top news - "iraq"

DFLers hope Steve Sarvi can succeed where their past three endorsees have not, and defeat a strong rival with impressive funds in one of the state's most conservative districts.

BAGHDAD, May 4 -- The american-led coalition announced Saturday the deaths of seven troops, as the fight for control of the capital's Sadr City district continued with missiles aimed at Shiite militiamen striking near a hospital.

U.S. commanders in iraq are for the first time seeking private contractors to form part of the small military teams that train and live with Iraqi military units across the country, according to a notice for prospective bidders published last week.

AP - As of Sunday, May 4, 2008, at least 4,071 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,315 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

Its traditional wooden-balconied Shanasheel houses in ruins, other buildings crumbling and muddied streets reeking of rubbish, Al-Batawin neighbourhood in the centre of Baghdad is an abject picture of just how far the rot has set in to the once-proud Iraqi capital.

The wife of iraq's president is unhurt after a bomb exploded near her motorcade in Baghdad.

Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki is to form a panel of security ministries to weed out any evidence of Iranian interference in iraq's affairs, a top official said on Sunday.

A top Iraqi official said Sunday there was no conclusive evidence that Shiite extremists have been directly supplied with some Iranian arms as alleged by the United States.

Army Staff Sgt. David Julian was killed in a suicide bombing in Baghdad earlier this year. He was the first soldier from the small town of Evanston, Wyo., to die in the war in iraq.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's wife has narrowly escaped death.