Casualty Count

An Iraqi soccer star can't sign with a professional British club because Iraq's Asian Cup-winning national team barely missed being ranked in the world's top 70 — a situation blamed partly on violence in the country.

A Defense Department contractor and 1 of its former managers are accused of conspiring to bribe a military contracting officer in Iraq. The indictment unsealed today in Oklahoma City names Elie Samir Chidiac, who's charged with:

Rebuilding failures by one of the most heavily criticized companies working in Iraq, the American construction giant Parsons, were much more widespread than previously disclosed and touched on nearly every aspect of the company’s operation...

Staff Sgt. Robert J. Wilson, 28, of Boynton Beach, Fla., died Jan. 26 of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated while he was conducting a dismounted patrol in Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion...

Also Monday, insurgents attacked four policemen heading home from work south of Mosul, killing two and wounding the other two, Nineveh provincial police said.

Coalition Force Soldiers were conducting a mounted patrol in Ninewah Jan. 28 when insurgents detonated an improvised explosive device, killing five Soldiers. Insurgents attacked the other Soldiers in the patrol with small arms fire from a nearby mosque.

The White House will ask Congress next week for another $70 billion (€47.4 billion) for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an amount that would help cover operational costs only until early in 2009 when the next administration takes over.

Three countries suffering from the scourge of terrorism -- Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan -- are expressing concern over the spread of extremism in their regions, saying terrorism cannot be defeated just by force alone.

Five US soldiers have been killed in a roadside bomb attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the US military has said. A patrol that was hit in the explosion then came under small arms fire before US and Iraqi forces secured the area...

Influential members of Muqtada al-Sadr's movement have urged the anti-U.S. Shiite cleric not to extend a cease-fire when it expires next month, officials said Monday, a move that could jeopardize recent security gains.

U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces killed 13 suspected insurgent fighters during operations in Zelig, about 20 km (12 miles) south of Baghdad, on Jan. 20 and 21, the U.S. military said.

A large fire caused widespread damage to the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad on Monday. An interior ministry source to the Iraqi press agency, Voice of Iraq, said the fire began in the early hours of the morning, local time...

Pfc. Duncan Charles Crookston, 19, of Denver, Colo., died Jan. 25 in Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations in Baghdad...

Sgt. Tracy Renee Birkman, 41, of New Castle, Va., died Jan. 25 in Owesat, Iraq, from non-combat related injuries. She was assigned to the 626th Brigade Support Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault...

Kamal Murad is among a small contingent of Iraqi interpreters who have been able to get the special visas required for them to move to the United States. They face a careful screening process requiring them to fill out bewildering forms in English...

The U.S. military surge in Iraq has brought American soldiers to parts of the country where they haven't operated much in the past — areas that had become sanctuaries for insurgent groups.

A look at U.S. troop levels during 2007 in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, showing end-of-month totals, as well as current and projections. 2008: As of Jan. 25 — 158,000, Projected for July — 135,000...

More than a month after Sgt. Austin David Pratt died in Iraq, his family in Missouri still knows little about the circumstances that led to his death. Pratt, of Cadet, died Dec. 15 in Baghdad, four days before he would have turned 23...

A Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldier was killed Jan. 27 when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive devise in northeastern Baghdad.

A Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldier was killed Jan. 26 while conducting a dismounted patrol near Kadamiyah when an improvised explosive device detonated.