province of Hakkari. It was the first cross-border violence in five years between Turkish troops and Kurdish guerrillas who Turkey says shelter in northern Iraq. | 10/19/11 13:08:17 By - Sahar Issa and Ipek Yezdani

Blasts in Baghdad's Sadr City kill at least 18, wound 40

Baghdad was shaken Thursday for the second day in a row by a series of bomb blasts that claimed at least 18 lives and left 40 people wounded. | 10/13/11 18:50:36 By - Laith Hammoudi

Iraq says it's asked for 5,000 U.S. trainers, awaits reply

Iraq has requested that more than 5,000 U.S. military trainers stay on past the formal U.S. withdrawal date of Dec. 31, and it's awaiting a "yes or no" from the United States, according to a statement that President Jalal Talabani issued late Monday. | 10/11/11 16:08:47 By - Sahar Issa

WikiLeaks shakes security of Iraq's tiny Jewish community

An Anglican priest in Baghdad says he's working with the U.S. Embassy to persuade the handful of Jews who still live in Baghdad to leave because their names have appeared in cables published last month by WikiLeaks. | 10/07/11 20:59:05 By - Roy Gutman

Study: A fifth of war veterans have mental health issues

Nearly 20 percent of the more than 2 million troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from mental health conditions, according to a new report. | 10/04/11 17:35:13 By - David Goldstein

Iranian dissidents in Iraq seek refugee status in ‘positive step’

More than 3,000 Iranian dissidents who’d been threatened with expulsion from Iraq on Dec. 31 have applied to the United Nations for refugee status, a move that could help clear up one of Iraq’s thorniest international problems from the era of dictator Saddam Hussein, U.N. and western diplomats said Sunday. | 10/02/11 18:16:08 By - Roy Gutman

Iraq's F-16 buy is unlikely to be its last

Iraq's decision to purchase 18 F-16 fighter jets will provide a "very robust capability" where today there is none and will allow the country's military to protect its airspace, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said Thursday. | 09/29/11 19:33:30 By - Roy Gutman and Sahar Issa

Iranian envoy says his country backs 'strong' Iraq

Iran would like to see a strong and stable Iraq and isn't likely to be concerned about which country trains the Iraqi armed forces, the Iranian ambassador to Iraq told McClatchy. | 09/29/11 18:04:59 By - Roy Gutman

Suicide bombers kill leader of Iraq's Sunni 'Awakening'

Suicide bombers Tuesday killed a leader of Sahwa, the Sunni Muslim militias formed and backed by U.S. forces, as well as three other people in a complex attack on a local government compound in Ramadi, the capital of mostly Sunni Anbar province. | 09/20/11 11:00:57 By - Laith Hammoudi

At least 30 Iraqi prisoners tunnel free in latest escape

More than 30 prisoners, including several high-ranking al Qaida in Iraq figures, tunneled their way out Thursday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, authorities confirmed early Friday. The escape came after inmates fled the city jail in Hilla, south of Baghdad, on Aug. 5. | 09/01/11 19:33:11 By - Laith Hammoudi

McCaskill: Fraud and waste in Iraq and Afghan wars are stunning

Shortly after arriving in Washington in 2007, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri knew the government’s practice of hiring private contractors could be a source of wasted tax dollars and even fraud. A trip to Iraq confirmed it. | 09/01/11 07:07:52 By - Steve Kraske

WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says

A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks provides evidence that U.S. troops executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians, including a woman in her 70s and a 5-month-old infant, then called in an airstrike to destroy the evidence, during a controversial 2006 incident in the central Iraqi town of Ishaqi. | 09/01/11 00:40:08 By - Matthew Schofield

True cost of Afghan, Iraq wars is anyone's guess

When congressional cost-cutters meet later this year to decide on trimming the federal budget, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq could represent juicy targets. But how much do the wars actually cost the U.S. taxpayer? | 08/15/11 16:20:13 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Coordinated attacks kill 68 on Iraq’s deadliest day this year

Coordinated explosions ripped across seven Iraqi provinces on Monday, killing 64 and injuring 176 people in a sophisticated set of attacks that spread mayhem at security facilities from the Kurdish-dominated north to the Shiite south. | 08/15/11 08:57:39 By - Laith Hammoudi

Another Iraqi jail escape pegged as inside job

Iraqi authorities have detained the warden of a prison in the city of Hilla and one of his assistants for collusion in an escape attempt Friday. It was the latest in at least a dozen prison breaks that have involved prison authorities cooperating with insurgent groups to free prisoners. | 08/08/11 18:02:01 By - Laith Hammoudi

Iraq agrees to start talks on keeping some U.S. forces

Under intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi leaders announced early Wednesday they had agreed to start negotiations on keeping some American soldiers in the country after the current Dec. 31 deadline for all U.S. troops to have left Iraq. | 08/03/11 18:45:58 By - Jane Arraf

Army vet claims U.S. tortured him in Iraq

A U.S. citizen and Army veteran with a horrific tale of abuse in Iraq can keep pursuing his case against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others, a federal judge has ruled. | 08/03/11 15:17:58 By - Michael Doyle

Iraq government declares a holiday as temperatures reach 120

Iraq declared a government holiday Monday after temperatures soared above 120 degrees in the midst of a summer electricity crisis that has sparked public protests. | 08/01/11 18:35:16 By - Jane Arraf

Iraq boosts purchase of U.S. jets, but no decision on troops

Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said Iraq would double the size of a planned purchase of F-16 jets, but sidestepped the crucial question of whether American troops will be asked to stay in the country past a Dec. 31 deadline for their withdrawal. | 07/30/11 16:27:36 By - Jane Arraf

Executions of Saddam's henchmen could be put on hold

The controversial executions of some members of Saddam Hussein's former regime could be put on hold indefinitely, according to a deal taking shape between Iraqi political parties working to avert yet another political crisis. | 07/19/11 16:16:56 By - Jane Arraf

Kirkuk is a 'land mine' where all sides want U.S. to stay

If civil war were to resume in Iraq, a dread event that could spell the breakup of the world's next great oil power, Kirkuk is the likely epicenter. | 07/18/11 15:26:54 By - Roy Gutman

In Iraq, Panetta fails to break impasse on U.S. forces

The new defense secretary, Leon Panetta, expressed frustration on Monday in his first visit to Baghdad that squabbling Iraqi leaders had so far failed to decide whether to ask U.S. forces to stay in the country beyond 2011. "I'd like things to move a lot faster here, frankly," Panetta told U.S. troops at Baghdad's Camp Victory. "Do you want us to stay, don't you want us to stay? Damn it, make a decision." | 07/11/11 18:37:10 By - Laith Hammoudi, Roy Gutman and Nancy A. Youssef

Military identifies National Guard troops killed near Baghdad airport

Insurgents thought to be part of an Iranian-backed Shiite militia killed two U.S. National Guard troops Thursday in a rare attack near U.S. Camp Victory close to Baghdad international airport, the U.S. military said Saturday. | 07/11/11 00:38:25 By - Roy Gutman

U.S. opens Kurdistan consulate as Marriott announces hotel

he United States on Sunday opened its first ever consulate in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, a symbol of the normalization of U.S.-Iraqi relations as U.S. military forces withdraw, as well as a recognition of the dynamic growth of the Kurdish economy. | 07/11/11 00:25:23 By - Roy Gutman

Mullen accuses Iran of arming anti-U.S. forces in Iraq

Iran is sending Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq the most lethal weapons it's ever provided them, aimed at killing American troops there, the top U.S. military officer said. He made the accusation on the same day two American service members were killed in Baghdad by a type of bomb that U.S. officials say comes from Iran. | 07/07/11 18:59:15 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Latest car bombing kills 35 north of Baghdad

Thirty-five people were killed and 28 others were wounded Tuesday in a twin explosion in Taji, a town 20 kilometers to the north of the Iraqi capital. Security forces said the bombs detonated around 10 a.m. near the government identity-cards office and local town council hall. | 07/05/11 09:21:47 By - Laith Hammoudi

U.S. proposal to relocate 3,000 Iranian dissidents rebuffed

Warning that the U.S. military soon will stop its regular visits, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq this weekend urged a group of Iranian dissidents stranded in this country since 2003 to dissolve their "paramilitary organization" and become refugees at some other location in Iraq. | 07/03/11 18:19:23 By - Roy Gutman

Iran steps in to help Iraqi electricity providers

Iran has agreed to provide diesel fuel to Iraq's neighborhood electricity generators under an accord reached late Wednesday with Iraq's Ministry of Electricity. | 06/23/11 15:12:54 By - Sahar Issa

25 dead as Iraq violence takes worrisome turn

A pair of car bombs that exploded within minutes of each other Tuesday in southern Iraq raised new questions about security in the country weeks before Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki is scheduled to decide whether to ask U.S. troops to stay past their year-end pullout date. | 06/21/11 06:28:03 By - Laith Hammoudi

Another local council building attacked in Iraq; 8 dead

Eight people, including four policemen, were killed and 27 wounded Tuesday when insurgents burst into the offices of the Diyala provincial council north of Baghdad, police said. | 06/15/11 14:50:47 By - Laith Hammoudi

Iraq's Chalabi, who sought invasion, now wants U.S. out

Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi politician who played a key role in persuading the administration of President George W. Bush to invade Iraq and overthrow dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, said Tuesday that it's time for U.S. forces to go home. | 06/07/11 19:00:20 By - Laith Hammoudi

Pushed by voters, senators to debate U.S. role in Libya

Responding to growing concern among war-weary constituents about the purpose and cost of the U.S. mission in Libya, senators are poised to debate whether to send President Barack Obama a message that he needs to be more specific about his goals there. | 06/07/11 17:35:27 By - David Lightman and William Douglas

5 U.S. soldiers die in Baghdad attack, worst toll in 2 years

Five U.S. soldiers died Monday when at least three rockets hit a joint compound for U.S. and Iraqi security forces in eastern Baghdad, the highest death toll for American forces on a single day in more than two years. In the latest burst of violence in Iraq, at least 16 Iraqis also were killed in Baghdad and in the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, north of the capital. | 06/06/11 09:13:10 By - Laith Hammoudi

Curfew imposed after another attack in Iraq

At least 20 people were killed and more than 60 wounded Friday in two suicide attacks in Saddam Hussein's hometown as local authorities announced a curfew to try to calm a deteriorating security situation. | 06/03/11 19:07:51 By - Laith Hammoudi

Coordinated bombs leave five dead in Iraq's Ramadi

The explosions took place at about 9 p.m., and involved at least four separate bombs, two of which appeared to have been timed to kill first responders taking victims to the hospital. | 06/02/11 17:52:43 By - Laith Hammoudi

Close aide to Iraq's Chalabi assassinated

Ali Feisal al Lami, a close aide to controversial Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi and onetime director of Iraq's de-Baathification commission, was assassinated late Thursday by an unknown gunman, an adviser to Chalabi said. | 05/26/11 19:37:50 By - Roy Gutman

Iraq's Sadrists stage mass rally to demand total U.S. withdrawal

Tens of thousands of followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr staged a military-style parade Thursday in Baghdad to demand that U.S. troops leave the country as scheduled by Dec. 31, a show of force intended to intimidate Iraqi officials who favor asking that some American troops stay on. | 05/26/11 18:53:38 By - Roy Gutman and Sahar Issa

Car bombings and other assaults in Baghdad kill at least 13

At least 13 people were killed and more than 70 were wounded in a string of explosions with car bombs, IEDs and a suicide attack that shook the Iraqi capital Baghdad starting in the very early hours Sunday, police said. | 05/22/11 16:02:39 By - Laith Hammoudi

Car bombings and other assaults in Baghdad kill at least 13

At least 13 people were killed more than 70 were wounded in a string of explosions with car bombs, IEDs and a suicide attack shook the Iraqi capital Baghdad starting in the very early hours Sunday, police said. Seven of those killed were policemen, police said. | 05/22/11 11:46:46 By - Laith Hammoudi

Iraq bombings add fuel to debate over U.S. departure

A series of bombings killed at least 29 people Thursday in the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk amid a growing debate over security in the oil-rich area ahead of the planned withdrawal of U.S. forces at year's end. | 05/19/11 12:53:35 By - Sahar Issa

