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U.S.-led forces said they shot dead a leader of al Qaeda in Iraq on Friday who was the mastermind behind a series of deadly recent bombings in Baghdad. A spokesman for coalition forces said Mahir Ahmad Mahmud Judu' al-Zubaydi, also known as Abu Assad or Abu Rami, had been al Qaeda in Iraq's "emir" of the Rusafa neighborhood of the capital.

Satellite images show ethnic cleanout in Iraq By Maggie Fox, Health and Science EditorFri Sep 19, 4:19 PM ET Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday. The images support the view of international refugee organizations and Iraq experts that a major population shift was a key factor in the decline in sectarian violence, particularly in the Iraqi capital, the epicenter of the bloodletting in which hundreds of thousands...

Some deadly bombings in Baghdad this year [2008] _July 15: Two suicide bombers blow themselves up in a crowd of army recruits at the Saad military camp in Baqouba, killing at least 28. _June 26: A suicide bomber detonates an explosive belt inside a municipal government building in Karmah, killing at least 20 people at a meeting of tribal sheiks opposed to al-Qaida. _June 26: A car bombing near a government headquarters in the northern city of Mosul kills 20. _June 22: A female suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt detonates herself in front of a government complex in Baqouba,...

General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, said declining violence in Baghdad raised the possibility that American combat troops could leave the capital by next summer. Asked in an interview with the Financial Times whether it was feasible that US combat forces could leave Baghdad by July, he said: “Conditions permitting, yeah.” His comments come as the US and Iraq hammer out the final details of a long-term security agreement that reportedly outlines a potential timeline for US combat troops to leave Iraqi cities by next summer, and the country by 2011. “The number of attacks in Baghdad...

BAGHDAD in 2008 is a city tantalisingly close to a genuine transformation. The first impression after an absence of two years is the stunning reduction in the appalling level of violence that had torn the city's suburbs apart over the past four years. A relative calm has now descended. On the day I arrived, there was not a single serious security incident across the whole of Baghdad. As Ramadan begins, it seems Iraqis are increasingly weary with war and yearn for a more normal life. Last week, 60,000 people crowded into a city stadium for a major football match. Rocket...

Baghdad, July 5, 2008 – Servicemembers from all over Iraq gathered here today in the Al Faw Palace rotunda on Camp Victory, to re-enlist and celebrate America’s Independence Day. 1,215 U.S. servicemembers from all over Iraq re-enlisted during a ceremony in the Al Faw Palace rotunda at Camp Victrory in Baghdad, July 4, 2008. Multinational Force-Iraq Commander Army Gen. David Petraeus led the ceremony. Photo by MNF-I Public Affairs (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. All 1,215 servicemembers celebrated by raising their right hand and pledging to continue defending the ‘land of the free’ in what is the largest...

Hezbollah Brigades' logo is nearly identical to that of Lebanese Hezbollah. Coalition forces, likely the special operations hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88, have captured nine Hezbollah Brigades operatives during three raids in the Adhamiyah district in Baghdad over the past 24 hours. The first intelligence-driven raid netted a Hezbollah Brigades cell leader who operated in Basrah. "According to information from suspects already in custody, he is believed to be involved in smuggling weapons and fighters across the Iraq-Iran border," Multinational Forces Iraq reported in a press release. Three other suspected Hezbollah Brigades associates were captured. The second raid...

CAMP STRIKER — U.S. Soldiers are preparing to hand over their area of operations in Southern Baghdad and believe the conditions are set for making a successful change. “Our plan is to conduct a transfer of authority of Southern Baghdad, not with another Coalition forces element, but with the 17th Iraqi Army Division,” said Col. Dominic Caraccilo, commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). “The conditions are set for the 17th IA Div. to take charge of its area of operations – which is virtually all of the Mahmudiyah Qada,” said Maj. David Jones, operations...

