Man in Iraqi Uniform Kills 2 US Soldiers

(NEWSER) - US troops in Mosul shot dead a 12-year-old boy who they said hurled a grenade at them, and American authorities complained that Iraqis are paying children to attack, Reuters reports. Iraqi police, however, denied the boy was involved. He was holding about $9 in his hand when he was killed. "We have reason to believe that insurgents are paying children to conduct these attacks, placing children in harm's way," said a US military spokesman. But Iraqi authorities said the boy was selling candy. More»

Insurgents reeling from citizen backlash, troop surge

(NEWSER) - Outsmarted and overwhelmed by allied forces in Iraq, al-Qaeda is getting desperate, Marie Colvin writes for the London Times. The insurgents, masters of organized resistance, are now resorting to small-scale hit-and-run attacks amidst waning support from Iraqis. “Al-Qaeda in Mosul is pretty much not able to do the attacks that they could do previously,” said an Iraqi commander. More»

But truce may not end weeks of violence there

(NEWSER) - Shiite militants have agreed to a cease-fire in Baghdad’s Sadr City, said an aide to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose militia is concentrated there, the AP reports. Sadrists “will stop fighting in Sadr City and will stop displaying arms in public,” the aide said. “In return, the government will stop random raids against al-Sadr followers and open all closed roads that lead to Sadr City.” More»

Soldiers in Mosul arrest chief of Al-Qaeda in Iraq

(NEWSER) - The Iraqi army has arrested the leader of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the AP reports today. Defense officials said they took Abu Ayyub al-Masri into custody in Mosul. He has led the group—which last month called for stepped-up attacks against US forces—since 2006. Masri helped set up the first al-Qaeda cell in Baghdad after the US invasion in 2003. More»

Al-Qaeda bomber kills 13 in Mosul, while rockets hit Green Zone

(NEWSER) - Despite a yearlong decline in violence in Iraq, a series of attacks on Easter Sunday killed at least 57, reports the AP. In the most severe, a suicide car bomber killed at least 13 Iraqi soldiers and wounded 42 people at a military base in Mosul, an al-Qaeda holdout. A second suicide car bombing killed 7 and wounded 14 in Baghdad, while a series of explosions rattled the Green Zone. More»