After April massacre, U.S. seeks to relocate Iranian militants in Iraq

Five weeks after the Iraqi army mounted a lethal assault on Iranian dissidents who've been stranded in a sealed-off camp north of Baghdad since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the U.S. government has offered to help relocate the 3,400 residents elsewhere in the country to avert a bigger bloodbath when Iraq closes the camp in December. | 05/16/11 18:24:04 By - Roy Gutman

Iraq's Maliki: al Qaida jailbreak attempt was inside job

A weekend attempted jailbreak at Iraq's Interior Ministry that led to the deaths of six police officers and 11 al Qaida in Iraq suspects involved inside "connivance and collaboration," Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said Wednesday. | 05/11/11 19:25:57 By - Roy Gutman and Laith Hammoudi

Iraqis will discuss whether some U.S. troops should stay

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said Wednesday that he'd engage in a months-long consultation with Iraq's many political factions before deciding whether to ask the United States to keep some troops in the country. | 05/11/11 18:13:34 By - Sahar Issa and Roy Gutman

Gun battle inside Iraq's Interior Ministry leaves 17 dead

Iraqi officials tell an incomplete story about how prisoners got weapons to fight police for six hours in a government compound. Six policemen were killed. | 05/09/11 06:30:03 By - Laith Hammoudi

Christians remain besieged and fearful in Iraq at Easter

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Christians marked a restrained Easter weekend as fear of attacks kept many from openly celebrating their most sacred day of the year and church officials urged them not to give up on the country. | 04/23/11 18:44:58 By - Jane Arraf

Commentary: Five years, and visions of dead are still haunting

Five years ago, Ishaqi, Iraq, became a killing place.

I was a reporter in Baghdad in March 2006, a nasty time. A lot of Iraqis were dying. The reports of bodies, found in canals or the desert, were horrifying. Often, the dead had torture wounds from power tools. What happened in Ishaqi was recounted in one of those reports. | 04/22/11 12:05:46 By - Matt Schofield

Amid allegations of mass killings by Iraqi military, UN seeks independent probe

The UN has called on Iraq to conduct an independent investigation into the killings of 34 people at an Iranian opposition base after Iraqi authorities, who authorized a raid on the camp, suggested that the group might have executed its own members. | 04/17/11 14:41:54 By - Jane Arraf

Sadr threatens return to war if U.S. troops stay in Iraq

Hardline Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr mobilized tens of thousands of followers Saturday to mark the eighth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime with a warning that United States troops must not stay in Iraq past their scheduled Dec. 31 departure date. Black smoke from burning American flags rose over the scene, which included a grisly display of Americans in business suits being held in cages. “We are time bombs,” the crowd chanted. | 04/09/11 14:59:56 By - Jane Arraf and Laith Hammoudi

55 dead in Iraq as gunmen seize local government building

At least 55 people were killed Tuesday and 95 injured when gunmen posing as Iraqi security troops stormed the Salahuddin provincial council building in the city of Tikrit and took dozens of people hostage, including members of the council. | 03/29/11 14:49:04 By - Laith Hammoudi

Army major pleads guilty to laundering money from Iraq projects

An Army major formerly stationed at Fort Lewis pleaded guilty Tuesday to laundering more than $47,000 that was supposed to be spent on humanitarian and reconstruction projects in Iraq, federal prosecutors announced. | 02/09/11 13:42:08 By - Adam Ashton

U.S. military says 2010 violence in Iraq at lowest level of war

U.S. military commanders in Iraq on Tuesday said violence in Iraq has hit its lowest level since 2003 and they credited Iraqi security forces for the gains as American forces prepare to be gone by the end of the year. | 02/08/11 16:45:11 By - Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor

Iraqis turn on police after funeral bombing kills dozens

Another major bombing rocked Iraq on Thursday when a suicide car bomb targeted mourners at a crowded public funeral in Baghdad, killing 48 people and wounding 121, according to police sources. | 01/27/11 10:58:39 By - Laith Hammoudi and Shashank Bengali

Big reason for hope in Iraq: Oil, and lots of it

On a bleak stretch of desert near the Iraq-Kuwait border — half a world away from the Gulf of Mexico and last year's nightmarish blowout — BP is riding high, rapidly developing one of the world's richest oil fields. | 01/26/11 18:28:03 By - Shashank Bengali

Critics accuse Iraq's Maliki of a power grab

A controversial Iraqi court ruling has sparked new fears that Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki is consolidating power, and it's raised questions about whether one of the country's most influential courts is in Maliki's pocket. | 01/25/11 17:57:25 By - Shashank Bengali and Sahar Issa

With U.S. forces set to go soon, Iraqi police stepping up

The Iraqi police operation this fall that cracked the terrorist cell responsible for some of the worst attacks of 2010 was one of the most successful counter-terrorism efforts Iraq's young security forces have conducted, U.S. military officials say. It also gave new insight into the workings of the country's most feared terrorist group, the Islamic State of Iraq. | 01/20/11 18:12:04 By - Mohammed al Dulaimy and Shashank Bengali

Attack on pilgrims kills dozens as Iraqi violence continues

Terrorists targeted Shiite Muslim pilgrims Thursday at the gates of Karbala, one of Iraq’s most sacred cities; killing dozens and wounding hundreds in the latest case of a sudden surge in deadly violence. | 01/20/11 12:58:36 By - Shashank Bengali and Laith Hammoudi

Worst bombing in Iraq in months claims at least 60 lives

The attack in Tikrit, a city north of Baghdad that's best known as Saddam Hussein's hometown, targeted a gathering of police recruits and was the latest to target Iraqi security forces, which have made considerable progress in fighting al Qaida-linked militants but continue to suffer sporadic violence. | 01/18/11 09:54:06 By - Laith Hammoudi and Sahar Issa

Kuwaiti official visits Iraq, a 20-year first

The prime minister of Kuwait visited Iraq on Wednesday in the highest-level meeting between the countries since Saddam Hussein invaded the small, oil-rich emirate 20 years ago. | 01/12/11 14:57:15 By - Shashank Bengali

Back in Iraq, militant cleric Sadr tells followers to shun violence

In a triumphal return after more than three years in Iran, militant cleric Muqtada al Sadr called on his followers Saturday to abandon the use of violence and channel their efforts into the new Iraqi government, while demanding an end to U.S. influence in Iraq. | 01/08/11 18:30:30 By - Roy Gutman and Laith Hammoudi

