Insurgents storm police station in western Iraq city of Ramadi; at least 21 dead

Insurgents stormed the western Iraq city of Ramadi on Sunday and tried to blast their way into a police compound, setting off a fierce gun battle with local security forces. Eight police officers and seven insurgents were killed, according to government and security officials.

“It was a bold attack, surprising attack,” said Brig. Gen. Khamis Jasem, a commander at a provincial operations center. “They made the security forces busy with explosives here and there. Then they attacked.”

Suicide bomb attacks have killed thousands in Iraq since 2006. Use the interactive to view the human toll up to today.

An additional six civilians were killed in the bombings and attacks, said Maj. Mahmoud Khaleel of the Anbar provincial police. Security officials have increased their readiness, particularly in the nearby city of Fallujah. “We are expecting similar attacks in the coming days,” Jasem added.

Sunday’s assault, in a predominantly Sunni area, followed a huge blast Saturday outside the southern city of Basra, which killed at least 53 Shiite pilgrims on a march to a religious shrine. The country is increasingly on edge after previous bombings in the wake of the U.S. troop withdrawal last month.

Officials fear that insurgents are trying to provoke a sectarian war between Sunni and Shiite extremists, in part by taking advantage of a political crisis in Baghdad that has paralyzed the government.

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Al Qaeda's two top Iraq leaders killed in raid

Al Qaeda's top two leaders in Iraq have been killed, officials said Monday, in a strike the United States called a "potentially devastating blow" but whose impact analysts said may be limited. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said al Qaeda's Iraq leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of its local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, were found dead in a hole in the ground inside a house after it was surrounded and stormed by troops. The deaths could be a major setback to the stubborn insurgency at a time when Iraq is emerging from the sectarian slaughter unleashed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion but still struggling to end suicide bombings and other attacks.

"Their deaths are potentially devastating blows to al Qaeda Iraq," U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told reporters in Washington, adding the operation "demonstrates the improved security strength and capacity of Iraqi security forces." He said it was an operation led by Iraqi security forces with the support of U.S. troops, one of whom was killed. "The Iraqis have taken the lead in securing Iraq and its citizens by taking out both of these individuals," he said. The U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, called the deaths "potentially the most significant blow to al Qaeda in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency."

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Iraq bombers target foreign embassies

Reporting from Baghdad - At least 41 people were killed and 237 wounded Sunday in three suicide car bombings targeting the Iranian and German embassies and the Egyptian Consulate in a span of 30 minutes. The attacks, which Iraqi government officials blamed on the Sunni Arab extremist group Al Qaeda in Iraq, came two days after unknown gunmen in uniforms massacred 25 people in a Sunni district south of Baghdad.

The bloodshed raises fears that the security situation could unravel before Iraq's next government is formed, as armed groups and political parties look to exploit the uncertain period after last month's national elections. The conditions are reminiscent of early 2006 when Al Qaeda in Iraq took advantage of the transition between elected governments to blow up a major Shiite Muslim shrine and ignite a civil war between the country's Shiite majority and its Sunni minority, which dominated the government of President Saddam Hussein before he was toppled in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

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U.S. Unsure Who's Behind Iraq Attacks

U.S. commanders say they are unsure about who is responsible for the persistent violence in Iraq, underscoring the challenge they face trying to keep a lid on it amid parliamentary elections this weekend. While security has improved significantly across Iraq in recent years, in the weeks leading up to the March 7 vote, U.S. commanders have reported an increase in low-level violence: kidnappings, assassinations, and mortar attacks against Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of government power.

And since August, a series of large-scale bombings aimed at government buildings have ripped through Baghdad, killing several hundred people and shaking confidence in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's security services, following the withdrawal of most U.S. combat forces from major Iraqi cities last summer. Commanders worry the violence could spike further after the election if parties feel there was fraud or if negotiations to form a government after the vote break down. U.S. and Iraqi successes cracking down on organized insurgent groups have caused the groups to splinter into an ill-defined web of smaller, often independent, groups with widely divergent motives, ranging from the ideological to the purely material, according to American military officials.

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Shi'ites targeted by bombs in Iraq and Pakistan

18 killed in dual bomb attack in Karachi

A blast targeting a bus filled with Shiite religious observers in Karachi killed at least 12 people and another explosion in front of a hospital where attack victims were being treated killed six more Friday, a government official said. Motorcycles were used in both assaults, police said, and they came during the Shiite observance of Arbaeen, a commemoration that takes place 40 days after the anniversary of Iman Hussein's death, which is also known as Ashura. Sindh provincial health minister, Dr. Saghir Ahmed said that along with the 12 dead, 30 people were injured in the first blast. The second blast happened in front of the emergency room at Jinnah Hospital, where doctors treated people from the first attack and people on stretchers were waiting to be taken in to the crowded facility. Along with the six slain, five people were wounded. The last deadly blast in Karachi took place late December during Ashura, when more than 40 people were killed. A twin car bombing Friday tore through a crowd of Shiite pilgrims packing a highway as they walked to a holy city south of Baghdad for a major religious observance, killing at least 35 people and wounding 151 others, Iraqi officials said.

