U.S. troops sweat through Iraqi summer
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After a long day searching homes in suffocating Iraqi heat, Lance Cpl. Mike Wilson saw a most surprising source of relief &#151; a sprawling Wal-Mart had appeared in the distance.
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A convoy of troop trucks and  Humvee patrol vehicles speed for safety across an arid stretch  of Iraq under a hot sun, wind whipping past their windows.
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The U.S. military commander in Iraq said on Thursday he currently saw no immediate need to request more U.S. troops other than those already announced, but they would need to stay "well beyond the summer".
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The U.S. Army is showing growing   signs of strain as it tries to sustain troop levels in Iraq and   Afghanistan, including stress on soldiers, lower unit   readiness, equipment shortfalls and money worries.
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BAGHDAD, July 4 -- As U.S. troops in some bases marked the Fourth of July holiday, two Americans were reported killed in separate incidents, one when a helicopter went down in Nineveh province north of Baghdad and the second during combat operations in southern Baghdad.
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Competent Iraqi security forces and a deluge of tips from residents have helped U.S. troops tamp down violence in northern Iraq despite an influx of al-Qaida fighters responsible for occasional spectacular attacks, U.S. officials say.
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September was one of the deadliest  months for U.S. troops in the 18-month-old war in Iraq, and the  death toll for the first time has risen four straight months.
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NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq  - U.S. Marines thousands of  miles from home in Iraq face ruthless insurgents, a  debilitating desert climate and tasteless food. But they dread  nothing more than opening the Dear John letter.
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BAGHDAD -- Several dozen soldiers and embassy staff members relaxed on the patio around Saddam Hussein's old swimming pool, shivering in the desert chill, as a boombox blared Latin rhythms over the racket of low-flying helicopters. It was Salsa Night in the Green Zone, but on a Friday evening in ...
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FURAT, Iraq -- With a biker's bandan a tied under his helmet, the special forces team sergeant gunned a Humvee down a desert road in Iraq's volatile Anbar Province. Skirting the restive town of Hit, the team of a dozen soldiers crossed the Euphrates River into an oasis of relative calm: the rural heartland of the powerful Albu Nimr tribe.
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BAGHDAD  - As the Iraqi government tried to warm up to the Sunni Arab minority ahead of January polls, its troops continued joint raids with US forces against insurgent bastions across the country.
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When tensions rose between U.S. troops and Iraqi insurgents this summer, members of Ramstein's 32nd Falconer Air Operations Center made sure American GIs got the air support they needed.
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Troops at Camp Fallujah and Camp Cooke in Iraq were able to watch Saturday's telecast of the annual basketball game between Kentucky and Louisville.
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Iraq has been plagued by electrical shortages since the U.S. invasion, but the blackouts have gotten worse this summer. Besides decaying infrastructure and insurgent attacks, a bumbling bureaucracy and local power rebellions are to blame.
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The streets of Baghdad are filled with anxiety and war-weariness -- much of it hinging on whether U.S. troops should go. Some say the sooner they get out, the better. Others say the Americans are needed to prevent a sectarian bloodbath.
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Military statistics show that U.S. forces have made some headway at protecting the Iraqi population, but there are questions over whether the gains can be sustained.
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Pentagon figures show that the training of Iraqi military and police units has improved since the summer but that those forces will not be prepared to undertake security missions on their own until late 2006 at the earliest, according to a study released yesterday by the Center for Strategic &#38; International Studies.