Bombers kill 50 in Iraq, wound nearly 250 BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three female suicide bombers killed 28 people and wounded 92 in Baghdad on Monday as Shi'ite pilgrims flooded into the Iraqi capital for a major religious event, police said. In the northern oil city of Kirkuk a bomb killed at least 22 people and wounded 150 at a protest against a controversial provincial elections law, Iraqi health and security officials said. The U.S. military said initial reports showed the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber. The blasts marked one of the bloodiest days in months and underscored...

Link only - Pack your bags for Baghdad? Iraq looks to tourism

Coalition special forces teams, likely the terrorist hunter-killer teams of Task Force 88, have captured a Hezbollah Brigades propaganda specialist during a raid in New Baghdad. The propaganda specialist was positively identified by his wife after the raid, and he later admitted to his role in seeding websites with attack videos

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama attends a meeting with Iraq's President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad July 21, 2008. REUTERS/Wathiq Khuzaie/Pool (IRAQ)

Sgt. Frank Lugo leads a double life. In the United States, he was a successful hedge fund trader with condos in New York and South Beach, Fla. Now he is in an unlikely spot -- Iraq, where he lives in the sprawling slum of Sadr City. "My lifestyle's obviously drastically different back home than it is here," Lugo said. "But there are things that can't be replicated back home that are here. This belief that we're trying to accomplish something that's greater than oneself." Lugo is an Army reservist. At 36, he has re-enlisted four times, swapping fast cars and...

July 4, 2008 Military Re-Enlistment Ceremony of 1,215 members of our awesome US Armed Forces .. the largest re-up ceremony in history, *** Pt 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aAU1XE8MQk *** Pt 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcQqzISEqLY&feature=related *** Pt 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqzMMrkDWyk&feature=related

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq, July 7, 2008 – Leaders from Multinational Division Baghdad, the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi government broke ground July 5 for a project to revitalize the road from Baghdad International Airport to the heart of the Iraqi capital. A member of the Iraqi National Police stands behind three gold-painted shovels while Baghdad Mayor Saber al-Esawi speaks during a ground-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the Airport Road revitalization effort in southern Baghdad, July 5, 2008. Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team worked with leaders from...

Deadly car bomb hits Baghdad A car bomb has exploded in the Shaab district of northern Baghdad, killing six people and wounding 14. The explosion on Sunday morning was in front of the mortuary of the capital's Al-Yarmukh hospital, one of the main medical facilities in the city, a defence ministry official said. Several shops were destroyed by the blast. One woman was among the dead and three policemen were wounded. Initial reports suggested the blast targeted an interior ministry convoy. "Six people have been killed and 14 others wounded," an interior ministry official said. Separate attacks In other violence,...

Baghdad was a wonder of the world in the year 800 while London was an economic backwater. By 1800, London was the largest city in the world while Arab cities languished. Recent research attributes this ‘trading places’ to institutional differences: Arab cities were tied to the fate of the state while European cities were independent growth poles. Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in northwestern Europe? At the turning of the first millennium, Europe was a backward part of the world economy with low levels of urbanisation and income. But between 1000 and 1800, Europe surged from a backwater of...

Click to view images froma patrol in Northeast Baghdad. Photos by Bill Murray. BAGHDAD, IRAQ: It’s near noon on a Friday in Northeast Baghdad and the neighborhoods the U.S. military calls Muhallahs 535 and 734 are quiet. It’s the weekend, and many adults are at the local mosques for worship, leaving the streets filled with dozens of adolescent boys, yelling, kicking and raising minor havoc on bicycles, soccer balls and the unlucky stray dog. As U.S. Army Specialist Luis Garza and 2nd Lieutenant Jonathon Logan patrol the neighborhoods, they remember these streets during a less docile time. Both men...