Blasts kill 35 at height of Iraq Shiite pilgrimage

It was the third deadly bombing this week hitting the ceremony in which hundreds of thousands of Shiites have been converging on the city of Karbala. Friday's attack struck during the culmination of the pilgrimage. This week's violence took place as Iraqi politicians argued over an effort to bar hundreds of candidates from running in the March parliamentary elections because of suspected ties to Saddam Hussein's former regime. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday he would not allow the US ambassador to meddle in the dispute, which Washington fears could hamper Sunni-Shiite reconciliation. Friday's attack began shortly after noon when a parked car bomb exploded just east of one of three main entrances to Karbala, two Health Ministry officials said. The explosion sent throngs of pilgrims running down the highway and straight into the path of a suicide car bomber who detonated the vehicle, they said.

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Female Homicide Bomber Kills 54 in Baghdad

A female homicide bomber walking among Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad detonated an explosives belt on Monday, killing at least 54 people and wounding more than 122, officials said. The bombing was the first major strike this year against pilgrims making their way to the southern city of Karbala to mark a Shiite holy day. It came as security official warned of a possible increase in attacks by insurgents using new tactics to bypass bomb-detection methods.

The bombing raises fears of an escalation of attacks as hundreds of thousands of Shiites head by Friday to the southern holy city of Karbala to mark the end of 40 days of mourning following the anniversary of the death Imam Hussein, a revered Shiite figure.

The bomber hid the explosives underneath an abaya — a black cloak worn from head to toe by women — as she joined a group of pilgrims on the outskirts of Baghdad's Shiite-dominated neighborhood of Shaab, said Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, Baghdad's top military spokesman.
The bomber set off the blast as she lined up with other women to be searched by female security guards at a security checkpoint just inside a rest tent, al-Moussawi said.

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Corruption sting nabs Iraqi deputy minister

Iraq's deputy minister of transport has been arrested after investigators taped him taking a $100,000 bribe, the Iraqi Integrity Commission said Monday. It's the latest sting aimed at what many Iraqis say is rampant corruption in the country.

The anti-corruption body said Monday this was the first time such a high-level Iraqi official was caught in the act of taking a bribe. The announcement, made on the commission's Web site, said investigators detained Deputy Minister Adnan al-Obaidi last Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Transport, Aqeel Kawthar, told CNN on Monday that the deputy minister took office August 10, and his arrest came as a surprise to the ministry. He said there were no indications that al-Obaidi might be corrupt before this incident, but he said the Ministry of Transport "supports and congratulates" the Integrity Commission's work.

• "Transparency International", The global coalition against corruption, website.
• "Internet Center for Corruption Research", website.

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Mujahedin-e Khalq

At the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Coalition forces classified the Mujahedin-e Khalq, a militant organization from Iran with cult-like elements that advocates the overthrow of Iran's current government, as an enemy force.

The MeK had provided security services to Saddam Hussein from camps established in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War to fight Iran in collaboration with Saddam's forces and resources. A new study from the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, looks at how coalition forces handled this group following the invasion. Although the MeK is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States, coalition forces never had a clear mission on how to deal with it.

After a ceasefire was signed between Coalition forces and the MeK, the U.S. Secretary of Defense designated this group's members as civilian "protected persons" rather than combatant prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. The coalition's treatment of the MeK leaves it – and the United States in particular – open to charges of hypocrisy, offering security to a terrorist group rather than breaking it up.

Research suggests that most of the MeK rank-and-file are neither terrorists nor freedom fighters, but trapped and brainwashed people who would be willing to return to Iran if they were separated from the MeK leadership. Many members were lured to Iraq from other countries with false promises, only to have their passports confiscated by the MeK leadership, which uses physical abuse, imprisonment, and other methods to keep them from leaving.

Iraq wants to expel the group, but no country other than Iran will accept it. The RAND study suggests the best course of action would have been to repatriate MeK rank-and-file members back to Iran, where they have been granted amnesty since 2003. To date, Iran appears to have upheld its commitment to MeK members in Iran. The study also concludes better guidelines be established for the possible detention of members of designated terrorist organizations.

• "U.S. Handling of Mujahedin-E-Khalq Since U.S. Invasion of Iraq Is Examined", Rand Corporation, 8/4/09.
• "Mujahadeen-e-Khalq (MEK) (aka People's Mujahedin of Iran or PMOI)", Council on Foreign Relations, 4/18/08.

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