Summary: Four bombs ripped through Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, killing at least 40 people and wounding nearly 100 in the worst violence the Iraqi capital has seen in months. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 23, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that President Barack Obama relieved Gen. Stanley McChrystal of command in the Afghanistan war, naming Gen. David Petraeus as his replacement.
Summary: Suicide bombers detonated two explosives-packed cars outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, killing at least nine people and wounding 23. Separately, hours after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with U.S. House Speaker John Boehner telling him Iraq’s security forces can protect the country after the planned withdrawal of 46,000 U.S. troops by the end of 2011, gunmen stormed the home of a Shiite family living in a mostly Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad and killed all four family members, including two children. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 18, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Taliban were moving fighters into Kandahar, planting bombs, and plotting attacks as NATO and Afghan forces prepare for a summer offensive.
Summary: Iraq’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, says his country’s security forces are ready to protect Middle East leaders who will attend the Arab League summit in May 2011, even as bombings and shootings across Iraq killed 20 people, including four policemen. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 11, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Sarah Palin criticized Barack Obama’s foreign policy on the eve of the president’s nuclear counterproliferation summit focused on keeping nukes out of the hands of terrorists.
Summary: The Iraqi capital of Baghdad is virtually locked down, with soldiers deployed across the city searching protesters trying to enter Liberation Square and closing off the plaza and side streets with razor wire. The heavy security presence reflects the concern of Iraqi officials that anti-government demonstrations in Iraq could gain traction as they did in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 24, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that more than eight years after the Taliban was toppled from power, the number of U.S. military fatalities in the Afghanistan war was nearing 1,000, a grim milestone in a resurgent conflict claiming the lives of an increasing number of troops who had survived previous tours of duty in Iraq.
Summary: Iraq Body Count, a British group monitoring Iraqi civilian deaths, said in its 2010 annual report that the number of fatalities has dropped slightly since 2009 but warned of lingering, low-intensity conflict in the years ahead. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 29, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that an Afghan soldier killed a U.S. service member and wounded two Italian soldiers in western Afghanistan, while Pakistani authorities appealed for calm after a bombing against a Shiite Muslim procession marking the holy day of Ashoura killed 43 in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi.
Summary: July 2010 was Iraq’s deadliest month in more than two years, according to new official figures, suggesting that a resilient insurgency is successfully taking advantage of the months of deadlock in forming a new government. The figures show that 535 people were killed last month, the highest since May 2008 when 563 died. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 1, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that 40 U.S. troops died in Afghanistan in July 2009, by far the heaviest monthly toll up to that point in the war. The worst previous month for U.S. forces had been September 2008, when 26 were killed.
Summary: A Homeland Security Department intelligence estimate warns that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country’s first black president to recruit members and incite violence. Aubrey Immelman announces pro-life public lecture by Stephanie Gray of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn.