Summary: Angry Iraqis are demanding better protection after a spate of bombings that have killed at least 250 and wounded hundreds in just one week as U.S. forces pull back from urban areas to large military bases in accordance with the 2008 status-of-forces agreement between the United States and Iraq.
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.
Iraq’s prime minister denounced a deadly U.S. raid as a “crime” that violated its security pact with Washington and demanded American commanders hand over those responsible to face possible trial in Iraqi courts.
Summary: A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck into a sandbagged wall surrounding a police headquarters in northern Iraq, killing five American soldiers and two Iraqi policemen in the single deadliest attack against U.S. forces in more than a year, while tens of thousands of supporters of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr burned ex-President George W. Bush in effigy at a rally marking the sixth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces. … March 28, 2016 update: Terrorists from a Pakistani Taliban splinter group attacked an amusement park in Lahore with a suicide blast that killed more than 70 people and injured more than 300, many of them women and children. The terrorists said they were targeting Christians and promised more attacks.
Summary: According to NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel, there have been five different wars in Iraq, with the sixth war under way — America’s exit strategy. The first five war phases were Shock and Awe (March-April 2003), Nation-Building (2003-2004), Insurgency (2004-2005), Civil War (2006-2007), and The Surge (2007-2008).
Summary: American flags were set on fire to chants of “No, no for occupation” as followers of anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marked the sixth anniversary of the Iraq war, which has cost hundreds of billions of dollars — and will ultimately run into the trillions — dwarfing the original Bush administration estimate of $2.4 billion.
Summary: Provincial election results in northern Iraq could heighten ethnic tensions between Sunnis and Kurds.
Summary: The upcoming January 2009 provincial elections will be Iraqis’ fourth national ballot since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime. … David Enders of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting examines the power struggle among competing Shiite factions in Iraq.
Summary: By actually putting into practice the Neo-Conservative theories of pre-emptive war and unilateralism, George W. Bush demonstrated their failure more persuasively than could the most articulate progressive critic.
Summary: Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has called on the Iraqi resistance to stage “revenge operations” against American forces to protest Israel’s Gaza offensive.