Ramadi

BAGHDAD -- US soldiers fought yesterday with suspected insurgents using a building as a safe house in Ramadi, killing one Iraqi man and five females, ranging in age from an infant to teenagers, the US military said. The bloodshed occurred on a day that saw sectarian violence kill nine other Iraqis and wound about 50, police said. The bodies of 50 torture victims also were discovered, most of them in Baghdad and the city of Baqubah to the north, police said. The battle in Ramadi began when a US patrol discovered a roadside bomb in the Hamaniyah section of the city, and two suspected...

A series of bombings targeting security forces killed four people in two major Iraqi cities Sunday, officials said. In the first attack, a parked car exploded near a police patrol in a main street in the center of the western city of Ramadi, police said. One policeman was killed in the morning blast in the city that was once an al-Qaida hotbed. An official in the nearby Ramadi hospital said five other policemen were seriously wounded. Two passers-by were also wounded, he said.

BAGHDAD - A tanker truck packed with explosives ripped through an Iraqi police outpost yesterday, killing at least seven people in a suicide attack at a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The blast outside Ramadi showed that Iraqi forces remain vulnerable - and now the primary target of insurgents - despite additional security measures imposed following devastating bombings in downtown Baghdad last month that killed about 100 people. Two months earlier, US forces pulled out of Iraqi cities as part of a phased withdrawal from Iraq.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces battled gunmen who detonated a car bomb before blasting their way into a government compound and killing seven policemen in a one-time Sunni insurgent hotbed yesterday, police and local government officials said. The three-hour standoff between Shi'ite-dominated security forces and suspected Sunni insurgents in the Anbar Province capital of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, marked the first serious gun battle for Iraqi forces against insurgents without American backup since the US military completed its withdrawal last month.

BAGHDAD -- Three suicide attackers exploded a string of near-simultaneous car bombs in a mainly Shi'ite town yesterday, killing at least 60 people and wounding 70. Elsewhere, a roadside bomb killed five US soldiers fighting in a hotbed of Iraq's insurgency. The attacks were part of a new surge of violence ahead of an Oct. 15 referendum on Iraq's constitution, whose passage is crucial to prospects for starting a withdrawal of US troops. The US ambassador was struggling to negotiate changes to the charter in hopes of winning Sunni Arab support.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces battled gunmen who detonated a car bomb before blasting their way into a government compound and killing seven policemen in a one-time Sunni insurgent hotbed yesterday, police and local government officials said. The three-hour standoff between Shi'ite-dominated security forces and suspected Sunni insurgents in the Anbar Province capital of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, marked the first serious gun battle for Iraqi forces against insurgents without American backup since the US military completed its withdrawal last month.

BAGHDAD - Two bombs targeting police exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi yesterday, killing nine people and wounding 13, Iraqi officials said. The bombs exploded in central Ramadi, with the second one going off just steps away from the first after police and other people gathered on the scene. Staggering the blasts is a common tactic by insurgents who hope to lure in rescuers and onlookers with the first blast to maximize the carnage with the second explosion. Jasim al-Halbusi, head of the Anbar provincial council, said the blasts went off about 6 p.m. He said one of the dead...

BAGHDAD -- Two US soldiers have been charged in the February killing of an unarmed Iraqi civilian near the city of Ramadi, the military said yesterday. Specialist Nathan B. Lynn was charged with one count of voluntary manslaughter alleging that he shot and killed the man Feb. 15. He and Sergeant Milton Ortiz Jr. also were charged with obstructing justice for allegedly conspiring with a soldier to put an AK-47 near the body to make it look as though the Iraqi were an insurgent.

BAGHDAD -- Residents reported curious declarations hanging from mosque walls and market stalls recently in Ramadi, the Sunni Muslim insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The fliers said Iraqi militants had turned against and were killing foreign Al Qaeda fighters, their one-time allies. A local tribal leader and Iraq's Defense Ministry have said followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, have begun fleeing Anbar province and Ramadi, its capital, to cities and mountain ranges near the Iranian border.

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomb exploded yesterday outside the gate of the main government compound in the capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province, killing at least 13 people, including four police officers, a health official said. The attacker detonated his explosive-packed car at the compound that houses the governor’s office, police headquarters, and courts in downtown Ramadi. The province, where Sunni insurgents backed by Al Qaeda once held sway, has seen a rise in attacks against security forces and government officials in recent months.