2011 looks grim for progress on women's rights in Iraq

When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki introduced what he called a national partnership government two weeks ago, he included allies and adversaries, Arabs and Kurds, Shiite Muslims and Sunnis. One group, however, was woefully underrepresented. Only one woman was named to Maliki's 42-member cabinet, sparking an outcry in a country that once was a beacon for women's rights in the Arab world and adding to an ongoing struggle over the identity of the new Iraq. | 12/31/10 14:35:35 By - Shashank Bengali and Sahar Issa

Iraq scrubs Saddam from its history, but relics remain

Deep inside the walled-off Green Zone, in an air-conditioned room watched by round-the-clock security, is a particularly grisly collection of Iraqi memorabilia: leg irons, bone fragments, a hangman's noose and photographs of skeletons unearthed from mass graves, some still wearing their clothes. | 12/29/10 16:09:30 By - Shashank Bengali

Coordinated bombings kill at least 14 in Iraq's Anbar province

For the second time this month, suicide bombers struck the provincial gvernment offices in Ramadi, killing 14 people and wounding dozens. The coordinated attacks outside the offices were the deadliest since Iraq's new government was announced last week. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province, which was a hotbed of the Sunni Arab insurgency at the start of the war but had calmed in recent years. | 12/27/10 11:44:41 By - Jamal Naji

For Christians in Iraq, a Christmas of mourning and fear

Nearly two months after a shocking assault by Islamist militants on Our Lady of Salvation Catholic Church in Baghdad, the church will commemorate Christmas quietly, with daytime mass and prayers for the dead, under security fit more for a prison than a house of worship. It is the same at Christian churches across Baghdad and northern Iraq, where what's left of one of the world's oldest Christian communities prepares to mark perhaps the most somber Christmas since the start of the Iraq war. | 12/24/10 16:24:34 By - Shashank Bengali

For U.S. soldiers, Christmas in Iraq can be tedious

Col. Scottie D. Carpenter of Raleigh, N.C., and the other 48,000 U.S. troops who will be in Iraq for Christmas are all but invisible back home. According to the Pew Research Center, just 4 percent of stories in the U.S. media now are about Afghanistan. And Iraq? Not even 1 percent. Carpenter, 51, talks about what the holiday season is like in a forgotten war zone. | 12/23/10 07:26:43 By - Jay Price

Iraq unveils a government, but key posts remain open

Iraq unveiled a new and broad-based government Tuesday that comprised all its major religious and ethnic factions and raised hope that the country's nine-month political impasse could finally be over. The key ministries responsible for security and military affairs are open for now. | 12/21/10 15:48:12 By - Shashank Bengali and Mohammed El Dulaimy

Officer at center of Abu Ghraib scandal vows to clear name

Janis Karpinski believes one day, a call will come from Washington, D.C., and a voice will tell her she has been cleared of the wrongdoing that thrust her into the national spotlight. | 12/18/10 13:23:10 By - Kyle Peterson

Amid the chaos, Iraqis turn to TV, Web to be heard

Amid political gridlock, endemic corruption, infrastructure breakdowns and persistent violence, ordinary Iraqis often feel that the chaos drowns out their voices. On television and online, however, there's plenty of space to be heard. | 12/17/10 16:26:23 By - Shashank Bengali

Saddam-era U.N. sanctions lifted on Iraq after 20 years

Iraq closed another chapter on the Saddam Hussein era Wednesday when the United Nations Security Council lifted most of the sanctions that it had imposed after the late ex-dictator's invasion of Kuwait 20 years ago. | 12/15/10 17:40:45 By - Shashank Bengali

WikiLeaks: Maliki filled Iraqi security services with Shiites

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki fired dozens of officers from the security and intelligence services early this year and replaced them with inexperienced political officers loyal to his Shiite Dawa party, U.S. officials reported in February, according to newly leaked diplomatic cables. | 12/03/10 18:20:56 By - Shashank Bengali

U.S. Iraq envoy worried about new WikiLeaks release

With reports swirling that a third document-dump by the Internet organization WikiLeaks could be imminent - and might reveal confidential comments by foreign leaders about their governments - American diplomats are in damage-control mode. | 11/26/10 13:56:49 By - Shashank Bengali

Iraq has new government, but it's unstable and may not last

Iraqis woke up to a new government Friday but the relief of breaking a record political deadlock was tempered by many Sunni voters' sense of betrayal and more widespread worry that the coalition is too fragile to last. | 11/12/10 17:05:42 By - Jane Arraf

Iraq leaders reach framework for agreement on new government

Iraqi political leaders have reached the framework of an agreement for a new government that would end the country’s eight month-long political deadlock, a senior Iraqi official said late on Wednesday. | 11/10/10 17:13:42 By - Jane Arraf

Justice drops inquiry into destruction of torture videos

The former director of the CIA's secret operations branch won't be charged with the destruction of 92 videotapes showing the use of waterboarding and other controversial interrogation techniques, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. | 11/09/10 16:46:52 By - Marisa Taylor

U.S. calls for Iraqi president to step down, amid more bomb attacks

Iraq's divided political leaders met Monday for the first time since March elections in a bid to break an eight-month deadlock that has left Iraqis with no new government and vulnerable to escalating violence. | 11/08/10 18:02:50 By - Jane Arraf

Fear of bombings empties Baghdad streets

Security in the Iraqi capital was heightened and city streets almost empty Wednesday as many Iraqis stayed home after a series of bombings sparked fears that security forces are overwhelmed by the violence. | 11/03/10 17:39:43 By - Jane Arraf

Scores killed as series of bombs rock a dazed Baghdad

Sixteen bombs struck Baghdad on Tuesday, exploding near crowded coffee shops and a Shiite mosque and bringing a city still reeling from a major attack Sunday to a standstill. At least 63 people were killed and almost 250 wounded. Most of the explosions took place within 90 minutes. | 11/02/10 18:39:51 By - Jane Arraf

Death toll rises to 58 in Iraqi church attack

Iraq's Christian community was in shock Monday after Islamist militants in suicide vests besieged a church during Sunday mass and then fought Iraqi commandos in a melee that left at least 58 people dead. | 11/01/10 15:20:38 By - Jane Arraf and Sahar Issa

Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister, sentenced to death

Iraqis thirsting for vengeance as much as justice welcomed the death sentence Tuesday of one of Saddam Hussein's best-known officials, Tariq Aziz. | 10/26/10 17:13:06 By - Jane Arraf

Wikileaks papers tell more about 2007 attack in Iraq

The scene after a deadly attack on a Stryker left little hope that anyone would emerge from the obliterated infantry carrier. The hull and rear door were gone, the tires blown off. One wounded and trapped soldier was struggling to exit the hatch of the upside-down Stryker. The attack was well-coordinated, and three other Strykers came under fire from a nearby mosque when the bomb ripped through their companions’ vehicle. At the time, the May 6, 2007, assault in Iraq’s Diyala province was the deadliest hit on a Stryker in the war. | 10/26/10 13:36:37 By - Adam Ashton

Iraq court sentences Hussein deputy Tariq Aziz to death

Tariq Aziz, who was the international face of Saddam Hussein's regime, was sentenced to death Monday. Iraq’s high tribunal, set up to try officials from the former regime, sentenced the former deputy prime minister to hang for what it termed crimes against humanity. | 10/26/10 12:33:26 By - Jane Arraf

WikiLeaks revelations come as little surprise to many Iraqis

For ordinary Iraqis, it didn't appear to have sunk in Saturday that the 400,000 documents released Friday by the WikiLeaks website contained details of the violent deaths of thousands of people that could finally provide answers and even evidence for some of the tragedies of the war. | 10/23/10 17:25:38 By - Jane Arraf, The Christian Science Monitor/McClatchy

Top U.N. official in Iraq escapes bomb attack

A roadside bomb hit the convoy of the top U.N. official in Iraq after a meeting with revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf Tuesday. U.N. envoy Ad Melkert was unhurt, but the blast killed an Iraqi policeman and wounded three others. | 10/19/10 17:36:16 By - Jane Arraf, Christian Science Monitor

Iraqi police still struggle with insecurity as U.S. departs

As the U.S. military prepares to withdraw all its soldiers from Iraq by the end of 2011, a significant gap remains between American claims about the Iraqi security forces' capabilities and the opinions of the Iraqis themselves. | 10/10/10 00:01:29 By - Shashank Bengali

Iraq's Maliki expects to announce coalition by next week

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said Friday his Shiite coalition is close to forming a government and could announce a new coalition by next week, ending the country's long-running political crisis. | 10/08/10 14:56:31 By - Jane Arraf, Christian Science Monitor

Obama administration declares Iraq open for U.S. business

The United States is hoping that a share of Iraqi reconstruction projects will help revive the U.S. economy and assist in reaching an ambitious goal of doubling American exports globally in the next five years. | 10/06/10 18:43:02 By - Jane Arraf

Iraqi politics: Breakthrough or another breakdown?

A flurry of proposals has led to considerable movement in Iraq's seven-month political deadlock, but neither Iraqi nor U.S. officials are counting on an imminent announcement ending Iraq's epic struggle to form a government. | 10/05/10 17:42:04 By - Jane Arraf

Missing Iraqi antiquities discovered in warehouse

More than 600 looted artifacts that were retrieved by the United States, shipped back to Iraq and then mysteriously lost finally have been found in the prime minister's warehouse alongside boxes of kitchen supplies, the Iraqi tourism minister said Monday. | 09/20/10 15:24:11 By - Shashank Bengali

Iraq suffers deadliest day since U.S. drawdown

A string of bombings killed 37 people Sunday in Iraq's deadliest day since Aug. 31, when President Barack Obama said the U.S. military's seven-year-old combat mission there had ended. | 09/19/10 12:44:57 By - Shashank Bengali and Mohammed al Dulaimy

As Iraq winds down, U.S. Army confronts a broken force

When Lt. Col. Dave Wilson took command of a battalion of the 4th Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, he found its discipline in tatters. Nearly 70 soldiers in his battalion had tested positive for drugs; others were abusing prescription drugs. Troops were passing around a tape of a female lieutenant having sex with five soldiers from the unit. Unfortunately, it was not an isolated incident. | 09/17/10 19:13:08 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Iraqi forces struggling, forcing U.S. troops to fight

In the two weeks since President Barack Obama declared the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, American forces have stepped in with ground troops and air support on at least three occasions when their Iraqi counterparts were threatened by suicide attackers or well-armed gunmen. The incidents sharped question about the Iraqi forces' ability to protect their country and what role the 50,000 U.S. troops still there will play. | 09/17/10 18:42:28 By - Shashank Bengali and Mohammed al Dulaimy

Combat's 'ended,' but U.S. still controls Green Zone access

As more than one Iraqi has pointed out, if Iraqi security forces now control the Green Zone — American forces handed over the checkpoints in a major symbolic move three months ago — why do U.S. military-issued badges still determine who can get in and out? | 09/16/10 16:25:55 By - Shashank Bengali

End of combat mission? U.S.-Iraqi raid in Fallujah kills 6

U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a neighborhood in the longtime Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Wednesday, U.S. military officials said, killing at least six people in the deadliest joint operation since President Barack Obama announced the end of the American combat mission in Iraq two weeks ago. | 09/15/10 09:39:27 By - Jamal Naji and Shashank Bengali

Amnesty International slams Iraq over prison torture

The Amnesty International report details allegations of torture at Iraq-run prisons and raises yet more questions about the Iraqi security forces that the Obama administration ceded authority to when it celebrated the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq. The report says that several detainees have died in Iraqi custody due to torture and that tens of thousands are being held without charges. | 09/14/10 18:17:24 By - Shashank Bengali

U.S. officials defend Iraq against attack — from the GAO

Iraq might be running a budget surplus but that doesn't mean it should spend it, U.S. officials said Tuesday, arguing that the Iraqi government's finances are too fragile for it to pay a greater share of its security costs. The Obama administration's comments came in response to a study by the Governmental Accountability Office that found that Iraq had a surplus of $52.1 billion at the end of 2009. | 09/14/10 16:38:03 By - Shashank Bengali

