Casualty Count

A suicide bombing north of Baghdad on Wednesday and a string of attacks against members of a burgeoning Sunni tribal movement have demonstrated al-Qaida in Iraq’s concern over the alliance between the U.S. military and the grass-roots groups.

Sgt. Reno S. Lacerna, 44, of Waipahu, Hawaii, died Dec. 31, 2007 in Al Qayyarah, Iraq, of a non-combat related illness. He was assigned to the 87th Corps Support Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

Pfc. Joseph R. Berlin Jr., 21, of Chelsea, Ala., died Dec. 30 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the Special Troops Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Children skip across a stream of raw sewage on a side road, trash piles up in a dusty lot and there are few desks — and even fewer chairs — in the village school's dark, cold classrooms. On the main street, fruits and vegetables are displayed...

The U.S. military is giving the Ohio National Guard its biggest call-up since World War II this week, sending about 1,600 troops to Kuwait, with some of them going on to Iraq.

The body of an Iraqi soldier was found on Tuesday in Mosul a day after he was kidnapped, police said...The bodies of two men were found shot near Mosul on Tuesday, police said.

One hundred and thirty-three women were killed last year in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, either by religious vigilantes or as a result of so-called “honour” killings, a report said on 31 December.

In the largest population movement in the Middle East since 1948, a huge influx of Iraqis is putting pressure on services in Jordan and Syria. How are their Red Crescent Societies responding to the needs?

The number of reporters killed while doing their jobs has risen 244 percent over the past five years, due in large part to the Iraq war, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.

Iraqi police detained an al-Qaida network leader of two Iraqi northern provinces in Mosul city,a police source from Salahudin province said on Wednesday.

Violence in Iraq, including actions by US-led coalition and paramilitary forces, was responsible for some 24,000 civilian deaths in 2007, according to an independent group monitoring casualties in the war-ravaged country.

A female suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest struck a checkpoint of neighborhood patrol volunteers in Baquba, capital of Iraq's restive Diyala province, killing 10 people and wounding eight, police said.

Relatives wept as the remains of victims from a suicide bombing at a funeral were placed into coffins Wednesday, while police increased the attack’s death toll by four to 36 killed in Baghdad’s deadliest attack since August.

A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device was detonated at a Concerned Local Citizen’s checkpoint near Mushada, Iraq, Dec. 31, killing two CLCs and wounding two others. Two more are missing in action.

A suicide bombing Wednesday in the city of Baqouba killed seven people and wounded 22, police said, while authorities increased the death toll from a Baghdad suicide attack at a funeral the previous day to 36.

Police found (3) unidentified dead bodies in the following neighborhoods in Baghdad:(2) were found in Saidiyah in west Baghdad (Karkh bank). While (1) was found in Zayuna in east Baghdad (Risafa bank).

Iraqi police yesterday freed 51 followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, including a provincial council member, held over clashes in Karbala in August. The clashes between Sadr's followers and police during a pilgrimage sparked outrage...

A U.S. Soldier died as a result of a non-combat related injury in the vicinity of Qayyarah Airfield West Dec. 31. The name of the deceased is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense.

A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people and wounded 38 at a funeral in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday and the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital for months cast a pall over New Year celebrations.

A U.S. helicopter bombed areas near the town of Iskandriyah south of Baghdad after two U.S. patrols attacked by roadside bombs, killing a suspected insurgent and wounding another, local police said on Tuesday.