Summary: The two top-ranking leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, were killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation on Sunday, April 18, 2010, in what Vice President Joe Biden called a “potentially devastating blow” to the terrorist operation. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 21, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that the U.S. Senate confirmed President Barack Obama’s pick for U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, after debate over whether he mismanaged international disarmament talks with North Korea. Meanwhile, suspected militants shelled Baghdad’s protected Green Zone in the first such bombardment in more than three months.

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Summary: A female suicide bomber walking among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad detonated an explosives belt, killing at least 54 people and wounding around 117. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 1, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that three recent U.S. Special Forces operations in Afghanistan killed 50 people — the vast majority civilians, according to Afghan officials — raising the ire of villagers and President Hamid Karzai. The problem, Afghan officials say, comes when ordinary villagers hear the commotion of Special Forces nighttime raids and, fearing robbers or an attack from a hostile tribe, grab their guns and run outside or fire from their homes. U.S. forces then fire back and end up killing civilians.

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Summary: Three car bombs exploded near three Baghdad hotels popular with Western journalists, security contractors, and businessmen, killing at least 37 people and injuring more than 100. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 25, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported on the upcoming Jan. 31, 2009 provincial elections in Iraq — an important test of Iraq’s stability as the U.S. planned to begin withdrawing its troops.

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Summary: A suicide car bomb in Baghdad flattened a court building and an explosives-rigged ambulance blew down walls like dominos near the Finance Ministry in a wave of coordinated attacks that targeted high-profile symbols of Iraqi authority, killing at least 127 people and wounding more than 500. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 8, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that Taliban militants blasted their way into two transport terminals in Pakistan and torched more than 160 vehicles destined for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital U.S. military supply line.

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Summary: Two powerful car bombs exploded outside the Justice Ministry and city government offices in downtown Baghdad, killing 155 and wounding at least 500 in Iraq’s worst attack in more than two years. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the seventh day of his write-in campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman reported that a new poll sponsored by Minnesota Public Radio and the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute mirrored the results of a SurveyUSA poll released the previous day by KSTP television: Support for Bachmann was holding steady a week after she became a lightning rod for national criticism and media attention when she told Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball” that Barack Obama “may have anti-American views” and the media should investigate which members of Congress “are pro-America or anti-America.”

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Summary: Bombs hidden in plastic bags exploded at a market in a mainly Shiite area of Baghdad on Sunday, August 16, 2009, killing at least eight civilians and wounding 19. It was the latest in a series of bombings targeting Shiites and minorities in the capital and northern Iraq that have killed more than 160 people since August 7. Meanwhile, the first national census since 1987 has been postponed indefinitely amid fears it could stoke sectarian tensions. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 33rd day of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman completed the final leg of his 100-mile Sixth District walking tour, setting out from Centerville and walking to Hugo and Stillwater. He concluded the day’s activities meeting with supporters and local residents at Little Rock Lake in Benton County to discuss constituent and campaign issues.

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Summary: Dozens of Iraqis have been killed and hundreds wounded in a spate of bombings this week, raising fears of a sustained insurgent campaign aimed at provoking new sectarian tensions. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 29th day of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman took a one-day break from his 100-mile Sixth District Walking Tour and highlighted an emerging threat in Iraq, the mujahidaat: female suicide bombers motivated by revenge for family members killed by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

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Summary: A suicide car bomb devastated a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, one of a series of attacks that killed at least 40 and wounded about 100 Iraqis. … Three British paratroopers and an American service member were killed in attacks in Afghanistan’s south and east, raising the number of international troops slain in the first week of August 2009 to 19. … Pakistan’s Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud has reportedly been killed in a CIA missile strike, but the claim is disputed by senior Taliban commanders. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 24th day of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman announced the August 9 kick-off of his walking tour from Freeport in the northwestern corner of the Sixth District to Stillwater in the southeast on the Wisconsin border. … As a public service announcement to help draw attention to the sacrifice of National Guard citizen soldiers serving in Iraq and the families they leave behind, Immelman featured Part 5 of the Associated Press series, “The Longest Deployment” (the story of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, Minnesota National Guard and its tour of duty in Iraq).

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Summary: A rocket attack on Bagram Air Base, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, early Sunday, June 21, 2009 killed two U.S. troops and wounded six other Americans. … A truck bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in Taza, near Kirkuk in northern Iraq on Saturday, June 20, 2009 killing more than 70 people in the deadliest attack of 2009.

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Summary: A car bomb blew up in a packed outdoor food market in Bathaa, near Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad in one of the most peaceful areas of Iraq’s Shiite south, killing about 30 people and wounding dozens more.

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