Iraq in photos

Iraqis gather around a car destroyed in a suicide attack at a security checkpoint in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Eight people were killed, Anbar provincial police said. Attacks elsewhere killed nine people.  (Azhar Shallal / AFP/Getty Images)

Baghdad residents enjoy a song by Qassim Sultan. As a Sunni, who is associated with Saddam Hussein‘s son Uday, Sultan feels wary on returning to Baghdad.   (Saad Khalaf / Los Angeles Times)

Iraqi soldiers on duty in central Baghdad. The U.S. military still provides assistance in such areas as aerial surveillance, medical evacuations and forensics.  (Khalid Mohammed / Associated Press)

A driver gives a flower to an Iraqi soldier on June 30, the day U.S. troops pulled out Iraqi cities under a security pact. The Iraqi government has kept U.S. forces out of cities since, making no requests for help, even with major attacks.  (Nabil al-Jurani / Associated Press)

Mourners carry the coffin of Abdul Aziz Hakim in Baghdad during a two-day funeral procession. Thousands poured into the streets of the Iraqi capital Friday to pay their respects to the revered Shiite leader who died of complications from lung cancer.  (Loay Hameed / Associated Press)

Iraqis gather as firefighters respond to a massive bomb attack near the Foreign Ministry in Baghdad.  (Khalid Mohammed / Associated Press)

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry, amid rubble. Officials said that Wednesday’s death toll could rise as bodies are counted, and that one major hospital had closed its doors to casualties because it was swamped. Streets were sealed off across the city, bringing life in many areas to a standstill.  (Muhannad Fala’ah / Getty Images)

in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Waziriyah, Iraqi police inspect the damage to the Mohammad Qassem bridge. The bombings came at a time when the insurgency appears to be making a concerted effort to undermine faith in the ability of the Iraqi army and police to sustain security.  (Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty Images)

“I think they’d all feel more comfortable with us there,” U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno, pictured in June, says of Kurds and Arabs in a restive area of northern Iraq.  (Hadi Mizban / Associated Press)

People inspect the damage in Baghdad. Bombings have focused criticism on Iraqi forces responsible for protecting the cities since U.S. forces pulled back.  (Hadi Mizban / Associated Press)

A jockey heads to the track at the Baghdad Equestrian Club, where Iraqis check political and religious tensions at the door.
More photos >>>  (Saad Khalaf / Los Angeles Times)

A jockey inspects his horse at the Baghdad Equestrian Club.  (Saad Khalaf / Los Angeles Times)

Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher was shot down on the first night of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.  (Barry Hull / Associated Press)

Hassan Ghazi, 77, is a resident of the Mercy Home for the Elderly in Baghdad.  (Saad Khalaf / Los Angeles Times)

At the Shurufi mosque in Baghdad, a car bomb killed 24 people as worshipers were leaving Friday prayers.  (Ahmad al-Rubaye / AFP/Getty Images)

An Iraqi man walks past cars destroyed in a car bomb explosion in a parking lot next to a Shiite mosque in the neighborhood of Zafaraniyah in Baghdad. A string of powerful bomb attacks, targeting Shiite Muslim worshippers as they emerged from five mosques across Baghdad, killed at least 28 people and wounded dozens of others, security officials said.  (Hadi Mizban / Associated Press)

People gather at the site of a car bomb explosion in a parking lot next to a Shiite mosque in the neighborhood of Shaab in Baghdad.  (Karim Kadim / Associated Press)

Iraqis walk past cars destroyed in a car bomb explosion in a parking lot next to a Shiite mosque in the neighborhood of Zafaraniyah in Baghdad.  (Hadi Mizban / Associated Press)

Campaign posters hang behind Iraqi Kurdish men sipping tea outside a shop in Irbil a day after the provincial elections. Turnout was put at 78.5%, and early results showed the opposition Change list made a strong showing, getting 25% of the vote.  (Safin Hamed / AFP/Getty Images)

Masks help make the dust a little more bearable in Baghdad.  (Hadi Mizban / Associated Press)

An Iraqi man is treated for breathing problems after a dust storm in Baghdad. Even the slightest wind can whip up a pall of dust that lingers for days.  (Karim Kadim / Associated Press)

Supporters of the Change list parade in Sulaymaniya, in Iraq?s semiautonomous Kurdish region. The grass-roots movement has tapped into disaffection with the government, run by the same two parties for 18 years and widely believed to be corrupt. The parties, which ran virtually unopposed in 2005, have been trying to rally voters.  (Asso Ahmed / For The Times)

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, seen attending a recent meeting with tribal leaders in Baghdad, will visit the U.S. this week.  (Ali al-Saadi / AFP/Getty Images)

An Iraqi army soldier sweeps inside a Christian church in central Baghdad after two bombs detonated overnight.  (Hadi Mizban / Associated Press)

Wounded arrive at a Baghdad hospital after a roadside bomb attack in the Iraqi capital’s Sadr City district.  (Karim Kadim / Associated Press)

Residents of Tall Afar, Iraq, inspect the wreckage of a house where a double suicide bombing killed 34 people.  (Nawras Al-Taei / EPA)

Iraqis clamber over the smoldering wreckage of a car bomb at a vegetable market in Shoraja, a Kurdish section of Kirkuk. The attack came on the day that Iraqis celebrated the U.S. troop withdrawal from towns and cities across Iraq, six years after the U.S.-led invasion.
More photos >>>  (Marwan Ibrahim / AFP/Getty Images)

Iraqi Honor Guards get ready for a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Baghdad.  (Karim Kadim / Associated Press)

U.S. soldiers take a break in the shade at Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baqubah.  (Maya Alleruzzo / Associated Press)

Iraqi forces march with their national colors.  (Karim Kadim / Associated Press)

Iraqi soldiers parade in the city of Karbala.  (Mohammed Sawaf / AFP / Getty Images)

Iraqi security troops in the western city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, celebrate taking over from withdrawing U.S. troops. There were no dramatic last-minute scenes of the American military pulling out of urban bases to meet Tuesday?s deadline.  (Karim Kadim / Associated Press)

Motorcycles are removed after the bombing at a Baghdad motorcycle market frequented by both Sunnis and Shiites. The explosion struck near one of Baghdad’s main Sunni mosques.  (ALI AL-SAADI, AFP/Getty Images)

Maj. Issa Herki, an Iraqi Kurd, near a peshmerga guard post outside Mosul.  (Liz Sly / Los Angeles Times)

Men dig graves for victims of the massive truck bombing in Taza Khurmatu, a mostly Shiite Turkmen town about 10 miles south of Kirkuk. Islamic tradition calls for swift burial.  (Marwan Ibrahim / AFP/Getty Images)