U.S. Army sniper tells of 'million dollar shot' in Iraq

It would be just one shot. Watching the Iraqi insurgent walking along the canal, Sgt. Brandon McGuire and his four-man sniper team knew that. They had lain hidden for two days and two nights. On the third morning, when they observed the man uncovering a mortar, they knew, yes, he was the one, the insurgent who was very good with his weapon, having killed and wounded Americans and Iraqi civilians with it. | 09/14/10 07:19:01 By - Lee Hill Kavanaugh

Four escape U.S. custody at Iraq prison that held Saddam

Four prisoners escaped a maximum-security U.S. military facility housing al Qaida in Iraq suspects and former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, officials said Thursday, in an embarrassing development for American forces as they hand over security operations in Iraq. | 09/09/10 15:38:38 By - Shashank Bengali

Text of President Obama's remarks on Iraq

This is the prepared text of President Obama's speech Tuesday, Aug. 31, marking the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq. | 09/02/10 18:56:40 By -

As U.S. combat role ends in Iraq, new commander takes charge

The United States marked the official end of its combat role in the seven-year Iraq war Wednesday, acknowledging the immense sacrifices of a war that has divided Americans as well as Iraqis and pledging to help the country move forward. | 09/02/10 18:56:14 By - Jane Arraf

Gates: Iraq outcome 'will always be clouded by how it began'

The U.S. military Wednesday marked the end of its combat mission in Iraq amid a series of conflicting messages that underscored the mixed feelings many here, both American and Iraqi, have toward a seven-and-a-half-year effort that cost tens of thousands of lives but left the political outcome undecided. | 09/02/10 18:55:37 By - Nancy A. Youssef and Sahar Issa

As Iraq combat operations end, U.S. forces try to cement gains

While Iraq combat operations are over, the 50,000 remaining U.S. soldiers in Iraq are looking to cement their achievements by sending out small groups of advisers to help improve Iraqi Army performance. | 09/02/10 18:53:08 By - Jane Arraf

Obama: Time to turn the page on U.S. mission in Iraq

Declaring the combat mission in Iraq over after more than seven years, President Barack Obama also sought to use the milestone Tuesday night to buy patience from voters on the economy, and patience from fellow Democrats on the war in Afghanistan. Obama didn't dwell on the deep problems Iraq still faces, including an upswing in violence and an inability to form a government. | 08/31/10 19:33:45 By - Margaret Talev and Warren P. Strobel

Baghdad on high alert as U.S. officially ends combat mission

All leave for Iraqi soldiers and police was canceled and new checkpoints were set up across the city as U.S. forces prepared for a possible wave of rocket and mortar attacks tied to a ceremony Wednesday that will be attended by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. | 08/31/10 12:56:07 By - Jane Arraf

Gates warns Iraq commitment isn't over

As the Obama administration prepared to hail the formal end of combat operations in Iraq, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned Tuesday that despite the drawdown, the U.S. military effort in Iraq is not over. | 08/31/10 11:09:10 By - Nancy Youssef

Iraq combat phase ends, but U.S. might stay past 2011

The U.S. combat mission in Iraq officially comes to an end Tuesday, 2,722 days after American-led troops stormed across the border from Kuwait. The remaining 49,000 U.S. troops are supposed to depart by the end of next year. | 08/31/10 19:43:50 By - Warren P. Strobel and Shashank Bengali

String of Iraqi suicide bombings targets police, more than 40 civilians die

A string of suicide bombings across Iraq Wednesday targeted local security forces amid growing fears among many Iraqis that the U.S. is withdrawing combat troops too soon. At least 43 civilians were killed and more than 190 wounded. | 08/31/10 19:44:15 By - Jane Arraf

McConnell credits Bush with ending Iraq combat operations

President Barack Obama's formal announcement of the end of American combat troops in Iraq is "welcome news," Sen. Mitch McConnell told a group of business leaders Tuesday, but the Republican Senate leader gave former President George W. Bush the credit for making it possible. | 08/31/10 15:39:49 By - Jack Brammer

Biden, in Baghdad, urges Iraqis to form a government now

Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Baghdad on Monday to mark the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq and underscore America's "growing sense of urgency" that a new Iraqi government be formed. | 08/30/10 17:11:28 By - Jane Arraf

Iraqi Army trains Kurdish forces as part of U.S. integration plan

In the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, Iraqi Army instructors are training Kurdish forces in an effort to ease tensions between the two sides and secure Iraq's vulnerable border with Iran. | 08/23/10 17:43:42 By - Jane Arraf, Christian Science Monitor

Last US combat brigade crosses into Kuwait from Iraq

The last US combat brigade crossed into Kuwait Thursday morning after a series of night maneuvers through the desert, marking a new chapter in the seven-year-conflict in which the struggle for political power has replaced direct combat. | 08/19/10 13:09:44 By - Jane Arraf

Iraq suicide bomber kills 50 with explosives strapped to legs

A suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his legs at an Iraqi Army recruiting center in eastern baghdad early Tuesday, killing at least 50 people and wounding more than 120, including an Iraqi general, in one of the worst attacks this year. | 08/17/10 18:41:51 By - Jane Arraf

U.S. Iraq setback: Allawi pulls out of talks on coalition

A major U.S. diplomatic push aimed at promoting a coalition government between the two top vote winners in Iraq's long-stalemated national elections suffered a setback Monday when former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi broke off negotiations with his nearest rival, current Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. | 08/16/10 18:54:49 By - Liz Sly

Al Qaida in Iraq targets Baghdad's police force

As U.S. combat forces leave the country, al Qaida in Iraq appears to be creeping back into the Iraqi capital in a bold campaign of shootings, bombings and intimidation focused on undermining Baghdad's developing police force. Officials say those attacks have increased as the police have taken more responsibility from the Iraqi army. | 08/12/10 16:03:12 By - Jane Arraf

Iraq attacks likely to increase during Ramadan, U.S. says

The U.S. expects attacks in Iraq to continue to spike as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins this week, a top American general warned Monday after explosions in the southern city of Basra resulted in one of the deadliest weekends in months. | 08/09/10 16:24:27 By - Jane Arraf

Obama takes credit for ending U.S. combat mission in Iraq

President Barack Obama on Monday declared that at month's end the U.S. will end its combat mission in Iraq "as promised and on schedule," and he pledged to veterans, "Your country is going to take care of you when you come home." | 08/02/10 15:20:46 By - Margaret Talev

