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Reuters
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Dec 30, 07 9:51 AM CST
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"There is no life without the sun and no dignity without Saddam," read graffiti in the former Iraqi leader’s hometown of Tikrit today, the first anniversary of his execution. Small groups of mourners came to his tomb to praise Saddam Hussein’s accomplishments, reports Reuters, amid tightened security in anticipation of attacks by die-hard supporters.
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Associated Press
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Dec 29, 07 5:23 PM CST
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Al-Qaeda in Iraq is down 75%, one Baghdad official said today—but US Gen. David Petraeus maintained that al-Qaeda is still “the most significant challenge" facing the country. Maj. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf attributed the alleged al-Qaeda cut to beefed Iraq security, armed Sunni fighters, and the recent US troop surge.
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Washington Post
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Dec 25, 07 2:08 PM CST
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Two suicide attacks in big cities north of Baghdad today killed at least 34 and injured up to 100, underscoring the dangers still posed by insurgents, the Washington Post reports. A bomber killed 12 at a funeral in Baqubah, following an earlier car bomb explosion in Baiji that killed at least 22. The bombings are the worst attacks in several months of relative calm.
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BBC
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Dec 25, 07 5:43 AM CST
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At least 20 people have died and scores more are injured in northern Iraq after a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb while inside the vehicle. Police stopped the driver in the city of Baiji, about 150 miles north of Baghdad, the BBC reports. The bomb struck people lining up to buy gasoline, and several women and children are among the dead.
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Associated Press
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Dec 23, 07 10:00 PM CST
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Ala Eddeen was destined for a miserable, perhaps short life. Born with cerebral palsy, the 9-year-old orphan was on his way to an institution where at best "he would stare at a blank wall for the rest of his life," says Scott Southworth, a US military officer who managed against all odds—Iraqi law prohibits foreigners from adopting Iraqi children—to adopt and bring Ala home to Wisconsin.
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Associated Press
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Dec 23, 07 11:20 AM CST
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Iraq's Shiite-dominated government is demanding that Sunni militias who are helping fight Islamic extremists eventually disband, fearing they will otherwise turn into their own military force. The militias, called Awakening Councils, or Concerned Local Citizens, comprise more than 70,000 Iraqis, including former insurgents, and are funded by the United States.
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CNN
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Dec 20, 07 8:07 AM CST
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Coalition forces in Iraq have unearthed a blood-stained torture chamber north of the city of Muqdadiya, which the military suspects belonged to Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Troops stumbled upon a network of buildings comprising the torture room, three detention facilities and a headquarters. Forces also uncovered a mass grave containing 26 bodies.
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Reuters
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Dec 18, 07 4:49 AM CST
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Iraq for a surprise visit today to plead for increased efforts at reconciliation, Reuters reports. She flew into the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk—which some expect to be the next flashpoint for violence. The city's Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen are deeply divided, and fears of fighting have delayed a planned vote on the city's future status.
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Washington Post
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Dec 16, 07 5:35 PM CST
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Baghdad shocked Washington and the UN last month by inviting home 1.4 million refugees from Syria, the Washington Post reports. The UN warned against it, saying exiles would face poverty, but Iraq started a bus line to transport them back. Many found their homes looted and neighborhoods redrawn along sectarian lines—and with no official plan in place, they burdened relatives by moving in.
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Christian Science Monitor
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Dec 13, 07 12:53 PM CST
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A Baghdad media magnate, determined to overcome the sectarian conflict tearing apart Iraq, organized a mass wedding for dozens of mixed Baghdad couples, reports the Christian Science Monitor . The newspaper owner scoured the city for 70 couples from different ethnicities or sects, and treated them to a wedding and party with a 65-foot-long cake. Each couple was given a refrigerator, a TV, and two nights in a hotel.
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New York Times
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Dec 13, 07 6:05 AM CST
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Iraqi officials confirmed yesterday that they will take over security from exiting British troops in Basra, despite the triple car bomb explosions that claimed as many as 41 lives yesterday in nearby Amara. Local authorities had only recently taken over control of the city from the British military, and multiple Shiite groups have faced off to assert their authority. Officials banned vehicles from the city yesterday in the latest security move.
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CNN
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Dec 12, 07 6:12 AM CST
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A series of near-simultaneous car bombs killed at least 40 and injured dozens this morning in Amara, a Shiite-dominated city in southeastern Iraq, CNN reports. The British military handed the area to Iraqi forces in August, 2006; it has been the scene of increasingly violent confrontations between Shiite factions.
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Guardian (UK)
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Dec 10, 07 5:18 AM CST
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The United Nations is stepping up its work in Iraq in a bid to land a final peace—four years after a terrorist bomb in the UN compound in Baghdad killed 22 officials. "Three years of horror have led nowhere. It only produced tit-for-tat destruction and the displacement of 4.2 million people," said special Iraq representative Staffan de Mistura, whose predeccessor was killed in the attack.
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Times (UK)
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Dec 9, 07 3:35 PM CST
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UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown surprised his troops with a visit in Iraq today and declared that Britain will cede control of Basra within two weeks, the Times of London reports. He told 300 soldiers that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki had advised the quick pull-out "so Iraq can take far more responsibility for its security"—but UK ministers link the move to Iraqis who have kidnapped British citizens and threatened to kill at least one.
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Christian Science Monitor
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Dec 9, 07 2:17 PM CST
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Qais al-Mamouri, a major US ally respected for his non-sectarian work as police chief in violent Babil province, was killed today by a roadside bomb, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Five successive explosions ripped through al-Mamouri’s US-issued SUV, killing him and two others. Less than an hour earlier a US general had held a press conference to sing al-Mamouri’s praises.
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