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"Three car bombs blasted through security checkpoints ringing the Iraqi holy city of Karbala on Thursday and killed at least 51 people, most of whom were Shiite pilgrims headed to observe yearly religious rituals," the Associated Press reports.According to the BBC, "the blasts happened on two rout

"A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest in a crowd of police recruits on Tuesday, killing at least 45 people, officials said, undercutting Iraqi security efforts as the nation struggles to show it can protect itself without foreign help," the Associated Press now writes.The number of p

The flames of sectarian violence have died down in Iraq, but Sunni-Shiite tensions still exist. One's sect is still an important part of one's identity.

In Baghdad, ever since the brutal sectarian war in 2006 and 2007, the city has become a collection of enclaves, where, for the most part, Shiites live with Shiites and Sunnis live with Sunnis. This kind of separation is what happens after a civil war.

In Iraq, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has returned home after nearly four years in exile.

As Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki settles in for a second term, he's begun to talk tough on the final withdrawal of American troops, scheduled for the end of this year.It's long been assumed that the withdrawal deadline of December 2011 would be renegotiated -- that Iraq might need some kind o