The horrific sectarian cleansing of much of Baghdad in 2006-2007 separated the warring parities. As a consequence of the surge, the sectarian cleansing slowed and has now basically stopped. It is not "complete" in the sense that there are still some Sunni neighborhoods (mostly in western Baghdad) and a few (somewhat) mixed areas elsewhere, but Baghdad has become a city of enclaves. Beyond the U.S. troop increase, the greater emphasis on population security, and the recruitment of local Sons of Iraq to patrol neighborhoods and man checkpoints, there is another ingredient to the fragile, Balkanized peace in Iraq's capital: concrete....

Car Bomb Blamed on Iranian Backed Shias June 19, 2008 The US military has accused Iranian-backed Shia groups of setting off a car bomb that killed more than 60 people in a mainly Shia area of Baghdad, hinting at yet another new twist in the complex web of violence gripping the capital. “We believe the attack was not conducted by AQI [Al-Qaeda in Iraq],” said Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, a US army spokesman, said. “Though vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices are a trademark of AQI, our intelligence, corroborated through multiple sources, is this atrocity was committed by a Special Groups cell led...

An L.A. Speculator Plans a Disney-Style Park in BaghdadWhat a blast By DAVID FERRELL Wednesday, June 4, 2008 - 6:19 pm Only five years after U.S. warplanes rained down “shock and awe” on Iraq, decimating towns and families, a few rich Californians have figured out how to counter the mortar attacks, suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism that continue to ravage the capital city, Baghdad. Build an amusement park. Not enough excitement in machine-gun fire and cars blowing up? Soon, thanks to some Los Angeles–area venture capitalists, Iraqis may have what every adrenaline junkie really craves — thrill rides....

'Baghdad-style' checkpoints in US capital By Tom Leonard Last Updated: 8:14PM BST 08/06/2008 Police in Washington DC have set up vehicle checkpoints in the American capital in a controversial measure aimed at tackling a wave of gun violence. In a move that critics have compared to the security clampdown in Baghdad, police are stopping motorists travelling through the main thoroughfare of Trinidad, a neighbourhood near the National Arboretum in the city's northeast section. Drivers' identification are checked and those who didn't have a "legitimate purpose" in the area, such as a church visit or doctor's appointment, are turned away. The...

Victor Davis Hanson, a former classics professor, is a renowned conservative scholar of ancient history and military affairs who's recently become a nationally syndicated columnist and blogger. The author of 17 books with titles like "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War," "An Autumn of War" and "Mexifornia: A State of Becoming," he is the senior fellow in residence in classics and military history at the Hoover Institution on the Stanford University campus. Hanson, whose scholarship and interest in individual freedom recently earned him a 2008 Bradley Prize worth $250,000 from the Bradley...

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2008 – Last week, Iraq experienced the lowest level of “security incidents” since March 2004, a reduction that military officials attribute in part to improvements in Iraqi security forces. “The collective efforts … to increase the capacity of the Iraqi security forces is a key part of the reason why we saw last week the lowest level of security incidents in Iraq the past four years,” Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said this morning during a news conference in Baghdad. “It is also why we are seeing Iraqi citizens increasingly supporting their...

Excerpt - BAGHDAD, May 20 (Reuters) - Iraq's army moved on Tuesday to take control of Baghdad's Sadr City, power base of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in another step to stamp government authority over areas previously outside its control. A spokesman for Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, Major-General Qassim Moussawi, said soldiers had launched "Operation Peace" in the sprawling eastern Baghdad slum early on Tuesday. Iraqi soldiers, who previously controlled only the outer perimeter of Sadr City, advanced deep into the poor suburb, home to 2 million people, without meeting any opposition, he said. "We are taking control of three-quarters...

A Spanish court has thrown out murder charges against three US soldiers accused of killing a Spanish cameraman during the war in Iraq. Jose Couso, 37, died in April 2003 after a US tank fired on a hotel used by foreign journalists in Baghdad. Madrid's National Court dropped all charges, ruling there was "insufficient evidence" to continue with the trial. The court ruling underlined that the case was being definitively dismissed, with no further opportunity to appeal. US officials ignored two international arrest warrants issued for Sgt Thomas Gibson, Cpt Philip Wolford and Lt-Col Philip De Camp, in 2005 and...

