top news - "iraq"

The US was forced to send in reinforcements on Friday as Iraqi security forces admitted they were having difficulties subduing radical Shia militants in the south of the country

Oil prices fall after it emerges that an attack on an Iraqi export pipeline was not as serious as earlier thought.

Iraq's decision to take on the militias in Basra is forcing the U.S. to rethink its own military strategy there. And there are worries tonight that the latest fighting could roll back an entire year of progress, reports David Martin.

The US president calls the fight between Iraqi forces and militias in Basra 'a defining moment' for iraq.

The Marine Corps is dropping all charges against a lance corporal who was accused of involuntary manslaughter in a squad's killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha in 2005.

An operation initiated by the Iraqi government against militiamen could become a Shi'ite civil war involving US forces

The Iraqi military push into the southern city of Basra is not going as well as american officials had hoped, despite President Bush's high praise for the operation, several U.S. officials said today.

The race is on to define john mccain, with the candidate casting himself as a ready-to-lead wartime president and Democrats calling him a Washington insider and backer of an unpopular war in iraq.

In Saddam Hussein's iraq, drummed up charges against political rivals and intimidated judges were the norm. Five years after the U.S. invasion, not much has changed -- and the abuse of at least one law has actually worsened.

As fighting between government forces and Shiite militias continues, iraq's parliament met Friday in an emergency session to debate Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki offensive in Basra and to seek ways to end the fighting. The main Shiite bloc in parliament boycotted the session.