The city is the capital of the volatile Diyala Province, where two suicide truck bombers on April 23 killed nine U.S. soldiers and wounded some 20 others.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced today that its forces killed a senior Al-Qaeda leader northwest of Baghdad in an operation late last week.
(compiled from agency reports)
On The Verge Of Civil War
The Imam Al-Mahdi Army on parade (epa)
HAS THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ BECOME A CIVIL WAR? Many observers have concluded that the tit-for-tat sectarian violence that emerged after the February 2006 bombing of a mosque in Samarra has become a full-blown civil war.... (more)
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THE COMPLETE PICTURE: Click on the image to view RFE/RL's complete coverage of events in Iraq and that country's ongoing transition.