Iraqi Army

Iraq suicide bomber targets army recruits, kills at least 51 A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of army recruits early Tuesday, killing at least 51 and wounding 121, police and health officials said. A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of army recruits early Tuesday, killing at least 51 and wounding 121, police and health officials said. The massive explosion happened as the men were lining up outside a recruitment center in the Bab al-Muadham neighborhood of central Baghdad shortly after 7:30 a.m. Initial reports indicated the bomber was wearing a vest that concealed explosives.

A massive leak of classified U.S. documents from the Iraq war Friday details hundreds of incidents in which American troops found evidence that Iraqi security forces were abusing prisoners, including reports that U.S. soldiers did not always take steps to stop the violence. The accounts of prisoner mistreatment by Iraqi forces are the most explosive element of the nearly 400,000 classified reports made public by WikiLeaks in one of the largest leaks of classified material in American history.

When Army Brig. Gen. Karl Horst fought during the invasion of Iraq two years ago, he didn't bother learning the names of Saddam Hussein's generals. "I didn't care who they were -- we were going to kill them," he said. Last week, during a parade ground ceremony at the Baghdad airport, Horst kissed the whiskered cheeks of an Iraqi general who once had been awarded the country's highest military honor by Hussein. The airport scene, where top U.S.

Two American soldiers were killed and nine were injured Tuesday when a man wearing an Iraqi army uniform opened fire on them in an Iraqi commando compound in the province of Salahuddin, an attack that highlighted the danger U.S. troops continue to face in Iraq despite the formal end of combat operations announced by President Obama last week. The soldiers were members of a security detail guarding a U.S. company commander who was meeting with Iraqi security forces, according to a statement issued by the U.S. military.

Pounding her Baghdad beat, wrapped in a bulletproof vest and brandishing a pistol, Sgt. Bushra Jabar stands out in the new Iraq. She's the only woman in the Iraqi Army unit patrolling the Kharkh district in the Iraqi capital. "Sometimes women on the street think I'm a man, from my uniform and gun," says Jabar, 34. "The other soldiers use a man's version of my name to call me." Her day starts with a ride to her base in the back of a military pickup truck.

In an indication of the war's toll on Iraq, Baghdad today said that it will begin drafting all 17-year-old males. Last month, Iraq lowered the conscription age from 18 to 17, but exempted youths still in school. The decree announced over Baghdad radio said all 17-year-old males had to report to the conscription offices between Feb. 15 and March 20 or face unspecified legal action.

Before the start of the war in Iraq, I attended a conference on Middle East security at which I sat next to an Iraqi exile -- a college professor -- whose most significant advice for reconstructing post-war Iraq was to retain the regular army. The Iraqi army, he said, would be vital to subduing the chaos that we both agreed would ensue following a successful invasion. I assured him that the United States intended for the Iraqi army to remain intact.

Caught off guard by recent Iraqi military operations, the United States is using spy satellites that ordinarily are trained on adversaries to monitor the movements of the American-backed Iraqi army, current and former U.S. officials say. The stepped-up surveillance reflects breakdowns in trust and coordination between the two forces.

On a dusty plain, a squadron of rifle-toting men in camouflage forms a rough wedge that zigzags toward its objective, a small cluster of earthen mounds. In a deft set of maneuvers, the men fan out, flank the position, advance, and then completely overrun the two "enemy" defenders who roll over as though dead. But like children playing war, the soldiers have merely mimed the action of firing their guns because their trainers didn't have blank ammunition for them to use.

Outside a two-story building guarded by U.S. Marines in this Euphrates River valley town is a sign that says, in Marine colors of scarlet and gold, "Welcome to JCC," or the Joint Coordination Center. The sign is misleading. Despite pleas from the Marines, the Iraqi police and Iraqi army have refused to share the facility with each other and merge their operations.

American soldiers helped Iraqi troops battle insurgents in downtown Baghdad on Sunday, repelling a major attack in the heart of the capital five days after President Obama declared an end to U.S. combat operations. At least 18 people were killed and 39 injured in the midday attack in which a group of suicide bombers and gunmen attempted to storm the Iraqi army's east Baghdad headquarters, located in a former Ministry of Defense building in a busy market district alongside the Tigris River.

Iraq suicide bomber targets army recruits, kills at least 51 A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of army recruits early Tuesday, killing at least 51 and wounding 121, police and health officials said. A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of army recruits early Tuesday, killing at least 51 and wounding 121, police and health officials said. The massive explosion happened as the men were lining up outside a recruitment center in the Bab al-Muadham neighborhood of central Baghdad shortly after 7:30 a.m. Initial reports indicated the bomber was wearing a vest that concealed explosives.

A suicide bomber killed dozens of men Tuesday as they waited to apply for jobs with the Iraqi army, a devastating attack that highlighted concerns about stability as U.S. troops withdraw and Iraq's politicians continue to bicker over the formation of a new government. It was the bloodiest single bombing in months, and came two weeks before the Aug. 31 deadline for the reduction of the U.S. force to 50,000 troops and the formal end of the American combat mission. The massive explosion occurred on the last day of a weeklong army recruitment drive that had drawn thousands of men to an open square opposite the heavily guarded recruitment center, in an army headquarters in the ancient Bab al Muadam district of downtown Baghdad.

Iraq will need U.S. military support for up to another decade to defend its borders because the Iraqi army won't be ready to guard the country when American troops leave at the end of 2011, according to U.S. and Iraqi commanders. Commanders say they are reasonably confident in the Iraqi security forces' ability to keep order while facing insurgents or other internal threats. But when it comes to their capacity to protect against attacks from other nations, it is inconceivable that the Iraqi army will be able to stand alone by the time U.S. troops go home, said Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, commander of the U.S. military training program in Iraq.

When thieves shot dead eight guards and made off with $4.8 million in one of Iraq's biggest-ever bank heists last week, fingers quickly pointed at the Sunni-led insurgency. Extremists must be turning to crime to finance their activities, so the hypothesis went, and $4.8 million would pay for a lot of bombs.

A suicide bomber wearing an Iraqi army uniform struck a U.S. military delegation visiting the mayor of violence-racked Baqubah on Monday, injuring at least eight American soldiers and killing three Iraqi civilians. Police officials said the attacker was disguised as a soldier -- a tactic used before to pass through checkpoints -- but U.S. forces have faced attacks from actual members of the security forces as well.