Iraqi

washington -- The aggressive new tactics spearheading President Bush's "surge" of troops into Iraq have contributed to one of the largest U.S. monthly combat losses since the war began, with the toll rising to 116 dead in May. At the direction of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. officer in Iraq, commanders in the Baghdad region have been pushing their troops farther out into Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods, establishing combat outposts and conducting...

From President Bush's address to the nation last night The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people - and it is unacceptable to me. Our troops in Iraq have fought bravely. They have done everything we have asked them to do. Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me. It is clear that we need to change our strategy in Iraq. ... In our discussions, we all agreed that there is no magic formula for success in Iraq. And one message came through loud and clear: Failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States.

RAMADI, Iraq -- After three years of fighting that has killed 143 American troops in Anbar province, the U.S. military has been unable to quash a vicious insurgency that shows no sign of abating. Senior U.S. commanders, grappling with Islamist fighters through the Euphrates River towns and the dusty, wind- swept expanse of this province west of Baghdad, describe the insurgents of al-Qaida in Iraq as well-financed, well-led and elusive. In interviews at heavily bunkered American outposts in Ramadi, Fallujah, Haditha Dam and elsewhere, the officers described the fight as a frustrating uphill battle that will require a steady commitment over many years to win. President Bush's struggle to find a strategy to halt Iraq's slide toward chaos and civil war is focused on the growing sectarian strife in Baghdad, where White House and Pentagon strategists say the war must be won. But no matter the fate of Baghdad, the separate insurgency in Anbar will fester and grow as a dangerous al-Qaida sanctuary unless it is decisively defeated, U.S. commanders said.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said tht the United States can still succeed in Iraq and that it would be September, at the earliest, before he considers changing course, as the White House issued a mixed report yesterday on progress in Iraq. The interim report's conclusions, many of which had been leaked in advance, offered glimmers of hope that the recent troop escalation is producing what Bush called "measurable progress" on the security front. Among the positive signs were a reduction in sectarian violence and a decrease in suicide attacks in May and June, a period that did not include one of the deadliest suicide bombings of the war, which killed more than 130 people this week north of Baghdad.

UNITED NATIONS -- While the conflict in Kosovo has played out, diplomats have quietly been trying to address problems in another trouble spot: Iraq.A new proposal making the rounds at the United Nations would allow suspension of some economic sanctions against Iraq if the country opens itself to inspection by a new U.N. agency.The agency, the United Nations Commission on Inspection and Monitoring (UNCIM), would, according to a proposal being circulated by British and Dutch diplomats, take over all "assets, liabilities, staff and archives" of the controversial U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM)

LONDON -- The most recent crisis with Iraq was foreshadowed in the tent where Iraqi officers came to receive the truce terms nearly seven years ago.In ''Desert Warrior: A Personal View of the Gulf War by the Joint Forces Commander,'' Gen. Khaled bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia writes that he and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf worried that the Iraqi officers might bring weapons -- might even be killers on a suicide mission: ''So, in order to search them without causing...

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey -- Soldiers from Saddam Hussein's army, who overran and captured the northern Iraq town of Erbil this weekend, conducted house-to-house searches for those Kurdish leaders they viewed as enemies or traitors and killed hundreds of people, fleeing aid workers arriving here said yesterday.The attackers arrived in several hundred tanks early Saturday morning, surrounding Erbil and cutting off escape routes. Senior officials of the Kurdish group that controlled the town until then were said to have been among those captured and possibly executed by Iraqi soldiers and their Kurdish allies.

WASHINGTON -- Iraq has moved some troops closer to the Iranian border and put its air defenses on high alert in its largest military mobilization since the Persian Gulf War, according to American officials.Intelligence officials have said the flurry of activity appears to reflect Baghdad's fears of a new Iranian attack rather than plans for an offensive strike of its own. But the moves have raised concern within the Clinton administration, where officials say they are uncertain of Iraq's intentions.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Five months after the Persian Gulf war bombs stopped pummeling Baghdad, the government of Iraq wanted to show the city was back on its feet.So it sponsored a fashion show.Swirling skirts, lush fabrics, glamorous gowns on tall, sultry models strutting down the runway. . . . This was not the image that usually comes to mind when one thinks of grim and oppressive Iraq.But that is the point, said Feryal al-Kilidar, director of the Iraqi House of Fashion. She said she began putting on Iraqi fashion shows all over the world because Iraq never got proper credit.

WASHINGTON -- The United Nations rejected last nigh Baghdad's latest attempt to set conditions for weapons inspections, raising the prospect of a punishing military strike against Iraq by the United States and its allies.Iraq's offer would have required the inspectors to fly into Iraq from Jordan, rather than Bahrain, where they are headquartered, avoiding no-fly zones patrolled by allied aircraft in northern and southern Iraq.Tim Trevan, spokesman for the commission conducting the U.N. inspections, said a flight by inspectors scheduled for today would not take place unless Iraq permitted entry from Bahrain.

