al-Qaeda in Iraq

(Newser) - It definitely is the worst of times in Iraq, the New York Times and the Washington Post seem to agree, but today, the nation's most prestigious dailies differed on the details. One fact is indisputable: Sunni insurgents clashed in Baghdad's Amiriya district this week, but the papers disagree on the...

(Newser) - U.S. troops freed 42 kidnapped Iraqis from an al Qaeda hideout in Diyala province, north of Baghdad yesterday. Some of the prisoners had been tortured for months, including some who had broken bones and had been hung from the ceiling, AP reports. One captive said he was 14 years...

(Newser) - The Iraqi government is becoming impotent and irrelevant as the country stumbles toward fragmentation and collapse, a new report by a British think tank concludes. The matter-of-fact name, "Accepting Realities in Iraq," belies the grim verdict that large areas are under the control of local factions rather than...