Gunmen Ambush Sadr City Mayor

Top provincial official slain in his SUV, police blame Mahdi Army

(NEWSER) - The governor of Muthanna province was killed by a roadside bomb today—a little more than a week after another Iraqi governor was assassinated. Mohammed Ali al-Hassani's SUV was struck en route to his office in the morning. Police are blaming Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, which has clashed with the the rival Shiite party to which both governors belonged. More»

Suspected suicide bomber was bodyguard of Sunni MP

(NEWSER) - Eight people, including three lawmakers, were killed and at least 30 wounded when a suicide bomber eluded the normally heavy security around the Green Zone and denonated an explosion in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament. Officials believe the culprit was the bodyguard of a Sunni legislator not among the dead. The bomb squad defused two other satchel bombs found inside the building. More»

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»

Shiites, Muqtada al-Sadr's office targeted

(NEWSER) - Bombs exploded throughout Baghdad today, targeting Shiite mosques and neighborhoods, including the office of anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. A neighborhood in Anbar province was also hit with six roadside bombs. At least 61 people have been killed and nearly 112 wounded, CNN reports. More»