Iraq War

A CORONER has called for military vehicles to be better protected after hearing how four soldiers, including a Catterick medic, were killed in Iraq when a bomb exploded under their vehicle.

A soldier from York County has been killed in an ambush in Iraq. The Pentagon said U.S. Army Specialist Luke Runyan, 21, of West Manchester Township died Sunday.

A suicide bomber rammed a minibus into a building used by Iraqi security forces killing one soldier and wounding two policemen in Mosul...said Iraqi Army Brigadier-General Khalid Abdul-Sattar. He said part of the building had collapsed.

An Iraqi woman was killed and two people were wounded in a bomb explosion in northern Baghdad on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry source said.

A Turkish ground offensive against Kurdish rebel hideouts in northern Iraq remains an option, the foreign minister said on Tuesday. "The option for a ground operation is open," CNN-Turk television quoted Foreign Minister Ali Babacan as saying.

An early version of a British dossier of prewar intelligence on Iraq did not include a key claim about weapons of mass destruction that became vital to Tony Blair's case for war, the newly published document showed Monday.

A couple and their son as well as a woman neighbour taking part in the fight against al-Qaeda have been killed by gunmen near the restive Iraqi city of Baquba, police and relatives said on Tuesday.

Deep in the mountains, the Khanaqa Valley is one of the most idyllic places in northern Iraq. The jagged snow-covered peaks glisten in the sunlight. Small villages hug the mountainsides and a gently flowing river runs through the valley floor.

U.S. troops on Feb. 18 captured a breakaway Shiite militia leader suspected of being a powerful criminal boss and providing Iranian weapons to fighters in western Baghdad, the military said.

The trial of Iraq's former deputy health minister and a security official accused of letting Shiite death squads use ambulances and government hospitals to carry out killings was delayed Tuesday just as it was about to begin.

KMEG-TV in Sioux City confirmed the death with the family of Specialist Chad Groepper. Family told reporters that the 21-year-old was shot by smalls arms fire on Sunday.

A barrage of rockets slammed into Baghdad's international airport and an adjoining US military base Monday, killing five civilians and wounding 16, including two US soldiers, officials and witnesses said.

A barrage of mortar rounds rocked Baghdad on Monday, with some falling near the Iraqi capital's international airport and others in a nearby US military base, causing casualties..."Camp Victory was struck by indirect fire,"

A string of mortar rounds and rockets slammed into several areas in Baghdad today, including the U.S.-protected Green Zone and an airport housing complex, killing at least four people and wounding nearly 20, officials said.

A law that could shape Iraq's future by clearing the way for investment in its oil fields is deadlocked by a battle for control of the reserves and no end to the impasse is in sight, lawmakers and officials say.

The U.S. military and Iraqi officials have hailed vastly better security in Baghdad, western Anbar province and areas south of the capital...But in the cities of Samarra, Baquba and Mosul, the militants still sow fear

A local tribal force in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra said Monday it killed a gunman wearing an explosive belt and arrested two suspected al-Qaeda insurgents in a raid on their hideout where a large weapons cache was seized.

Iraq's leaders surprised even their many critics by passing three laws last week that marked an important step toward national reconciliation. But that is all it represents -- a step on the tortuous road to healing divisions among communities...

Iraqi military officials expressed hope Sunday that security gains from a yearlong crackdown against extremists will allow the removal of thousands of concrete barriers in six months that protect Baghdad residents from bomb attacks.

It was Sunday, a busy day for shop owners in the bustling central Baghdad district of Karada, and Abbas Ali was tending to his morning routine when screams from people outside stopped him.