Iraqi Police

Iraqi police on Wednesday announced the capture of a Shiite Muslim cult leader and four followers who they suspect were planning to attack worshipers celebrating a major Shiite holiday next week. The members of the group Heaven's Army were detained Tuesday a few miles east of Basra after authorities learned they would be in the area, a Basra police official said. As many as 250 members of the cult died in January 2007 on the Shiite holiday of Ashura, in a battle with Iraqi and U.S.

Stephen Everhart was brought to Iraq by the U.S. Agency for International Development to assist the University of Baghdad's business college in qualifying for international accreditation. He was killed Thursday outside the gates of the university when a powerful bomb commonly used by Shiite Muslim militias detonated. The attack highlighted the precarious position of contractors for the U.S. government and Embassy as the American military prepares to leave the country. Militia groups, some with ties to the Iraqi government, are intent on hitting U.S. diplomats, soldiers and contractors employed by the embassy.

A suicide bomber killed at least 16 people in southern Iraq on Thursday as the country braced for attacks from Al Qaeda in Iraq in the aftermath of the death of Osama bin Laden. The car bomber blew up his vehicle at a police headquarters in the mainly Shiite Muslim city of Hillah before 7 a.m. as the police switched from overnight to day shift. It was the second major attack in Iraq since Bin Laden was killed early Monday. The attacker in Hillah set off his explosives as officers gathered outside during their shift change, local officials said on state television.

Five U.S. soldiers were killed Monday in an attack in central Iraq, the U.S. military said in a statement. It was the deadliest single attack this year against U.S. forces in Iraq and an indication of how dangerous the country remains for American troops as they prepare to withdraw by the end of 2011. An Iraqi security source said that the five U.S. soldiers had been working as advisers on a base for Iraqi national police in eastern Baghdad when their quarters were targeted by rocket fire shortly before 7 a.m. local time.

Iraqi police have arrested a senior member of the U.S.-allied Awakening movement in Salahuddin province, the American military said Sunday, continuing a crackdown that has left many of the Sunni Muslim paramilitary fighters seething with anger. Mullah Nadim Jibouri, an Awakening leader in the town of Duluiya, 55 miles north of Baghdad, was detained Saturday along with two of his brothers, the military said.

In the darkened living room of a house surrounded by concrete barriers, Safaa Mamouri wipes his eyes and reproaches himself for how little he resembles his dead brother, a man even his enemies admired. "Qais was fearless. I'm not like him," he says. "From the first threat, I quit." Maj. Gen. Qais Hamza Mamouri presided over security here in Babil province at a dangerous time, when the country's sectarian war raged.

Gunmen killed seven Iraqi policemen in a pair of attacks west of Baghdad, officials said Monday, and missiles were fired at two U.S. bases with no reported casualties. The seven policemen were slain at checkpoints around the city of Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad, on Sunday. Iraqi police who reported the attacks did not mention any insurgent casualties. A rocket was fired at the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition Monday night in Baghdad.

As thousands of newly minted police officers in mismatched uniforms moved Saturday to cinch a security chokehold around this Iraqi capital, insurgents continued to lash out across the rest of the country. Nearly 40 people were killed in 24 hours in a rash of suicide bombings, assassinations and ambushes, from the northern city of Sinjar to the western border with Syria and the town of Hillah south of Baghdad.

A suicide bomber Sunday killed 10 police officers and wounded 19 others who had gathered at the site of a failed car bomb attack on the U.S. military just north of Baghdad, while six people were killed by a wave of bombings in the nation's capital, Iraqi security sources said. A car bomb blew up as a U.S. military convoy passed near Taji, the site of a major military installation north of Baghdad, but caused no damage to the Americans, according to an Iraqi security official. When police gathered by the site, a suicide bomber approached and blew himself up, the security official said.

Violence continued unabated in Iraq on Saturday as insurgents killed five Iraqi police officers and a U.S. Marine. Fourteen American soldiers were wounded. The Marine was killed in the western province of Al Anbar. His identity was not released. As of Saturday, at least 1,287 U.S. military personnel had died since the war began. The 14 Americans were wounded in attacks in northern Iraq.

A suicide bomber Sunday killed 10 police officers and wounded 19 others who had gathered at the site of a failed car bomb attack on the U.S. military just north of Baghdad, while six people were killed by a wave of bombings in the nation's capital, Iraqi security sources said. A car bomb blew up as a U.S. military convoy passed near Taji, the site of a major military installation north of Baghdad, but caused no damage to the Americans, according to an Iraqi security official. When police gathered by the site, a suicide bomber approached and blew himself up, the security official said.

A suicide bomber killed at least 16 people in southern Iraq on Thursday as the country braced for attacks from Al Qaeda in Iraq in the aftermath of the death of Osama bin Laden. The car bomber blew up his vehicle at a police headquarters in the mainly Shiite Muslim city of Hillah before 7 a.m. as the police switched from overnight to day shift. It was the second major attack in Iraq since Bin Laden was killed early Monday. The attacker in Hillah set off his explosives as officers gathered outside during their shift change, local officials said on state television.

Iraqi security forces Sunday rescued dozens of worshipers held hostage in a church by gunmen with explosives vests and stun grenades. As many as 39 people died during the four-hour ordeal, according to security forces. The assault started with gunmen attacking the nearby Baghdad stock exchange. They retreated and stormed the Our Lady of Salvation Church, killing two policemen guarding an estimated 120 worshipers attending evening services. The militants managed to detonate a car bomb outside, killing several police on the street, an Interior Ministry official said.

An Iraqi counter-terrorism force backed by U.S. soldiers battled gunmen early Wednesday during a raid in a village in western Iraq that left at least six people dead. No Americans were among the casualties. The predawn shootout highlighted the reemerging tensions between the central government in Baghdad and residents in Anbar province, the former bastion of the Sunni Arab insurgency. The raid began with an elite Iraqi unit surrounding a street in Jubail, just outside Fallouja, Iraqi police and the U.S. military said.

A bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded near a popular cafe, killing five people in a largely Sunni district of Baghdad, Iraqi police said. The blast in Baghdad's Adhamiya district wounded 16 civilians, an officer at the Risafa police station said. Officials at two hospitals that received the wounded said most of them were young men. Baghdad's northeastern Adhamiya district was a Sunni stronghold during sectarian violence in the Iraqi capital in 2006 and 2007. But as in other parts of the city, violence has eased considerably since and residents have resumed going to sidewalks cafes and dining at riverside restaurants.

A Sunni Muslim police chief who was praised by U.S. forces for clearing his city of insurgents has been arrested after an investigation of alleged murder, corruption and crimes against the Iraqi people, the U.S. military said Wednesday. Col. Hamid Ibrahim Jazaa, his brother and 14 bodyguards were taken into custody Tuesday in Hit, about 100 miles west of Baghdad, according to a statement by the public affairs office of Multinational Corps-Iraq.

Abdul Ritha Mizel Hasan would have much preferred it if his son Mohammed had gone to college. But when that didn't happen, Hasan, a retired police officer, thought the next best thing was for Mohammed to volunteer for the Iraqi police force. At least that way he could avoid serving in the military and embark on what Hasan believed would be a noble career.