Under mounting political pressure at home, the US military is betting all that a summer-long campaign against Al-Qaeda in Iraq will leave it in a position to begin drawing down US troops by early next year.
Roadside bombs killed seven American troops in Iraq on Saturday, including four in a single strike outside Baghdad, the military said, as U.S. and Iraqi troops captured two senior al-Qaeda militants in northern Iraq.
Nine U.S. troops were killed in Iraq on Saturday, bringing the U.S. military death toll so far in June to 79, the military reported.
Eight American servicemen and one British soldier were reported Saturday to have been killed in Iraq, bringing the four-day death toll to at least 25.
Britain's next prime minister, Gordon Brown, reportedly wants to reverse a law introduced under current premier Tony Blair which restricts anti-Iraq war protests outside parliament.
As of Saturday, June 23, 2007, at least 3,555 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,903 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Roadside bombs killed seven American troops in Iraq on Saturday, including four in a single strike outside Baghdad, the military said, as U.S. and Iraqi troops captured two senior al-Qaida militants in northern Iraq.
BAGHDAD, June 23 -- Eight U.S. soldiers died Saturday in Iraq, including seven killed in roadside bombings, the U.S. military said, bringing to 30 the number of U.S. servicemen whose deaths were announced in the past six days.
The Bush administration will seek a range of views beyond the report by the American commander in Iraq.
The Iraqi High Tribunal is set to give its verdict on Sunday on six former aides of Saddam Hussein accused of slaughtering 182,000 Kurdish villagers during a 1988 military campaign in northern Iraq.