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The sounds of cars honking, shoppers shuffling and children laughing and playing drums fill the air in Hurriyah, a Baghdad neighborhood where machine gunfire and death squads once kept terrified residents huddled in their darkened homes.
Iran's presence is already visible in Iraq, from the droves of pilgrims at Shiite holy sites to the brands of yoghurt and jams on grocery shelves. But now Iraqis are bracing for a potential escalation of Persian influence as the U.S. military leaves at the end of the year.
The U.S. is abandoning plans to keep U.S. troops in Iraq past a year-end withdrawal deadline, The Associated Press has learned. The decision to pull out fully by January will effectively end more than eight years of U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, despite ongoing concerns about its security forces and the potential for instability.
For U.S. Army Pfc. Walter Stiles, the road out of Iraq begins by kicking tires on a dusty military base near the village where Saddam Hussein was born and buried.
Budget battles are the latest roadblock delaying a decision by Baghdad on how many U.S. troops it might request stay in Iraq, although a top government official predicts the American military will remain as a training force beyond a year-end departure deadline.
As a Shiite Muslim who was interrogated by Iraq's secret police and lost her job because she would not join the regime's Baath Party, Fawzia al-Attia should feel safer now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power. She does not.
Frequent bombings, assassinations and a resurgence in violence by Shiite militias have made Iraq more dangerous now than it was just a year ago, a U.S. government watchdog concludes in a report released Saturday.
Iraqi officials say a roadside bomb targeting a security patrol has killed one policeman and a passer-by in western Baghdad.
Iraq's prime minister told a senior Iranian envoy Wednesday that their economic bonds can expand in all directions as Baghdad signaled deepening ties with its anti-American neighbor despite worries from Washington and Arab allies.
The White House is offering to keep up to 10,000 troops in Iraq next year, U.S. officials say, despite opposition from many Iraqis and key Democratic Party allies who demand that President Barack Obama bring home the American military as promised.
At times, as he describes how he sleeps on the floor of the store where he works or misses the family he left in Nepal to find a job, Mohan Rai punctuates his gloomy tale with a laugh.
The Obama administration is ready to play ball on keeping thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq beyond this year. But for Iraq's government, in the words of one lawmaker, the issue is like playing with fire.
Make no mistake, Mazin al-Nazeni hates Americans. Soldiers, diplomats, oilmen — the militant leader in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, considers all of them to be Enemy No. 1.
Twenty-five percent of the world's unexploded land mines are buried in Iraq, making it one of the most contaminated countries, the environment ministry said Tuesday.
The American invasion of Iraq was supposed to take only a few months: a quick blitz to depose dictator Saddam Hussein, find and dismantle weapons of mass destruction and go home.
The White House says the U.S. combat mission in Iraq is over, but Army Lt. Daniel McCord and his fellow American soldiers feel anything but safe.
American diplomats and other mission employees may not be safe in Iraq if the U.S. military withdraws its remaining 50,000 troops and leaves the volatile country at the end of the year as planned, according to a new Senate report released Tuesday.
The new Iraqi government was settling in. The Americans sounded ready to pull out their troops as promised. Even the Iraqi soccer team was winning. The winter days in Baghdad were sunny with a whiff of hope in the air.
Officials say roadside bombs targeting Iraq security forces have killed two civilians in Baghdad.
A broad plan to absorb Sunni Muslim militiamen who battled al-Qaida in Iraq into national security forces or government jobs is at risk of being derailed by lukewarm political support and limited funding, officials say.
New documents detailing alleged prisoner abuse by Iraqi security officials prompted fresh doubts Saturday about Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's bid to remain in power for a second term.
The Iraqi prime minister's political opponents demanded Thursday that parliament hold a special session to investigate claims that prisoners have been tortured by his government.
A new U.S. military tally puts the death toll of Iraqi civilians and security forces in the bloodiest years of the war thousands below Iraqi government figures.
On any map, this castle-like fort is located in Iran. But war, time and drifting desert sands have blurred the border, and for now, Iraqi guards stoutly defend Qutaiba as theirs.
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