Baghdad Iraq

In a cruel ending to an annual Shiite Muslim ritual, a suicide bomber Sunday rammed a car laden with explosives into a flatbed truck carrying dozens of pilgrims home after a weekend celebration. At least 31 of them died. The attack in the capital brought to more than 220 the number of pilgrims slain in sectarian attacks in the last week, when millions of Shiites began converging on the holy city of Karbala.

Flanked by guards armed with submachine guns, Iraq's prime minister on Friday ventured out of the Green Zone to tour parts of Baghdad, chatting with bystanders and police to demonstrate that a U.S.-led security crackdown is making progress. But north of the capital, insurgents attacked a police station, killing one officer, wounding three and leaving 10 missing, a police source said.

Bombings and shootings that killed more than 110 Shiite Muslim pilgrims observing a religious ritual Tuesday appear to be part of a Sunni insurgent strategy to rekindle sectarian warfare to levels that could derail the latest U.S.-led effort to stabilize Iraq. U.S. military planners have been warning of spectacular attacks as Sunnis try to goad Shiite militias back into battle and destabilize Iraq's Shiite-led government.

For decades, the Mutanabi Street book mart was a feeding ground for Iraq's intellectuals, serving up a rich menu of history and philosophy texts, novels and biographies, and atlases and manuscripts to the Middle East's most voracious readers. On Monday, it proved yet another rich target for a suicide bomber, who left 30 dead and 60 wounded in one more grisly attack that evaded Baghdad's security crackdown.

At a time of epic displacement, Fuad Khamis has done something extraordinary: He has moved back home. "When I arrived, I was overwhelmed and frightened at the same time," says Khamis, a Sunni Arab taxi driver from Baghdad's religiously mixed Sadiya neighborhood. His house was damaged and there wasn't a piece of furniture left. But the father of five says his Shiite neighbors have welcomed him back with hugs and kisses. Encouraged by a major security clampdown that began Feb.

Everyone assumed the car parked outside the groom's home belonged to a friend or relative. But as the joyful, beribboned convoy pulled up conveying the bride to her new family, the vehicle exploded with a shattering boom. Authorities and witnesses said as many as five guests were killed and 10 were injured in the blast Thursday at a police officer's wedding in Fallouja, a hotbed of the Sunni Arab insurgency in Al Anbar province.

The letter arrived at Hassim Mohammed's house a few months after he had started his new job. "If you work for an American company, we will kill you," it said. It was not signed, but Mohammed didn't need a name. The simple, one-line threat was convincing enough. The civil engineer quit his job with the American company six months ago and began looking for work elsewhere, but found nothing.

Serious new divisions have emerged between the Bush administration and its Iraqi allies over the Baghdad government's refusal to enact a reform that the White House considers crucial to its new strategy for bringing the country's violence under control. In spite of a commitment by Iraq's prime minister to its passage, legislation that would ease rules barring former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from government service has been blocked by the country's Shiite-dominated parliament. U.S.

More than 60 Iraqi civilians were killed and scores more wounded Sunday in a spate of ferocious bomb and gun attacks targeting mostly Shiite areas of the capital, ending days of relative calm since the start of the latest U.S.-Iraqi effort to quell violence and restore order. Two U.S. troops were also reported killed Sunday in weekend fighting around Baghdad.

The Iraqi government on Tuesday launched a plan to secure a capital descending deeper into chaos, even as violence claimed the lives of more Iraqis, including people waiting in line for food handouts. Lt. Gen.