Bus Bomb Kills 12 in Baghdad

(NEWSER) - It was an unusually bloody day for US troops abroad today, as eight soldiers were killed—four in Iraq and four in Afghanistan. It was the deadliest day for the US in Iraq since troops left the cities earlier this year, reports the BBC. Three soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in northern Iraq, while another was killed in Baghdad. A bomb also struck the northern town of Amirili, killing a local police chief. More»

David Hickman, 23, was last of some 4,500 to die

(NEWSER) - On Nov. 14, just a month before the final US troops left Iraq, a 23-year-old soldier lost his life to an improvised explosive device. David Emanuel Hickman was the last American to be killed in a war that cost some 4,500 Americans their lives, the AP reports. With the US mission over, his family and friends are remembering him as a jokester with the nickname "Zeus" (because, he playfully said, his physique was so impressive the gods would be envious); as an outside linebacker who was the linchpin of a defense so complicated his high school had to scrap it after he graduated because no other teen could figure it out; as someone with a goal of one day joining the Special Forces, and who, in the words of a friend, "didn’t sign up to get his life on track. He wanted to be a physically and mentally elite soldier." More»

25 total dead in series of attacks

(AP) - Three American soldiers were killed and nine others wounded today as bombings in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk claimed at least 25 lives, the AP reports. The attacks came a day after a car bomb exploded near a group of restaurants in a Shiite neighborhood of northwest Baghdad, leaving 41 people dead and more than 70 others injured. More»

Mass. group provides 'great ending to bad beginning'

(NEWSER) - A nonprofit group is putting up customized homes for badly injured vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Massachusetts-based Homes for Our Troops is building in 20 states, fueled by donated supplies, land, and labor. “When a vet is in need, people come out of everywhere to help,” the contractor-turned-founder says. More»

They want him to stop using fallen soldiers' names on shirts

(NEWSER) - An Arizona entrepreneur who prints the name of troops killed in Iraq on anti-war T-shirts is getting heat from soldiers' families who say he's disrespecting the dead. Dan Frazier's shirts have slogans such as "Bush Lied" and "They Died" superimposed over the names. Five states have passed laws forbidding the commercial use of deceased soldiers names without permission from the military or next-of-kin. More»