Iraq

BAGHDAD, Jan 22 (Reuters) - U.S. forces hunting kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll are raiding Iraqi homes in a race against time but, as with much of their counter-insurgency war, face the dilemma that their tactics can foster resentment. Operations designed to take her captors by surprise have angered those Iraqis who say troops have blasted their way into their homes, put sacks over...

Iraq has recommended that US authorities release six of the eight Iraqi women in military custody, but has denied that it was part of a bid to free a kidnapped American journalist, according to Al-Jazeera. The kidnappers of Jill Carroll have threatened to kill her unless all Iraqi women detainees are freed by Friday, January 20. WILL HER DEADLINE BE MET? Christian Science Monitor freelancer Jill...

MOSUL, Iraq -- The Iraqi informant is a new source, but his tip seems solid: The chief financier of a Mosul terrorist cell, a gas station owner, lives in the neighborhood. He is wealthy enough to afford two armed guards to accompany his son to Mosul University. Now, at 1:13 a.m., under a light drizzle, 25-year-old Lt. Mark Brogan and 13 men from his platoon crouch behind a wall, waiting for the...

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), the former Marine who is an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, has become the latest Democrat to have his Vietnam War decorations questioned. In a tactic reminiscent of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth assault on Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) during the 2004 presidential campaign, a conservative Web site yesterday quoted Murtha opponents as questioning the...

A Dubai newspaper is reporting that one of its journalists in Iraq was held captive for five days in December before being freed by US troops during a chance raid on an insurgent hideout. English-language UAE daily Emirates Today said its correspondent Phil Sands, a 28-year-old Briton, was kidnapped by unknown gunmen on December 26 from a Baghdad neighbourhood as he travelled with a local driver...

Will yesterday's in-your-face decision by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, Iraq's most influential Shiite leader, to renege on his pledge to amend the new Constitution in a manner acceptable to Sunnis be the shove in the back that sends Iraq over the brink into all-out civil war? It certainly has that potential. Before the constitution was put to a vote in October, Sunnis were threatening to boycott the...

Last weekend an American special task force unit raided my house. It was precisely the kind of terrifying experience I have had described to me over and over again by Iraqis I have interviewed in the past two-and-a-half years. My wife, Zina, described it as like something out of a Hollywood action movie. It began at half past midnight on Saturday when explosives blew apart the three entrances to...

International press freedom organisations have expressed alarm at the abduction of American journalist Jill Carroll in Baghdad, and the murder of her interpreter. Carroll, a freelancer on assignment in Iraq for the Christian Science Monitor, was kidnapped on January 7 by unidentified gunmen in the Adil neighborhood of western Baghdad with her interpreter, Allan Enwiyah. KIDNAPPED AND KILLED...

Jill Carroll, a freelance writer currently on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor, was abducted in western Baghdad on Saturday morning, local time. Her Iraqi interpreter was fatally wounded in the kidnapping. Her Iraqi driver escaped unharmed. At this point, no one has claimed responsibility. Jill, 28, is an established journalist who has been reporting from the Middle East for Jordanian...

Gunmen kidnapped a female American journalist and killed her Iraqi translator Saturday in western Baghdad, according to agencies. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the translator told police before he died that the abduction took place when he and the journalist were heading to meet Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front, in the Adel neighborhood of the city. The gunmen...