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Baghdad
Ned Parker, Correspondent
Ned Parker has reported for the Times in Baghdad since March 2007. He was the chief Baghdad correspondent for The Times of London from 2006-2007. He was previously based in Iraq from 2003-2005 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. EMAILMost 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 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.
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.
The men were detained last week in connection with the slaying of American contractor Jim Kitterman. The men are free on bail, but may not leave Iraq. Two other Americans are still being held.
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.
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.
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.
Onetime enemies sign a statement urging a political solution to the status of Kirkuk, and to regional oil contracts.
The embassy bars officials in Baghdad from traveling by land outside the Green Zone.