Picture, if you will, a tree-lined plaza in Baghdad's International Village, flanked by fashion boutiques, swanky cafes, and shiny glass office towers. Nearby a golf course nestles agreeably, where a chip over the water to the final green is but a prelude to cocktails in the club house and a soothing massage in a luxury hotel, which would not look out of place in Sydney harbour. Then, as twilight falls, a pre-prandial stroll, perhaps, amid the cool of the Tigris Riverfront Park, where the peace is broken only by the soulful cries of egrets fishing. Improbable though it all may...

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military fired guided missiles into the heart of Baghdad's teeming Sadr City slum on Saturday, leveling a building 55 yards away from a hospital and wounding nearly two dozen people. Separately, the U.S. military said late Saturday that four Marines were killed on Thursday by a roadside bomb in Anbar province. The military also said that a U.S. soldier died of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb that struck the soldier's vehicle during a combat patrol in eastern Baghdad Friday. At least 4,071 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq...

Families stroll the park's sidewalks and picnic in the shade as laughing children clamor to see the main attraction - lions once owned by Saddam Hussein's son, Odai. Damaged after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the Baghdad Zoo has made a startling comeback, and thousands of Iraqis are flocking here to escape the city's grungy streets. The zoo, located in the sprawling Zawra Park in the heart of Baghdad just outside the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, has been held up as an example of American reconstruction efforts. The military brought in new animals, rebuilt damaged exhibits and worked with international zoos and...

Llewellyn Werner, a California investor, admits he is facing obstacles most amusement park developers never have to deal with. Such as insurgent attacks and looting. But when the amusement park you’re building lies in downtown Baghdad, those risks come with the territory. Mr Werner, chairman of C3, a Los Angeles-based holding company for private equity firms, is pouring millions of dollars into developing The Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience, a massive American-style amusement park that will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theatre and a museum. It is being designed by the same firm that developed Disneyland. “The people...

BAGHDAD (AFP) — A US air strike Tuesday killed 10 people in Baghdad, Iraqi officials said, as the American military announced the deaths of five troops and a female suicide bomber slaughtered six Iraqis north of the capital.The US military initially denied there had been an air strike but later reported an "air weapons team engagement" in Sadr City, an east Baghdad Shiite bastion where militiamen are fighting street battles with Iraqi and US forces.Iraqi security officials said 10 people were killed and 17 hurt in the air strike, which they said took place around 7.00 pm (1600 GMT) in...

U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Declared Ready, With Nudge by RocketsBy Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 18, 2008; Page A19 The troubled effort to build the giant U.S. Embassy in Baghdad seemed to be months away from completion when a team of top State Department officials flew to Iraq on March 20 to meet with senior staff from the prime contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting. But as insurgent rockets began to rain down on the flimsy trailers housing diplomats inside the Green Zone, the two sides suddenly found ways to settle many of the major issues...

The battle between criminal gangs and the state continues, yet the war is far from being over. Public statements keep coming from both sides and they don’t seem to promise a diplomatic resolution for the crisis. The latest exchange included a pledge for a “final battle” by Sadr’s spokesman Bahaa Aaraji and an assertion by Maliki that the government will not stop pursuing gangs militarily and politically. Telling Sadr that his movement cannot take part in elections unless he disbands his militias and surrenders weapons is a turning point in Iraqi politics, especially because a broad political front including leading...

Spotting irregularities is a tactic that is drilled into the minds of Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers throughout training and in practice while in Iraq. Soldiers recently watched as a car pulled up to an entry control point at Forward Operating Base Callahan in northern Baghdad. They continued to watch as a woman stepped out of the car holding a bag. Once the woman dropped the bag near the gate, internal alarms were ringing and a careful search was called for and conducted... ...That search yielded a newborn baby wrapped tightly in several cloths. Soldiers raced to the bag, retrieved...

