Luxury hotels and golf: Welcome to the Green Zone

Picture, if you will, a tree-lined plaza in Baghdad's International Village, flanked by fashion boutiques, swanky cafes, and shiny glass office towers. Nearby a golf course nestles agreeably, where a chip over the water to the final green is but a prelude to cocktails in the clubhouse and a soothing massage in a luxury hotel.

US rocket strike near Baghdad hospital wounds 20

The United States military fired rockets at a target near a hospital in eastern Baghdad on Saturday, wounding 20 people. No patients were wounded at the hospital in the Sadr City stronghold of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, but 20 people at the scene of the blasts were wounded.

Double suicide blast kills dozens in Iraq

Two suicide bombers killed 30 people and wounded 65 others when they detonated explosive vests in a busy market in a town north-east of Baghdad on Thursday, Iraqi police said. Police said the second bomber struck as crowds rushed to evacuate the wounded from the first attack.

More than 900 killed in Iraq's Sadr City clashes

More than 900 people have been killed in clashes between militiamen and security forces in Baghdad's Sadr City, which broke out last month, a senior Iraqi official told reporters on Wednesday. "There were 925 martyrs in Sadr City and 2 605 others have been wounded", said Tehseen Sheikhly, a spokesperson for the government's Baghdad security plan.

Iraq's al-Sadr tells fighters to observe truce

Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr pulled back from confrontation with the government on Friday, asking his followers to continue to observe a shaky ceasefire and not to battle government troops. Sadr said his recent threat of "open war" was directed only at United States forces, not the Iraqi government.

Cleric al-Sadr threatens 'open war' on Iraq govt

Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday threatened an "open war" against the Iraqi government unless it halted a crackdown by Iraqi and United States security forces on his followers. The spectre of a full-scale uprising by Sadr sharply raises the stakes in his confrontation with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Deadly fighting in Baghdad as Iraq marks Saddam's fall

Iraq on Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's iron-fisted regime with the nation still in turmoil, the capital under curfew and a surge of deadly violence in the Shi'ite bastion of Sadr City. Iraqi officials said three mortar rounds slammed into Sadr City, killing at least seven people and wounding 24 others.

Iraq's al-Sadr threatens to scrap ceasefire

Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threatened on Tuesday to end a truce he imposed on his militia last year, raising the prospect of worsening violence in Iraq just hours before top US officials testified on Iraq in Washington. Al-Sadr urged his Mehdi Army to "continue your jihad and resistance" against US forces.

Drama expected at US Congress hearings on Iraq

The top United States general and diplomat in Iraq testify in politically charged hearings in Congress on Tuesday, and face a grilling from three senators vying to inherit the war as the next US president. General David Petraeus and ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker will appear to update progress in the war.

US says special forces fight in Basra

The United States confirmed on Sunday that US special forces units were operating alongside Iraqi government troops in Basra, where the government is battling militants loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The Iraqi special forces team killed four suspected militants in a house and two on a roof before calling in an air strike.

Protests in Baghdad as Basra rocked by fighting

Followers of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr staged noisy protests on Thursday against a crackdown on Shi'ite fighters in Basra as the southern oil hub was rocked by a third straight day of fighting. Demonstrations were held in Sadr City and Kadhimiyah, two Baghdad bastions of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.

Iraq PM gives Basra gunmen 72 hours to disarm

Iraq's Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, on Wednesday gave Shi'ite militia and other gunmen a 72-hour deadline to surrender their weapons as his forces engaged in fierce street battles in the southern city of Basra for the second day running. The violence in Basra and Baghdad has killed more than 70 people, according to Iraqi officials and news agency reports.

Iraq's al-Sadr threatens 'civil revolt'

Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to stage sit-ins and threatened a countrywide "civil revolt" if attacks by United States and Iraqi security forces continue against his followers. "We call upon all Iraqis to stage sit-ins all over Iraq as a first step," Sadr said in a statement read out by senior aide Hazem al-Araji.

Fierce fighting erupts in Iraq's Basra city

Iraqi security forces fought raging battles with gunmen from radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Shi'ite militia in Basra on Tuesday amid a crackdown on armed groups in the southern city. British military officials said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was in Basra to personally oversee the major security force sweep in Iraq's second largest city.

More than 50 die in Iraq bloodshed

A wave of attacks across Iraq on Sunday killed 51 people, while insurgents fired a barrage of mortars at Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, sending United States embassy staff scurrying into bunkers. The deadliest attack was in the city of Mosul where a suicide bomber crashed an explosives-laden truck into an Iraqi army base.

Yankee go home

The United States occupying army in Iraq (euphemistically called the Multi-National Force-Iraq) carries out extensive studies of popular attitudes. Its December 2007 report of a study of focus groups was uncharacteristically upbeat. The report concluded that the survey "provides very strong evidence" to refute the common view that "national reconciliation is neither anticipated nor possible".

Dozens killed in Baghdad bomb attacks

A female suicide bomber killed 45 people when she blew herself up at a popular pet market in central Baghdad on Friday, police said, in the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital in six months. Another 82 were wounded in the blast at the crowded Ghazil market, one of Baghdad's most popular gathering places, which has been bombed at least three times in the past year.

US says Iran still training Iraqi militias

The United States military said on Sunday there had been a dramatic drop in the number of Iranian weapons being used in Iraq but no let-up in Tehran's training and financing of Iraqi militias. Washington has accused Tehran of supplying Shi'ite militias in Iraq with sophisticated weapons, including armour-piercing bombs.

151 000 civilians killed since Iraq invasion

An estimated 151 000 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the violence that has engulfed the country from the time of the United States-led invasion until June 2006, according to the latest and largest study of deaths officially accepted by the Iraqi government.

Bin Laden warns Iraqis not to fight al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden warned Sunni Muslims in Iraq not to take up arms against the terror network and promised the "liberation of Palestine" in a new online message. In the 56-minute tape released late on Saturday, the Western world's most wanted man also accused the United States of seeking to control the region through the Iraqi government.

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