News From Iraq

-To stop Iraq's slide into civil war, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a new security plan in Baghdad last week. One major problem: how to deal with the country's most powerful militia, the Mahdi Army, which has been linked to death squads responsible for a string of assassinations and kidnappings. Worse, the Mahdi Army's leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, seems to be losing his grip on the thousands of armed men who once followed his every word. "There are forces that are controlled by Moqtada, but there are commanders that are not controlled by him; there are death squads that are not controlled by him," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told NEWSWEEK. DETAILS

-Al Qaeda wants to build a political operation in Iraq to broaden its campaign against the U.S.-backed government, a top U.S. general said on Wednesday. DETAILS

-Eight people were killed and up to 28 wounded on Wednesday by a bomb in a roadside market in east Baghdad, interior ministry and police sources said. DETAILS

-Police have locked down the Iraqi holy city of Karbala after a day of violent clashes with militiamen loyal to a local Shiite cleric left at least 18 people dead. DETAILS

-Armed gangs attacked the city council and governor's office in Iraq's second largest city, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, and exchanged heavy machinegun fire with Iraqi army and police, a Reuters reporter on the scene said. British armoured vehicles were dispatched to back them up and the fighting lasted about 1-1/2 hours. One policeman killed. DETAILS

-Six insurgents killed and seven wounded in clashes between them and the police in the northern city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. DETAILS

- Gunmen wound two people late on Tuesday when they attacked them in Mussayab, police said. DETAILS


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