Baghdad - Calm was restored to the Sadr City area of east Baghdad Saturday after Iraqi security authorities lifted the vehicle curfew imposed on the Shiite city on March 25, witnesses said. Despite US and Iraqi military clashes with militants in the Shiite neighbourhood following an attack on a convoy Friday, the Iraqi forces lifted the vehicle curfew from early Saturday morning in Sadr City, according to a statement issued by Baghdad's security operation office. The statement called upon citizens to abide by all instructions issued by security forces that stressed the importance of driving in designated safe routes and...

BAGHDAD – Two Multi-National Division –Baghdad aerial weapons teams engaged criminal activities in two separate operations in northeast Baghdad April 10.An AWT observed three criminals at a potential rocket site at approximately 8 a.m. When the criminals caught site of the AWT, they fled the scene in a black sedan.An unmanned aerial vehicle observed the criminals returning to the site. At 9:45 a.m., the UAV confirms the presence of rockets. Moments later, the AWT returns and engages the three rockets with a hellfire missile.The criminals fled the scene.The AWT and UAV confirmed two additional rockets at a different site a...

Iraqi and Coalition forces are conducting strikes against the Mahdi Army and other Iranian-backed Shia terror groups in Baghdad and Basrah. As these raids are occurring, the Sadrist movement cancels a scheduled protest in Baghdad and issues conflicting reports about Muqtada al Sadr's consultations with Shia clerics to disband the Mahdi Army. Clashes in Baghdad Today's clashes in the Shia neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad began after Mahdi Army fighters attacked a police and US Army patrol and fired mortars and rockets at the International Zone in central Baghdad. Five policemen and four civilians were wounded in an improvised explosive device...

Asked repeatedly yesterday what "conditions" he is looking for to begin substantial U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq after this summer's scheduled drawdown, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus said he will know them when he sees them. For frustrated lawmakers, it was not enough. "A year ago, the president said we couldn't withdraw because there was too much violence," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). "Now he says we can't afford to withdraw because violence is down." Asked Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.): "Where do we go from here?" Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said: "I think people want a sense of what...

General cites recent rise in violence and urges senators to halt troop withdrawals for at least 45 days this summer. WASHINGTON -- Arguing for a continuing U.S. troop presence, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus told Congress today that the recent flare-up of violence across Iraq demonstrates that recent security improvements are "fragile and reversible." The top U.S. commander said that troop reductions begun in December should continue through July, but that withdrawals should halt after that for at least 45 days. Petraeus said that further cuts would depend on progress in security, leading Democrats to charge that that Petraeus was...

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) — Aides to Muqtada al-Sadr say the anti-American Shiite cleric is calling off a mass rally in Baghdad Wednesday. Iraqi security forces are blocking al-Sadr's followers from traveling to the capital from the southern Shiite heartland where he enjoys wide support. Two aides in al-Sadr's office in the holy city of Najaf told The Associated Press that the rally had been canceled. They spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement. Al-Sadr had called for a "million-strong" protest to mark the fifth anniversary of the capture of Baghdad by U.S. troops. It was seen by many...

One of our most faithful readers writes from Baghdad, where he is serving as an officer in the Army Reserve: I'm back over here for my fourth Army Reserve stint since 2004. What a difference a year makes. In late 2006 and early 2007, just after surge had been announced, many commentators and thinkers -- in uniform and out -- thought that Anbar was hopeless, a lost cause. Just google "Anbar Lost" to see what I mean. Nowadays, it has been weeks since we lost a soldier in Anbar. More incredibly Iraqi Army units, composed of Anbari Sunnis, have deployed...

3 US troops killed, 31 wounded in Iraq By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD - Rockets or mortars slammed into the U.S.-protected Green Zone and a military base elsewhere in Baghdad on Sunday, killing three American soldiers and wounding 31, an official said The attacks occurred as U.S. and Iraqi forces battled Shiite militants in Sadr City in some of the fiercest fighting since radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered a cease-fire a week ago. At least 16 Iraqi civilians were killed in the fighting, according to hospital officials. A military official said two U.S. troops died and 17 were...