U.S. tries to calm Iraqis over hazardous waste

American commanders in Iraq are working to demonstrate that they are clearing the country of tens of millions of pounds of U.S.-made hazardous waste in an effort to rebut claims that U.S. troops are leaving behind a toxic legacy as they withdraw. | 07/23/10 17:38:46 By - Scott Peterson

State Dept. planning to field a small army in Iraq

Can diplomats field their own army? The State Department is laying plans to do precisely that in Iraq, in an unprecedented experiment that U.S. officials and some nervous lawmakers say could be risky. | 07/21/10 18:06:02 By - Warren P. Strobel

Iraqi politicians step up efforts to break government impasse

Top politicians are stepping up efforts to break a political deadlock and form a new Iraq government more than four months after national elections gave a narrow victory to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's main challenger. | 07/21/10 12:37:38 By - Scott Peterson

Government, Sunnis charge Al Qaida Iraq with Sunday bombing

In one of the deadliest single attacks in Iraq this year, insurgents on Sunday targeted the Sunni militia that was crucial in turning the tide against Al Qaida in Iraq. | 07/19/10 16:52:49 By - Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor

Suicide bombers kill dozens of anti-Qaida militiamen in Iraq

Two suicide bombers killed 46 members of a U.S. backed anti-Qaida Sunni militia in Iraq, the highest such death toll in two months, an Iraqi Interior ministry official said. Officials blamed al Qaida in Iraq, which has frequently targeted such militiamen, though no immediate claim of responsibility was made. | 07/19/10 00:50:20 By - Mohammed al Dulaimy

Iraqi ex-officials, once on most wanted list, languish in prison

When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, soldiers were handed decks of playing cards depicting the 55 most-wanted citizens of a country they knew little about. | 07/15/10 15:10:24 By - Jane Arraf

U.S. hands over keys of Camp Cropper prison to Iraq

The U.S. closed one of the most controversial chapters of the Iraq war Thursday when it transferred control of its last remaining prison to the Iraqi government. U.S. military officials handed over the keys to Camp Cropper, located near Baghdad's international airport. It's been renamed Karkh Prison, and will operate under Iraqi authority. | 07/15/10 13:47:20 By - Jane Arraf, Christian Science Monitor

Odierno: Iran 'training militants' to attack U.S. troops in Iraq

Shiite Iraqi militants have trained in Iran in preparation for attacks against U.S. military bases as American combat forces prepare to withdraw by September, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said on Tuesday. | 07/13/10 16:17:54 By - Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor

Insurgents kill 68 and wound over 400 in Iraqi religious march

Undeterred by a string of attacks that left scores of fellow pilgrims dead, Shiite worshipers completed their days-long march to a Baghdad shrine on Thursday. | 07/08/10 15:56:49 By - Scott Peterson and Sahar Issa

40 Iraqi pilgrims killed, scores wounded in Shiite religious pilgrimage

Shiite pilgrims streaming for days toward a Baghdad shrine on Wednesday found themselves talking as much about politics - and the failure of Iraq's leaders to yet form a government, four months after a national election - as their devotions. | 07/07/10 18:16:13 By - Scott Peterson

Low on funds, Al Qaida Iraq's latest tactic: bank robbery

A money crunch is fueling al Qaida in Iraq's recent string of robberies and attacks on banks as the weakened organization tries to reconstitute itself, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said. He says a sign of the group's disarray is it hasn't announced replacements for key leaders killed this spring. | 07/02/10 18:05:36 By - Jane Arraf

When U.S. troops leave Iraq, their tailor may follow them

The Turkish Sew Shop on Camp Prosperity, a small U.S. base in central Baghdad, burned down on May 1, and with it, $500,000 in stock. Other Iraqi shops and kiosks were also destroyed in the electrical fire, but the tailor is back in business, in large part because so many U.S. soldiers — and high-ranking officers — had paid deposits on suits that had yet to be delivered. | 06/30/10 19:27:21 By - Hannah Allam

War uproots Iraq's signature date palms, and their tenders

In Iraq's date-production heyday, official estimates put the number of palm trees at 30 million, but decades of war and water salinity have cut that figure so dramatically that the United Nations agriculture mission considers date-palm rehabilitation an urgent national priority. | 06/23/10 17:14:21 By - Hannah Allam

Iraqi electricity minister offers to resign, but public fury continues

Iraq's electricity minister offered to resign Monday night over power cuts that have sparked fatal protests. But the move has failed to quell anger over what Iraqis widely describe as a war being waged against them by uncaring and corrupt politicians. | 06/22/10 16:33:09 By - Jane Arraf, Christian Science Monitor

Bombings, deadly protests point to long, hard summer in Iraq

The morning after a double suicide bombing of Iraq's Trade Bank, employees working around collapsed ceilings and bent beams to pack up computer equipment and files say they are a day away from reopening the institution central to Iraq's reconstruction efforts. | 06/21/10 17:22:34 By - Jane Arraf

Suicide bomber kills two U.S. soldiers, wounds six in Iraq

Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six wounded northeast of Baghdad this morning when a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden car approached a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol and detonated, according to the U.S. military and local authorities. | 06/11/10 08:35:37 By - Hannah Allam

Civilian toll of Iranian raids in northern Iraq enrages Kurds

Outrage is growing in Iraq's northern Kurdish territories over renewed Iranian air and artillery strikes against Kurdish rebels in the remote Qandil Mountains, officials and residents said. | 06/07/10 15:52:17 By - Yasseen Taha and Hannah Allam

Iraq's Supreme Court ratifies election, but impasse remains

The court's decision cements the narrow lead of a secular-led coalition but doesn't do much to end the impasse over forming a new government. It starts the clock on a 15-day window for convening the new parliament, but several Iraqi politicians said they expect legislators to buy more time by simply opening a new session and failing to adjourn it for weeks. | 06/01/10 12:42:24 By - Hannah Allam

On Memorial Day in Iraq, musings on a war winding down

For some of the troops who gathered at Camp Victory in Baghdad, it was difficult to discuss individual losses, even now that combat deaths have tapered off and the war here is eclipsed by the bloodshed in Afghanistan. | 05/31/10 15:58:11 By - Hannah Allam