BAGHDAD - -A bomb in a sprawling Shiite Muslim neighborhood killed at least 72 people and wounded more than 135 Wednesday, highlighting the danger that Iraq could slip into unrestrained violence after U.S. combat troops leave its cities - and with the deadline less than a week away. It was unclear who was responsible for detonating the bomb, which was hidden in a motorcycle with a vegetable cart. Some blamed Sunni insurgents from al-Qaida in Iraq or remnants of former dictator Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, but others suggested that the bombing was the result of disputes among Shiite factions.

BAGHDAD - "Long live Iraq," Muntather Zeidi declared in court , according to his lawyers, after a judge sentenced the improbable hero of Iraqi nationalists to three years in prison for hurling his shoes at former President George W. Bush. Outside the courtroom, his supporters and relatives erupted in jeers over the verdict for the journalist who gained international attention in December when at a news conference in Baghdad he called Bush a dog and lobbed his footwear at him. "This is an American court.

BAGHDAD - A Moroccan fighter identified by the U.S. military as the No. 2 commander in al-Qaida in Iraq detonated a suicide vest rather than surrender when American soldiers attacked his hide-out last week in the northern city of Mosul, a military spokesman said yesterday. The fighter, known as Abu Qaswarah or Abu Sara, led al-Qaida in Iraq's northern operations and was the point man for smuggling foreign fighters into that region, according to the military. U.S. forces were raiding a building where Abu Qaswarah was holed up Oct. 5 when a gunfight erupted, the military spokesman said.

WASHINGTON - Violence has largely subsided in Iraq. American casualties are at their lowest levels since 2003, and Iraqi forces are maintaining security in most of the country. Is the war in Iraq over? Iraq is a hot issue out on the presidential campaign trail, where Barack Obama and John McCain are squabbling over the genesis of the war and where to go from here. But from the battlefield, U.S. combat commanders are giving some surprising answers. "Our ticket out of here was to develop Iraqi security forces.

WASHINGTON -- The United States has gathered its most detailed evidence so far of Iranian involvement in training and arming fighters in Iraq, officials say, but significant uncertainties remain about the extent of that involvement and the threat it poses to American and Iraqi forces. Some intelligence and administration officials said Iran seemed to have carefully calibrated its involvement in Iraq over the last year, in contrast to what President Bush and other American officials have publicly portrayed as an intensified Iranian role.

In their testimony before Congress this week, Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and General David Petraeus portrayed recent clashes between competing Iraqi factions as a fight between the Iraqi government and Iranian-supported groups looking to undermine that government. This simplistic "good guys versus bad guys" depiction masks a much more complicated reality in which U.S. policy in Iraq unwittingly strengthens Iran's overall hand there and around the region. Speaking before Congress, General Petraeus said, "Iran has fueled the violence in a particularly damaging way through its lethal support to the special groups," referring to Shiite splinter groups allegedly receiving support from Iran.

WASHINGTON -- The recommendation by the top U.S. commander in Iraq to suspend troop reductions reflects a bleak assessment that Iraqi forces remain unprepared to take over the mission of securing their own nation, senior administration and military officials said yesterday. In a second day of congressional testimony, the commander, Gen. David Petraeus, left Democrats and some Republicans again frustrated as he steadfastly declined to spell out what more would have to happen on the ground before he would endorse withdrawals to take the number of U.S. troops far below the 140,000 set to remain there after July.

BAGHDAD -- Army and police checkpoints dotted the Iraqi capital yesterday in preparation for a visit by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran that will coincide with the visit of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Adm. Mike Mullen arrived in Baghdad yesterday on an unannounced trip to meet with commanders and Iraqi officials before a series of briefings he is to make to President Bush in April about the way ahead in the war effort. There were no plans for Mullen and Ahmadinejad, who is to arrive today, to cross paths, and the timing of their visits appeared to be coincidental.

BAGHDAD -- A car bomb killed at least six people in the central Iraqi city of Ramadi yesterday, shattering the calm of an area that in recent months had been considered one of the safest in the country. Ramadi police officials said the bomb exploded near the city's courthouse in the late morning after a suicide bomber drove to the site. There were conflicting reports of the number of dead, but women, children and at least one police officer were said to be among the fatalities. The U.S. military had said four people died, including the bomber.

Baghdad -- As Iraq's government trumpeted yesterday a dramatic decline in violence, describing it as a sign that sectarian warfare is waning, U.S. officials warned that the gains will be short-lived if the nation's leaders do not use the relative calm to advance political reconciliation. Also yesterday, Iraqi officials arrested 43 people, including two Americans, after guards protecting a convoy injured a woman, setting the stage for a showdown over foreign security companies' immunity from prosecution here.