IRAQ WAR NEWS

Latest News, Photos on the War & Soldiers in Iraq

Nearly half a million people voted for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, making him by far the leading candidate in the province where the most seats are at stake, according to partial results from this month's election. Full story »

The followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical cleric who led the Shiite insurgency against the U.S. occupation, found new political life in Iraq's elections last week, defying ritual predictions of their demise and now threatening to realign the nation's balance of power. Full story »

For days the political grapevine in Iraq was rife with rumors that Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki, who is fighting for his political life as early returns suggest he may win a plurality of votes but far less than a mandate that would assure an encore as prime minister, had been the victim of an assassination attempt.  Full story »

Few doubted that the choice of Iraq's next prime minister would prove to be one of the most intractable disputes in forging a new government to lead Iraq as the American military withdraws. But in negotiations that could last months, the presidency, a largely ceremonial post, has emerged as a growing quarrel, threatening to upset Iraq's still tenuous and ambiguous arrangements of sect, ethnicity and power. Full story »

Investigators looking into corruption involving reconstruction in Iraq say they have opened more than 50 cases in the past six months by scrutinizing large cash transactions made by some of the Americans involved in the nearly $150 billion rebuilding program. Full story »

As the U.S. military prepares to leave Iraq, the State Department is blaming the Iraqi government for arbitrary killings of civilians and other human rights abuses. The department's annual human rights report, released Thursday, also highlighted abuses in Afghanistan, another country where American troops are battling an insurgency. Civilians suffered the most when violence in Afghanistan spiked last year, the report said.  Full story »

Even before the votes were tallied, Iraq's candidates and coalitions began positioning themselves in an evolving political landscape Monday. Some claimed victory, and a few conceded defeat in an election on Sunday that the top American officials here called a milestone that kept the withdrawal of American troops on pace.  Full story »

Defying a sustained barrage of mortars and rockets in Baghdad and other cities, Iraqis went to the polls in strength on Sunday to choose a new parliament meant to outlast the U.S. military presence here. Full story »

About 19 million Iraqis are eligible to vote for who will lead the country after U.S. forces pull out in an election that will determine whether Iraq can overcome the sectarian divisions that have defined it since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Full story »

The balloting has been billed as a major step in Iraq's democratic evolution. Iraqis hope it will help them achieve national reconciliation at a time when the United States has vowed to stick to the timetable for withdrawal of combat forces by late summer.  Full story »

But in his appearance at a high-level British inquiry into the war, Brown questioned American planning for the aftermath of the war. "It was one of my regrets, that I wasn't able to be more successful in pushing the Americans on this issue: that the planning for reconstruction was essential, just the same as planning for the war," he said.  Full story »

How much its politics have matured is the fundamental question confronting Iraq as it prepares to elect the government that will steer the country beyond the final departure of U.S. combat troops by the end of August and all U.S. forces by the end of 2011. Full story »

Explosions struck three polling stations in Baghdad, killing at least 14 people, an apparent attempt to sow fear ahead of elections that Iraqis hope will stabilize their country after years of bloodshed. Full story »

Since taking office in 2006, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has defied expectations, proving to be a canny and often bold leader who has transformed himself from a virtual unknown into possibly the single most popular politician in Iraq. Yet in the process, he has alienated most of Iraq's other political leaders, to the extent that he is going to have a tough time holding onto his job after Sunday's elections. Full story »

The band played, men danced and women swayed to the music as a speaker worked the crowd before the arrival of the main candidate -- former prime minister and secular Shiite Ayad Allawi, who made his way to the podium shaking hands and waving to well-wishers. The scene may be common in the West, but it's a world apart from the more somber campaigning by Iraq's dominant religious parties. In many ways, the two styles point to the choice Iraqis have to make in Sunday's parliamentary election.  Full story »