Chalabi Rides Surge Back Into Office

Insurgents target efforts to provide food, fuel, services

(NEWSER) - Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods are in collapse, lacking food, fuel, electricity and health care even as their Shiite neighbors have regained basic services, Alissa Rubin reports. In Shiite areas, the Mahdi Army fills in for the government by keeping order and organizing resources, but Sunnis now find themselves under attack both from Shiite forces and Sunni insurgents. More»

(NEWSER) - Insurgents in Baghdad used two children in the backseat of a car to lower suspicion at an American security checkpoint, then blew up the car, with the children in it. Once they cleared the checkpoint, the bombers parked near a school, ran from the car, and detonated the bomb, killing the children and three other civilians, and wounding seven. More»

Security extraordinarily tight

(NEWSER) - Thousands of people took to the streets across Iraq today, despite a distinctly intensified security effort. About 2,000 gathered in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square for example, even though the route there was blocked with razorwire and dozens of checkpoints, the LA Times reports. Protesters waved images of Baghdad’s slums, played music, and shouted insults about Nouri al-Maliki. There was even a mime performance. More»

Other attacks kill 3 in Iraq

(AP) - A car bomb ripped through a funeral tent in a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad today, killing at least 37 people, including four children and three women. The car, which exploded around 2pm, had been parked with the vehicles of other mourners, several yards away from the tent, so it wouldn't raise suspicion, police said. Several other cars were set afire and the force of the blast damaged nearby houses. Another 78 were wounded, say police and hospital officials. More»

Voters casting ballots in parliamentary elections are targets

(AP) - A string of blasts across Baghdad targeting voters killed at least 17 people today, ratcheting up fear as many Iraqis cast early ballots ahead of Sunday's nationwide parliamentary elections. The blasts hit voters outside polling stations. "Terrorists wanted to hamper the elections, thus they started to blow themselves up in the streets," said the deputy interior minister in charge of security. More»