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Fierce clashes between Shiite gunmen and US forces in the Iraqi capital's Sadr City district killed at least 20 people on Sunday, amid calls from Iraqi leaders for all militias to be disbanded.In northern Iraq, meanwhile, Iraqi security forces freed 42 university students who had been kidnapped by gunmen, a local army commander said.Security and defence ministry officials said women and children were among the 20 dead and 52 wounded in the Sadr City clashes that erupted at around midnight and continued sporadically throughout the day.The US military said it launched two air strikes in Sadr City...

BAGHDAD - An Assyrian Orthodox priest was killed in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Baghdad, police and an assistant said, the latest attack against Iraq's Christian minority. The priest, Youssef Adel, was shot by gunmen who drove up in a car and opened fire as he was opening the gate of his house near the St. Peter and Paul church where he presided, an assistant said. Christians have frequently been caught up in the violence or been targeted in this predominantly Muslim country. The body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, one of Iraq's most senior Chaldean Catholic clerics, was found...

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday he planned to launch more security crackdowns like the one in Basra against "criminal gangs" in Baghdad. Addressing a news conference, he singled out Sadr City and Shula — two Mahdi Army militia strongholds in Baghdad — as likely targets in the future crackdowns, saying they were under the sway of "criminal gangs." Al-Maliki did not mention by name the Mahdi Army militia, which is led by radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr City and Shula are militia strongholds and any attack by government troops there is likely to trigger a backlash...

Three-day curfew ends in Baghdad Baghdad's Sadr City is still burying its dead from the fighting Iraqi authorities have lifted a curfew in Baghdad, allowing people to leave their homes and easing most measures put in force on Thursday. Driving is still prohibited in three mainly Shia districts, including Sadr City, which saw some of the heaviest fighting last week. Mehdi Army militiamen have withdrawn from the streets, residents say. On Sunday, their leader, radical cleric Moqtada Sadr, ordered them to stop fighting Iraqi security forces. The fighting has claimed more than 240 lives across the country since Tuesday....

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Iraqi government has welcomed an order by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to pull his fighters off the streets. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told FOX News that the decision is "positive and responsive." Al-Dabbagh said the move would "help the government confront those who are violating the law" and that it would help to "isolate those who are trying to destroy the government effort". He said Iraqi security operations in Basra would not end until the "criminal elements" operating there are removed. Also praising al-Sadr's orders was Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who said it was "a...

Government to lift Baghdad curfew Baghdad has been under curfew since Thursday The Iraqi government is due to lift a curfew in Baghdad, after Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr ordered his fighters off the streets of Iraqi cities. The government said the curfew would end at 0600 local time (0300 GMT), but a vehicle ban would remain in three Shia areas of the capital. Moqtada Sadr on Sunday told his Mehdi Army militias to stop fighting government troops. The fighting has claimed more than 240 lives across the country since Tuesday. 'Positive' move Moqtada Sadr's statement said: "Because of the...

BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division – Baghdad soldiers engaged and killed 23 criminals in separate engagements in Baghdad March 28. Soldiers from 2nd BCT, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), killed one criminal in northeastern Baghdad after seeing the individual with a rocket propelled grenade launcher in an alleyway during a patrol. At approximately 4 p.m., a 3rd BCT, 4th Infantry Division vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in northeastern Baghdad. A number of criminals then fired on the soldiers while they attempted to recover the vehicle. Soldiers spotted and engaged two of the attackers, killing them both. Iraqi security forces and...

BAGHDAD - Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged he may have miscalculated by failing to foresee the strong backlash that his offensive, which began Tuesday, provoked in areas of Baghdad and other cities where Shiite militias wield power. Government television said the round-the-clock curfew imposed two days ago on the capital and due to expire Sunday would be extended indefinitely. The U.S. Embassy tightened...