Casualty Count

Insurgents on Tuesday slammed at least four rockets into the heavily-fortified Baghdad Green Zone, the seat of the Iraqi government and the US embassy, Iraqi and US officials said.

At least 12 people were killed in clashes in Iraq's southern oil hub of Basra on Tuesday, police said, after the Iraqi security forces launched a major operation against armed groups. Basra is 550 km (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

Andy Habsieger was among four soldiers whose death on Sunday brought the American death toll in Iraq to 4,000. The four were killed by a bomb that exploded near Baghdad.

Human rights groups in Sweden are outraged that the government has decided to send Iraqi refugees back to Iraq. Sweden has taken in more than 20,000 Iraqi refugees since the war began — more than any other Western country.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday hears arguments on whether American citizens held by U.S. forces in Iraq may be turned over to Iraqi courts without recourse in U.S. courts.

Multi-National Forces (MNF) said Tuesday it killed five suspects and injured several others in Basra late Monday. An MNF press release said it bombarded the suspects who were spotted conducting suspicious activity in the Al-Hyyaniyah district in Basra.

Hundreds of Iraqi Shiites loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched through the streets of western Baghdad neighbourhoods on Tuesday protesting the arrests of their leaders.

Fierce clashes between Iraqi security forces and militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday killed at least four people and wounded 18 in the southern city of Basra, police Major Abbas Youssef told AFP.

Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militias in the southern oil port of Basra on Tuesday as a security plan to clamp down on violence between rival militia factions in the region began.

Followers of influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr launched a civil strike Monday to protest raids and mass arrests by Iraq's security forces, underscoring the growing frustrations of Sadr's group, which U.S. military officials say is playing...

A cease-fire critical to the improved security situation in Iraq appeared to unravel Monday when a militia loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr began shutting down neighborhoods in west Baghdad and issuing demands...

Troop levels in Iraq would remain nearly the same through 2008 as at any time during five years of war, under plans presented to President Bush on Monday by the senior American commander and the top American diplomat in Iraq...

Police found four bodies in Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (1 body in Husseiniyah, 1 body in Shaab, 1 body in Doura and 1 body in Shoala.

Authorities have imposed an indefinite curfew in the southern Iraqi city of Basra amid reports of growing lawlessness among Shia militias. The curfew will run from 2200 to 0600 until further notice, the commander for security in southern Iraq said.

Rocket attacks on the U.S.-protected Green Zone may carry a message with implications across Iraq: rising anger within the Mahdi Army militia. The Shiite fighters led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr are reorganizing their ranks

Sgt. Thomas C. Ray, II, 40, of Weaverville, N.C...died March 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, from wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 1132nd Military Police Company, North Carolina Army...

Pvt. Tyler J. Smith, 22, of Bethel, Maine, died Mar. 21 at Forward Operating Base Falcon near Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when the base received indirect fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team...

The FBI identified the contractors Monday as Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, and John Roy Young of Kansas City, Mo. Withrow worked for JPI Worldwide when he was kidnapped in January 2007. Young worked for Crescent Security Group...

The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday's bombardment of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents...

A car bomb wounded five civilians as they were passing by the parked vehicle on Monday, Nineveh province police spokesman Brigadier-General Khaled Abdul Sattar said.