American troops clashed with gunmen north and west of Baghdad Sunday, and insurgents lobbed a mortar round into Karbala, the holy city south of Baghdad where a million Shiite pilgrims assembled for a major religious commemoration.Iraqi police said eight civilians, including a child, were killed in clashes between U.S. troops and gunmen in Duluiyah ( Read more... )

Iraq's new parliament was sworn in Thursday, its first session lasting just over 30 minutes.Members stood together and pledged to "preserve the independence and the sovereignty of Iraq and to take care of the interests of its people." The head of the committee that drafted the country's new constitution, Humam Hammoudi, then stood up and ( Read more... )

Saddam Hussein's half-brother, former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, denied he took part in a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s as he testified Wednesday for the first time in the trial of the former Iraqi leader and members of his regime.Ibrahim is the latest of the eight defendants in the trial to undergo direct questioning by the judge ( Read more... )

As American troops were fanning out across Baghdad, Saddam Hussein turned to his sons. "We are leaving now," he said.The Iraqi leader was determined to make his escape before more checkpoints were set up around the capital. Saddam had not anticipated the fall of the city, and his plan was simple: Drive west toward Ramadi, where there were few ( Read more... )

A retired government official who was kidnapped more than three days ago and beaten was rescued from captivity in dramatic fashion Monday by a little-known unit of Iraqi army counterterrorism soldiers trained by and modeled after the U.S. special operations forces.The hostage, who was not identified by name, was found shackled to a steel bed in a ( Read more... )

The military is placing small teams of Special Operations troops in a growing number of American embassies to gather intelligence on terrorists in unstable parts of the world and to prepare for potential missions to disrupt, capture or kill them.Senior Pentagon officials and military officers say the effort is part of Defense Secretary Donald H. ( Read more... )

President Jalal Talabani on Saturday underscored the need for a unity government in Iraq after a spasm of sectarian killing and said he had been assured U.S. forces would remain in the country as long as needed - "no matter what the period."His comments came after a bomb exploded at a minibus terminal during morning rush hour in a southeastern ( Read more... )

President Bush made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday, flying here secretly to support its fledging government in the face of rising violence from al-Qaida and Taliban militants.Bush's entourage flew into the city from Bagram Air Base in a flotilla of heavily armed helicopters. Two door gunners on a press helicopter fired off a short ( Read more... )

Appeals from religious leaders and an unusual daytime curfew yesterday curbed violence that claimed more than 140 lives across Iraq after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine. President Bush joined in calling for calm, saying, "This is a moment of choosing for the Iraqi people."Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari reached out to Sunnis and Shi'ites, ( Read more... )