Casualty Count

After 16 months of hoping and praying, family members of two U.S. contractors kidnapped in Iraq received the news they feared: Their loved ones were not coming home alive

The bomb exploded as Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Pofahl turned around to talk with Cpl. Garrett Jones during a foot patrol in Karmah, Iraq. Despite being thrown forward, Pofahl quickly pushed himself off the ground and rushed toward the site...

A British military official says coalition jets have dropped bombs on Basra for the first time since clashes erupted this week between Shiite militias and security forces. The official says Iraq security forces asked for airstrikes...

U.S. forces were drawn deeper into Iraq's four day-old crackdown on Shi'ite militants on Friday, launching air strikes in Basra for the first time and battling militants in Baghdad.

Warning sirens wail and within seconds rockets and mortars strike — sometimes one or two, other times 10 or more. The Green Zone is again a prime target as American and British diplomats, Iraqi politicians, contractors and others...

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office says the Iraqi government has given residents of Basra until April 8 to turn over "heavy and medium-size weapons" in return for a reward.

Army Sgt. Javon Jordan, was critically wounded...Jordan, 32, was wounded Sunday by a roadside bomb that exploded next to the vehicle in which he was riding. Three of his fellow soldiers were killed. Jordan was flown to a military hospital in Germany

Staff Sgt. Joseph D. Gamboa, 34, of Yigo, Guam, died Mar. 25 of wounds suffered when he came under indirect fire in Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.

U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day. Iraqi army and police units appeared...

Sgt. Steve McCoy, critically injured by a roadside bomb in Baghdad Easter Sunday, was conscious Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Army burn center in San Antonio, Texas, according to his family.

American-trained Iraqi security forces failed for a third straight day to oust Shiite militias from the southern city of Basra on Thursday, even as President Bush hailed the operation as a sign of the growing strength of Iraq’s federal government.

A Minnesota soldier died Wednesday while manning a guard tower in Iraq. Gregory B. Rundell, 21, of North St. Paul, joined the Army in 2005, his mother, Joanne Richardson, also of North St. Paul, said at a news conference in St. Paul Thursday night.

Iraqi lawmakers will hold an emergency session on Friday in an attempt to end violence in the oil city of Basra after an army crackdown on Shi'ite militia sparked fighting across the south and mass protests in Baghdad.

"The battle is not easy without coalition support," lamented one Basra resident, who had worked as a translator for the British forces. "The police in Basra are useless and helping the Mahdi Army. The militia are hiding among the civilians..."

Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr wants a "political solution" to the crisis that has led to deadly clashes between his followers and government security forces this week in Baghdad and the oil-rich south.

The State Department has instructed all personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad not to leave reinforced structures due to incoming insurgent rocket fire that has killed two American government workers this week.

Heavy clashes erupted in Naseriya city, one of the biggest cities in the southern Iraqi province of Thi-Qaar...the clashes began at six o'clock p.m. local time, and bomb blasts shook the city after gun fires were heard.

Fighting between Shiite factions continues in Basra and Baghdad, raising concerns that security gains made during the U.S. "surge" might unravel. Madeleine Brand talks to Dina Temple-Raston, who has the details from Baghdad.

A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed at approximately 4:30 p.m. March 27 after being struck by an improvised explosive device in eastern Baghdad while conducting a combat patrol.

A U.S. government employee was killed and four others were wounded in Baghdad this week by rocket attacks on the Green Zone diplomatic and government compound, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.