'Cup of Joe' gives troops a jolt of caffeine and a thank you

Under the "Cup of Joe" program, anyone with $2 to spare can buy a cup of super-premium, organic coffee for a soldier deployed on or near a U.S. military base in support of Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom. | 05/29/10 14:38:02 By - Allison Kennedy

Waiting for a new government, ordinary Iraqis suffer

For hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, the delay in seating a new government, which already has lasted nearly three months, has complicated everyday errands and added bureaucratic frustration to lives that are hard enough thanks to persistent violence and the lack of basic utilities. | 05/27/10 16:20:00 By - Hannah Allam

Gunmen rob Baghdad gold shops, killing 14, wounding 4

Gunmen wearing scarves to hide their faces laid siege to a shopping district in southwestern Baghdad just before noon Tuesday, killing at least 14 people in a robbery of several gold shops, Iraqi authorities said. | 05/25/10 10:10:44 By - Hannah Allam

Families of Iraqi prisoners who suffocated in truck allege torture

The corpses of at least three of the six Sunni Muslim detainees who died while in Iraqi government custody earlier this month showed signs of torture, their families said Thursday as they vowed revenge at emotionally charged funerals. | 05/20/10 17:50:21 By - Hannah Allam and Jamal Naji

Iraq moves towards installing new government...slowly

The tense challenges to Iraq's March 7 election results appear over - breaking one political logjam. But the impasse over who will be the prime minister, president, and participate in the ruling government coalition will likely continue for months. | 05/19/10 19:20:38 By - Jane Arraf

Iraq reopens foreign ministry 8 months after bombing

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki officially reopened Iraq's bombed foreign ministry Wednesday in what foreign and Iraqi diplomats said was proof that the country would not be defeated by truck bombs or terrorists. | 05/19/10 18:53:04 By - Jane Arraf

Iraqi baseball team checks out America's pastime on U.S. visit

The players on Iraq's premier national baseball team saw a baseball stadium for the first time on a recent 10-day visit to the United States, courtesy of the State Department. It was also the first time they had an appreciation of why the game is considered America's pastime. | 05/17/10 18:23:48 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Pentagon rethinking value of major counterinsurgencies

Nearly a decade after the United States began to focus its military training and equipment purchases almost exclusively on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. military strategists are quietly shifting gears, saying that large-scale counterinsurgency efforts cost too much and last too long. | 05/13/10 21:05:35 By - Nancy A. Youssef

U.S. sees return of Sadrist threat in southern Iraq

A senior U.S. general said forces loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr are rising again in Iraq's south, engaging in intimidation, extortion, and political violence as politicians in Baghdad continue to negotiate over forming a government two months after national elections. | 05/12/10 18:54:04 By - Jane Arraf, Christian Science Monitor

Nearly 100 dead in Iraq's most lethal day of the year

Nearly 100 people died and at least 300 others were injured Monday in a series of attacks that crisscrossed Iraq, targeting security forces, factory workers and shoppers on what authorities called the deadliest day of the year. | 05/10/10 13:42:59 By - Sahar Issa

Iraq's Shiites close to forming religious-based coalition

Iraq's two main Shiite parties brought the country a step toward a new religious-based government by forming an alliance just four seats short of a parliamentary majority. The agreement between the two parties raised fears that Sunnis could once again be cut out of power, sparking a return to sectarian violence. | 05/05/10 18:50:10 By - Jane Arraf and Mohammed al Dulaimy

As Iraqi election recount about to launch, Maliki faces other troubles

Iraqi authorities Thursday announced that an Iraq election recount demanded by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would take up to two weeks. Meanwhile, recent allegations of torture on Maliki's watch have given his political enemies new fodder and could further weaken his ability to head a coalition government. | 04/29/10 20:16:11 By - Jane Arraf

U.S. worried over Iraq's failure to resolve election impasse

Iraqi election authorities Monday announced that two winning parliamentary candidates had been disqualified because of their alleged ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. | 04/26/10 18:58:12 By - Jane Arraf and Mohammed al-Dulaimy

At Iraqi border outpost, a U.S.-Iran game of 'spy vs. spy'

This windswept U.S. garrison on Iraq's border with Iran has no running water and sporadic mail service, and it's so easily overlooked that the military accidentally canceled its contract for portable toilets last month, forcing the 60 soldiers who live here to resort to disposable waste bags for a while. | 04/26/10 17:29:01 By - Hannah Allam

The Marine Corps' dogs are always faithful, too

Lex is a 9-year-old German shepherd who was a U.S. Marine stationed in Iraq as part of a two-member team trained to locate explosives. | 04/25/10 14:55:58 By - Rob Christenson

Iraqis reveal details of raid that killed militants

Iraq Wednesday released new details of a raid that led to killing of the two top Al Qaida in Iraq figures over the weekend, while officials said inroads in dismantling the network over the past several months could prove more damaging to the group than the leaders' deaths. | 04/21/10 15:51:45 By - Jane Arraf and Mohammed al Dulaimy

Has killing two of its leaders crippled al Qaida in Iraq?

Iraqi and U.S. forces killed two top terrorists Sunday in northern Iraq, but whether the killings would deal a fatal blow to al Qaida in Iraq remained unclear. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki said Monday that a rocket attack killed Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the leader of the self-declared Islamic State of Iraq, and Abu Ayoub al Masri, an Egyptian thought to have ties to the international al Qaida leadership. | 04/19/10 10:32:26 By - Jane Arraf and Mohammed al Dulaimy

Iraqi authorities uncover Al Qaida 'plot' to fly plane into mosque

Baghdad's airport is under heightened security and Iraqi pilots are being investigated after an alleged Al Qaeda plot to hijack a plane and fly it into one of Iraq's shrines in a 9/11-style attack, Iraq's foreign minister said Thursday. | 04/15/10 20:17:04 By - Jane Arraf

Have Iran and its allies been passing phony $100 bills in Iraq?

At least $4 million in counterfeit U.S. currency has flooded into Iraq since December, and U.S. and Iraqi officials are trying to determine how much of the counterfeiting is purely criminal and how much might be an Iranian attempt to influence Iraqi politics. | 04/15/10 18:00:22 By - Hannah Allam