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Baghdad
Baghdad Bureau
Tina Susman, Bureau Chief
Tina Susman joined the Los Angeles Times in January 2007 after more than 15 years as a foreign and national correspondent with The Associated Press and Newsday. She covered sub-Saharan Africa from 1990-2001, including the end of apartheid in South Africa and the genocide in Rwanda. From 2001-2006, she was a national and international correspondent for Newsday. Her work has been recognized with awards from the Overseas Press Club, the National Association of Black Journalists, and others. Susman was a college intern at the Los Angeles Times while attending San Diego State University. She grew up in Oakland. EMAIL
Ned Parker, Correspondent
Ned Parker has reported for the Los Angeles Times in Baghdad since March. He was the chief Baghdad correspondent for The Times of London from May 2006 until spring 2007. He was previously based in Iraq from March 2003 to May 2005 as a reporter for the Agence France-Presse. Parker has filed extensively from the Gaza Strip. His first newspaper job was in 1999 with The Peninsula newspaper in Qatar. Parker shared the 2006 Narrative Prize from Narrative Magazine for a new or emerging writer for two essays on Iraq he published in Narrative. EMAIL
Alexandra Zavis, Correspondent
Alexandra Zavis joined the Times in August 2006 from the Associated Press South Africa bureau. She has worked overseas for more than a decade, reporting in 25 countries, including Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. She covered the end of apartheid in South Africa, numerous wars and coups in the rest of the continent, Afghanistan after the Taliban and the invasion of Iraq. As South Africa news editor, Alex directed coverage in 11 southern African countries. Before Johannesburg, she was a correspondent in Senegal, Ivory Coast and Cape Town. She also did a brief stint on AP's International Desk in New York and worked in Chicago for a year -- somewhat foreign postings for her, since she grew up abroad. She arrived at the Times Baghdad bureau in October. EMAILSixteen people are wounded at a Baghdad church. Christians fear renewed persecution days after U.S. forces withdrew from Iraqi cities. In Nasiriya, a bomb explodes near the U.S. ambassador's convoy.
Most of the deaths occur in a double suicide bombing in Tall Afar in Nineveh province, a region in the north where Arab-Kurd tensions have grown. It's the deadliest day since U.S. troops pulled back.
The men, whom the U.S. suspected of aiding Shiite militias and whom Iran said were diplomats, are handed over to Iraqi officials under the terms of the December security accord.
The Iraqi prime minister tells visiting Vice President Joe Biden that Iraqis must overcome their political differences on their own and that U.S. involvement would not be welcome.
The 438 Iraqis who died in violence last month include 68 members of the security forces. The sharp rise in deaths could indicate what's to come now that U.S. troops have pulled back from cities.
Iraq's public auction fails to yield contracts for seven other oil and gas fields. The outcome suggests foreign oil firms aren't as eager to invest in Iraq as the government hoped.
The blast in a market in the disputed northern city kills at least 33 people and injures 97. It comes as Iraqis mark the U.S. troop pullback, and fans doubts about future security.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is capable of frank public discourse, but some worry about his ambitions. As U.S. troops pull back, the views from Baqubah and Sadr City may offer clues to the future.
As the American era in Iraq draws to a close, recent arrests highlight a long-standing problem: ulterior motives for jailing Iraqis. The country's judiciary has ordered an investigation.
The attack at a busy motorcycle market comes a week before U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw from cities. A second blast in west Baghdad kills one person.
The attack at a marketplace in Sadr City, a Shiite neighborhood, comes less than a week before U.S. combat troops are scheduled to withdraw from most of their bases in Iraqi cities.
Kurds are refusing to accept the authority of the new provincial governor, the head of an Arab nationalist party that opposes Kurdish aspirations to join part of Nineveh with Iraqi Kurdistan.
The suicide truck bombing in a Turkmen town in the volatile Kirkuk region comes less than two weeks before U.S. forces are withdraw from Iraqi cities.
A 15-year-old boy guns down Harith Obeidi, who had just given a sermon at a Baghdad mosque. The teen kills four others before being shot to death by guards, officials say.
He was the person people always wanted to be around.
IRAQ ELECTIONS
A few young men long for the days when anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr's militia controlled the town. They say the government of Nouri Maliki hasn't done much to help them.
Woman and her husband sued Los Angeles County for finding that daughter died of AIDS-related pneumonia.
Los Angeles County Fire Capt. David Yonan arrived at the park to find it engulfed, but his perseverance helped save 131 homes.
Air Force Staff Sergeant CHRISTOPHER S. FROST
Air Force Staff Sgt. Christopher S. Frost relished his role as public affairs officer.
Marine Captain PATRICK M. RAPICAULT
Capt. Patrick M. Rapicault fell in love with the U.S. and joined the Marines. In Iraq, he seemed fearless as he cleared the streets of Anbar province for convoys.
Marine Lance Corporal GEORGE J. PAYTON
Marine Lance Cpl. George Payton's friends thought they had saved him.
Four American soldiers die in an explosion in south Baghdad on a day when more than 60 Iraqis are also killed.
At the funeral, the Chaldean patriarch urges patience for the beleaguered minority in Mosul. Some members see it as the last straw and prepare to leave.
On a day when at least 22 Iraqis die in bombing attacks, the Defense chief says it might 'make sense' to temporarily pause the reduction of U.S. forces.
Six security workers die in one day. Insurgents are targeting them because they are doing their job well, the U.S. military says.
Onetime enemies sign a statement urging a political solution to the status of Kirkuk, and to regional oil contracts.
Six Americans die in booby-trapped house in what's become the deadliest military operation in months.
The move is a sign of the religious and cultural conservatism that has taken hold since Hussein's ouster.
COLUMN ONE
For 15 months, their platoon was sent where the violence was worst. Many lost friends or faith in their mission, but 'at least we made it alive,' said one soldier.
The embassy bars officials in Baghdad from traveling by land outside the Green Zone.
A British survey offers the highest estimate to date. At least 4 die in a Sadr City car bombing.