BAGHDAD - Two bombs targeting police exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi yesterday, killing nine people and wounding 13, Iraqi officials said. The bombs exploded in central Ramadi, with the second one going off just steps away from the first after police and other people gathered on the scene. Staggering the blasts is a common tactic by insurgents who hope to lure in rescuers and onlookers with the first blast to maximize the carnage with the second explosion. Jasim al-Halbusi, head of the Anbar provincial council, said the blasts went off about 6 p.m. He said one of the dead...

WASHINGTON — Iraq’s military is ready and able to take over security operations as the United States ends its combat role and prepares for a major troop withdrawal, the commander of US forces in Iraq said yesterday. General Ray Odierno said Iraq’s military has “stepped up’’ to the challenge even as Iraqi politicians continue to squabble over the formation of a new government and acts of extremist violence are reported. “We do believe they are ready to assume full operations in Iraq,’’ Odierno said on ABC’s “This Week.’’ He praised the Iraqi security...

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomb exploded yesterday outside the gate of the main government compound in the capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province, killing at least 13 people, including four police officers, a health official said. The attacker detonated his explosive-packed car at the compound that houses the governor’s office, police headquarters, and courts in downtown Ramadi. The province, where Sunni insurgents backed by Al Qaeda once held sway, has seen a rise in attacks against security forces and government officials in recent months.

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber driving a dynamite-laden truck yesterday destroyed a key bridge on a highway used by the departing US military, while separate attacks killed nine Iraqis, most of them security force members, police said. No one else died in the blast that ruined the bridge outside the city of Ramadi, which is about 70 miles west of Baghdad, a local police officer said. The highway is used heavily by the US military to transport equipment out of the country. It is also a major roadway for civilian traffic.

BAGHDAD - A tanker truck packed with explosives ripped through an Iraqi police outpost yesterday, killing at least seven people in a suicide attack at a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. The blast outside Ramadi showed that Iraqi forces remain vulnerable - and now the primary target of insurgents - despite additional security measures imposed following devastating bombings in downtown Baghdad last month that killed about 100 people. Two months earlier, US forces pulled out of Iraqi cities as part of a phased withdrawal from...

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber hit a police checkpoint outside the courthouse in Ramadi yesterday, killing up to six people and wounding as many as 22 in the first such attack in months in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold. Also yesterday, the US military reported that an American soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in a bombing in east Baghdad, another sign of the lingering dangers in Iraq despite the recent downturn in violence. The Ramadi suicide bomber struck midmorning, killing three policemen and three civilians and wounding 13,...

A series of bombings targeting security forces killed four people in two major Iraqi cities Sunday, officials said. In the first attack, a parked car exploded near a police patrol in a main street in the center of the western city of Ramadi, police said. One policeman was killed in the morning blast in the city that was once an al-Qaida hotbed. An official in the nearby Ramadi hospital said five other policemen were seriously wounded. Two passers-by were also wounded, he said.

RAMADI, Iraq -- As survivors tell it, the wedding party was in full swing. The band was playing tribal music, and the guests had just finished eating dinner when, at about 9 p.m., they heard the roar of US warplanes. Fearing trouble, the revelers ended the festivities and went to bed. About six hours later, the first bomb struck the tent. "Mothers died with their children in their arms," said Madhi Nawaf, who survived the attack Wednesday in Mogr el-Deeb on the Syrian border.

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush said yesterday that while political progress is moving too slowly on the national level in Iraq, positive steps in cities and towns are offering hope for future stability. The Bush administration, facing a mid-September deadline to report to Congress on progress in Iraq, has long prodded the Iraqi government to finalize a national oil law, organize provincial elections, and integrate former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist Party into the central government.

BAQUBAH, Iraq -- Hundreds of US and Iraqi troops, under cover of F-16s, fought their way into three neighborhoods of besieged Baqubah yesterday to help clear Diyala Province of entrenched insurgents. To the north of the city, American airstrikes killed 17 Al Qaeda gunmen trying to sneak past a checkpoint. As the mission of 10,000 US soldiers to take back the volatile and extremely dangerous province intensified in its fourth day, so have concerns about keeping Al Qaeda fighters on the run. The terrorist fighters and their allies already have been run out of...