Baghdad

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Contractors in Iraq Trigger Two Shootings

Two incidents ignited by Blackwater raise questions about quasi-miliary role

(Newser) - Contractors from private security firm Blackwater USA set off two firefights in Baghdad in as many days last week. On Thursday, a Blackwater guard shot and killed an Iraqi driver who trailed a convoy suspiciously, and Wednesday a Blackwater convoy escorting State Department officials was ambushed—sparking a battle between...

Al-Qaeda Claims It Captured Soldiers

US troops comb area south of Baghdad for three missing since Saturday

(Newser) - An al-Qaeda umbrella group claims it kidnapped the three US soldiers missing since Saturday. Thousands of troops continue to sweep the area south of Baghdad dubbed the Triangle of Death for their comrades, who disappeared in an ambush that killed four other solders. The so-called Islamic State of Iraq offered...

Cheney Drops In On Baghdad
Cheney Drops In On Baghdad
May 9, 2007 6:27 AM CDT

Cheney Drops In On Baghdad

VP meets with brass, government, as attacks spread to Kurdistan

(Newser) - Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to Baghdad this morning, hours after the White House alerted 35,000 more troops of impending deployment to the fractious capital. Cheney met with top general David Petraeus and top envoy Ryan Crocker, and is expected to consult with PM Maliki and...

Baghdad Blasts Claim Nearly 200 LIives

On bloodiest day since surge, Maliki promises transfer of power by 2008

(Newser) - Nearly 200 people were killed, and more than 200 injured, by five apparently coordinated explosions that rocked Baghdad yesterday. It was the deadliest day since the U.S. troop surge in the besieged capital, and a chilling backdrop to an announcement by PM al-Maliki that Iraqis will be completely in...

Explosion Rocks Iraqi Parliament
Explosion Rocks Iraqi Parliament
Apr 12, 2007 7:39 AM CDT

Explosion Rocks Iraqi Parliament

Blast in Green Zone, killiing two MPs, comes hours after bridge attack

(Newser) - An explosion hit a restaurant inside the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad today, killing two members of parliament, wounding dozens and creating chaos in the capitol. The blast occurred when many MPs were having lunch, on a day when parliament was in session. The parliament building is deep within Baghdad's heavily...

Mosque Raid Ignites Baghdad Battle
Mosque Raid Ignites Baghdad Battle
Apr 11, 2007 5:48 AM CDT

Mosque Raid Ignites Baghdad Battle

Residents backed militants in Sunni stronghold

(Newser) - Iraqi soldiers who raided a Baghdad mosque during worship set off an all-day battle yesterday the New York Times calls the most sustained fighting since the start of the new security plan. US troops and Iraqi soldiers fought Sunni militants joined by residents in the largely Sunni Ineighborhood of Fadhil.

Baghdad No Safer 2 Months Into Surge

As insurgents adapt, the body count is rising again

(Newser) - Baghdad is no more stable than it was before the American troop surge, the Times reports. With death squads trying to stay off the radar, sectarian executions have dropped in some corners of the city. But executions have given way to increased car bombings, chlorine gas attacks, and the burning...

Officer Walls Sects Apart in Baghdad

Peace barriers defy official policy and stir controversy—but they're working

(Newser) - Lt. Col. Jeff Peterson is trying to pacify Baghdad one wall at a time, erecting concrete barriers around Sunni and Shiites neighborhoods in the sector of the city he controls. Each mini-community has its own market, mosque, and generator. It's a controversial strategy most often used during civil wars, the...

The Surge Is Our Last Stand
The Surge Is
Our Last Stand 
Apr 3, 2007 3:37 PM CDT

The Surge Is Our Last Stand

By the beginning of the coming year, "the Army will begin to unravel"

(Newser) - "We are in a position of strategic peril," says a retired general who's just back from Bagdhad in a blunt, sobering piece in the L.A. Times. Barry McCaffrey, now at West Point, urges support of the surge and the new strategy to secure Baghdad without  sugar coating...

Baghdad Merchants Beg to Differ With McCain

Say sunny security assessment is phony

(Newser) - Of course John McCain found Baghdad's central market perfectly safe during his weekend visit: He came with 100 soldiers in armored Humvees, backed by attack helicopters and sharpshooters. In a follow-up visit, Kirk Semple of the New York Times found merchants  incredulous at the Congressional delegation's sunny description of the...

Iraqis Flee on the "Highway From Hell"

With the border to Jordan closed, 1,000 Iraqis a day hazard an escape to Syria

(Newser) - Every day, more than a thousand Iraqis risk their lives on a nightmarish journey from Baghdad to crowded, chaotic border crossings into Syria. Ambushes, murders, roadside bombs and kidnappings are common hazards along the 340-mile road   "Highway From Hell."

Sadr City Safest Spot in Baghdad
Sadr City Safest Spot in Baghdad
Mar 27, 2007 12:54 PM CDT

Sadr City Safest Spot in Baghdad

(Newser) - Six weeks into the surge the vast Baghdad slum called Sadr City is the safest and best-run part of  the city—but not because of the stepped-up efforts on the part of government forces.  Moqtada al-Sadr is said to be somewhere in Iran, but his representatives run hospitals, school,...

Sunni Baghdad Lies in Ruins as Shiites Rebuild

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...

Iraqi Bombers Use Kids to Get Through Checkpoint

(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,...

Chalabi Rides Surge Back Into Office

The divisive Iraqi politician will build public backing for security push

(Newser) - Ahmed Chalabi, the former U.S. darling and deputy prime minister spurned by Iraqi voters in the 2005 elections, is back in office. He won a post created as a buffer between residents and the troops pouring into Baghdad for the new security push. Chalabi's new role involves organizing reimbursement...

Bombers Strike Baghdad Booksellers
Bombers Strike Baghdad Booksellers
Mar 5, 2007 5:26 PM CST

Bombers Strike Baghdad Booksellers

Insurgents hit heart of the Iraqi intellectual scene

(Newser) - A noon car-bomb blast ravaged Baghdad's historic book market, killing dozens of people and wounding over 100. The bomb destroyed many shops, including the venerable Shahbandar cafe, a popular haven for writers. Poet Abdul Baqi Faidhullah said, "Those who did this are like savage machines intent on harvesting souls...

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