So, the inevitable has occurred: After the withdrawal of U.S. troops, the American diplomatic presence in Baghdad may be cut drastically, making the new $750 million embassy compound a monstrous white elephant. Read full article > >

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Baghdad embassy for sale: An In the Loop contest

The United States in Iraq, population 16,000, is a country within a country. It has a $6 billion budget, its own airline and three hospitals, and imports virtually all of its food. Its central fortress, otherwise known as the Baghdad embassy compound, is nearly as large as Vatican City. Read full article > >

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U.S. evaluating size of Baghdad embassy, officials say

BAGHDAD — The U.S. Embassy here has provided Iraqi officials with only a partial inventory of American-funded reconstruction projects, making it more difficult for Iraqis to manage or maintain them, a U.S. government watchdog reported Sunday. Read full article > >

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Reports faults U.S. inventory of Iraq projects

A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives attacked a funeral procession in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 22.

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Suicide Bomber Attacks Funeral Procession in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Gunmen armed with AK-47 assault rifles opened fire at an army checkpoint in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah on Saturday, killing four soldiers, according to a security official. The attack in the center of the city follows an assault six days earlier in the nearby city of Ramadi, when insurgents tried to blast their way into a police compound and set off a deadly firefight with local police. After that attack, a police major warned that insurgents might soon target Fallujah. Read full article > >

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4 Iraqi troops killed in attack in Fallujah

Zahra Nahim and Fawzi Hasab fled Baghdad when their sons were killed and have struggled in America with illness, language and poverty.

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The Neediest Cases: Iraqi Refugees Find Hardships in Brooklyn

BAGHDAD — Four U.S. Embassy workers driving through Baghdad were stopped and detained by Iraqi security forces for two hours Thursday, a day after the embassy warned that some American citizens working here had been held for days over “discrepancies in permits and paperwork.” Read full article > >

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U.S. Embassy workers detained in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — An al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group has asserted responsibility for 37 attacks in Baghdad since November, including a car-bombing inside the heavily fortified Green Zone that the group described as a failed attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Jihadist monitoring group reported Monday. Read full article > >

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Al-Qaeda-linked group asserts responsibility for 37 Baghdad attacks

When the United States invaded Iraq, it did so thinking that it could turn the country into an economic dynamo fueled on oil reserves that are among the largest in the world. “Iraq is open for business,” L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq at the time, said in 2003. But the fighting never really stopped, and the U.S. vision was never really realized. Now, with American troops gone, the question is: What can Iraq build on its own? So far — with the nation’s leaders locked in a political crisis and insurgents launching spectacular attacks — the signs are not good. Read full article > >

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Promise of Iraq’s economy remains unfulfilled

BAGHDAD — A wave of explosions struck two Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 27 people and intensifying fears that insurgents are stepping up attacks after the U.S. troop withdrawal that was completed last month. The attacks began with the explosion of a bomb attached to a motorcycle near a bus stop where day laborers gather to look for work in the Sadr city neighborhood. One of those who witnessed the attack said it filled the area with thick black smoke. Read full article > >

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Wave of bombs strikes Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, killing 27

Four explosions rock Shia areas of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killing at least 13 people, officials say.

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Baghdad hit by deadly bomb blasts

BAGHDAD — While U.S. troops left Iraq two weeks ago, Saturday marked the official end of the security agreement between the two countries, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was quick to take political advantage of the occasion via the podium and a text message to citizens. Recipients reported getting their texts over a period of at least 75 minutes. Read full article > >

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Maliki celebrates end of U.S.-Iraq pact

BAGHDAD — An al-Qaeda front group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the wave of attacks that ripped through markets, cafes and government buildings in Baghdad on a single day last week, killing 69 people and raising new worries about the country’s path. The coordinated attacks struck a dozen mostly Shiite neighborhoods on Thursday in the first major bloodshed since U.S. troops completed a full withdrawal this month after nearly nine years of war. They also coincided with a government crisis that has again strained ties between Iraq’s Sunnis and Shiites to the breaking point, tearing at the same fault line that nearly pushed Iraq into all-out civil war several years ago. Read full article > >

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Al-Qaeda front group in Iraq claims responsibility for attacks that killed 69 people last week

At least five people are killed in a suicide car bomb attack outside Iraq’s interior ministry in Baghdad.

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Fatal bomb blast at Iraq ministry

BAGHDAD – In a sign that Iraq’s political crisis isn’t letting up, the country’s Higher Judicial Council on Sunday endorsed an arrest warrant that earlier accused the country’s vice president of enlisting his body guards to run a hit squad, according to the country’s state-run television station, Iraqia. Read full article > >

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Judicial panel: Arrest warrant for Iraq’s vice president is justified