Casualty Count

The State Department's new embassy construction chief has rejected his predecessor's certification that the $740 million new U.S. embassy in Baghdad is "substantially completed" and has instead begun a top-to-bottom review of the troubled project.

Spc. Orlando A. Perez, 23, of Houston, died Feb. 24 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from small arms fire during dismounted operations. He was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.

Much has been written about the more than 2 million Iraqis who have sought refuge in neighboring countries. But there are an estimated 2.5 million internally displaced Iraqis who are not getting the help they need.

Two gunmen were killed during clashes with Iraqi soldiers in Mosul, Nineveh security spokesman Brigadier-General Khalid Abdul-Sattar said. He said one of the gunmen was an Iraqi and the other was a Saudi national.

The Arabiya satellite TV channel based in Dubai tonight aired a video of one of five Britons held in Iraq for eight months. The man, who gave his name as Peter Moore, said he missed his family very much and "just wanted to get out of here".

Amid tight security, millions of Shiite pilgrims flocked Wednesday to the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala for Arbaeen, one of the holiest ceremonies in the Shiite calendar which was largely suppressed during the iron-fisted rule of Saddam Hussein.

Shiite pilgrims headed to a major religious gathering were again targeted by extremists today when a roadside bomb detonated near a bus in Baghdad, killing one traveler, police said.

Iraq's presidential council rejected Wednesday a measure setting up provincial elections — seen as a key step to develop Iraq's nascent democracy — in the latest setback to U.S.-backed national reconciliation efforts.

Chief of the Iraqi Journalists' Union Shihab al-Timimi was announced dead on Wednesday due to fatal wounds sustained in gunmen attack last Saturday, Iraqi official television reported. Timimi, 74, was shot in the face, chest and shoulder when gunmen...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates headed for Ankara late Wednesday with a message for Turkish leaders: Get your troops out of northern Iraq in the next few days. "It's very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave,"

Many of the estimated 70,000-150,000 Iraqi refugees in Egypt have developed serious psychological and stress-related illnesses, including cardiac problems, according to Ahlam Tobia, a medical doctor who works with refugees in Cairo.

A Turkish official insisted Wednesday that the aim of a military incursion into northern Iraq "is clear and limited" against Kurdish rebels and said no timetable will be set "until the terrorist bases are eliminated."

A car bomb targeting a police patrol in the city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, went off on Wednesday, killing two civilians and injuring another...The blast apparently missed its target and caused casualties with bystanders at the scene

pc. Micheal E. Phillips, 19, of Ardmore, Okla., died Feb. 24 in Baghdad, Iraq, from wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team...

Insurgents targeted passenger buses north of Baghdad on Tuesday, as a suicide bomber killed at least eight people west of Mosul and gunmen seized 21 men traveling through Diyala province.

A soldier trying to avoid redeployment to Iraq had a friend shoot him in the leg and then claimed he'd been wounded in a holdup, authorities said. Army Pfc. Matthew John Myers, 20, of Apple Valley, limped into a minimart about 9:30 p.m. Sunday...

Spc. Kevin S. Mowl, 22, of Pittsford, N.Y., died Feb. 25 at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., of wounds suffered in Baghdad, Iraq on Aug. 2, 2007, when the vehicle he was in encountered an improvised explosive device.

Three bodies were found in different districts across Baghdad on Monday, police said...A body was found with gunshot wounds in central Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

With scores of doctors killed over the past few years, an exodus of medical personnel, poor medical infrastructure and shortages of medicines, Iraq's health sector is under great pressure, a senior Health Ministry official said on 26 February.

The mother of 19-year-old Pfc. Michael Phillips of Ardmore, Okla., says she was told Sunday afternoon that her son was killed Sunday morning...near Baghdad when the Humvee he was in was hit by a roadside bomb.