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BAGHDAD -Twin explosions ripped through a crowded Iraqi market in a city southeast of Baghdad, killing 34 people and shattering what had been a relatively peaceful holy month of Ramadan. The blasts in Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, went off as construction workers were gathered in a market selling generators and other appliances. Police spokesman Lt. Col. Dhurgam Mohammed Hassan said the first bomb went off in a freezer used to keep drinks cold. Then as rescuers and onlookers gathered, a parked car bomb exploded. The top medical official in the province where Kut is located, Diaa...

More than 180 Iraqi patients were seen and treated during a combined medical engagement in Kut, April 2. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Joe Thompson, Multi-National Division - South East. FOB DELTA — The combined medical engagement team of 41st Fires Brigade visited the Hawraa Clinic in Kut to share knowledge and conduct joint medical screenings with Iraqi medical personnel, April 2.The visit is part of Operation Gunner Med, a joint medical civil-military operation between the Wasit Director General of Health and 41st Fires Brigade, designed to restore medical service capacity in Wasit and bring medical care up to the...

Cpl. Eric S. Lewis, a team leader with the 511th Military Police Company, loads a box of Halal meals on an Iraqi Police vehicle at Forward Operating Base Delta March 28. The IPs received a total of 2,400 meals and 1,440 bottles of water from the 214th Fires Brigade. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Carlos J. Lazo. AL KUT — Coalition forces provided more than 2,000 meals and 1,000 bottles of water to al Kut Iraqi policemen March 28-29.Because of the security situation and an imposed curfew, grocery stores and other food outlets were closed, said Sgt. 1st Class...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 1/2/08 - Baghdad, Amariyah Volunteers, Baquba, Basra, Bayji, Chagmalai, South Waziristan, Diwaniya, Hadid, Kut, USS Harry S. Truman, Babur, Ghazni, Kabul, Forward Operating Base Kalsu, Dijlah, Babur BREAKING: Baquba - Terrorists taken out - Cache and terrorists taken BREAKING: Basra, Iraq - Weapons cache seized. 5 Terrorists taken. BREAKING: Bayji - Terrorists taken out BREAKING: Chagmalai, South Waziristan - Involvement denied BREAKING: Diwaniya - 126 terrorists and weapons cache taken in three-week operation BREAKING: Hadid - Cache and 12 terrorists taken. Bodies of 17 civilians murdered by terrorists recovered. BREAKING: Kut -...

KUT, Iraq - American commanders in southern Iraq say Shiite sheiks are showing interest in joining forces with the U.S. military against extremists, in much the same way that Sunni clansmen in the western part of the country have worked with American forces against al-Qaida. Sheik Majid Tahir al-Magsousi, the leader of the Migasees tribe here in Wasit province, acknowledged tribal leaders have discussed creating a brigade of young men trained by the Americans to bolster local security as well as help patrol the border with Iran. He also said last week's assassination of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, who spearheaded the...

KUT, Iraq, Dec. 9, 2005 – With its 9,800-foot runway, one of Saddam Hussein's premier air bases was in Kut, Iraq, near the Tigris River midway between Baghdad and Kuwait. Today, the coalition defense team has commandeered the base's strategic position. The U.S. Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence contracted with ECC International a year ago to build an Iraqi police cadet academy at Kut. With Iraq's training needs critical to the U.S. mission's eventual completion, the site has morphed into a triple training facility. Recruits for the Department of Border Enforcement have now begun training at Kut, as have...

Police in Iraq say they have found the bodies of 36 men dumped in a shallow river near the town of Kut, south-east of the capital, Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The first executions in Iraq since the ousting of Saddam Hussein will take place within days, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said -- in what could be an ominous sign for the jailed former dictator. "The president (Jalal Talabani) has signed three death sentences and the next few days will see the first executions in Kut," 175 kilometers (110 miles) south of Baghdad, Jaafari told reporters on Tuesday. Three members of the Al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Sunna were sentenced to death in May, a verdict later approved by the Supreme Council for Justice, the highest judicial authority in Iraq....

BAUMHOLDER, Germany — It was a hell of a show, and Lt. Col. T.C. Williams had a front-row seat. From his Bradley fighting vehicle, Williams had the perfect view as he directed the battle of Kut during which 1st Armored Division Task Force soldiers fought to retake Kut, south of Baghdad, from Mahdi Army militia. “I could see who was shooting whom. Streams of colors coming across the river — both ways,” said Williams, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment. A night fight: hypnotizing, deadly and crucial. If his Task Force 2-6 troops could secure bridges over the...

Baghdad, 15 June (AKI) - Iraqi police in the city of Kut, south of Baghdad, have arrested some 39 alleged members of the terrorist group Ansar al-Sunna in various operations over the past weeks. A security official told the US-funded Radio Sawa that among those detained was an Egyptian citizen and the driver of a leading terrorist being sought by the Iraqi authorities. The operations which led to the arrests were carried out between 30 May and 13 June.

US moves to crush Shia uprising Fighting has intensified in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf as US marines vowed to defeat a week-long uprising by supporters of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr. Tanks backed by helicopter gunships moved to seal off the Imam Ali Shrine in the centre of the city on Thursday. US aircraft and artillery pounded a nearby cemetery where militiamen have taken up positions in recent days. American forces also targeted militias in Kut, east of Najaf, where at least 72 people are reported killed. US and Iraqi forces have been battling Mr Sadr's Mehdi militia in...

KUT, Iraq (AFP) - Heavy overnight US bombing of Kut killed 75 people and wounded nearly 150, adding to 24 hours of violence which left 165 people dead and nearly 600 wounded across the country. Iraq's health ministry said Thursday the dead included 44 in Baghdad clashes, 25 in the fighting at the holy city of Najaf, 14 in Amara and seven in Diwaniya, as well as the casualties in Kut. Kut hospital director Khader Fadal Arar said many of the dead and wounded were women and children. "We have 75 killed and 148 wounded, according to what the hospitals...

US marines have been engaged in fierce fighting against Shiite rebels in the centre of the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, with heavy machine-gun and tank fire targeting militiamen loyal to the rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr. Meanwhile, at least 72 people were killed and 148 wounded on Thursday in US air raids and fighting between the Iraqi police and Shiite militia in the southern city of Kut, an Iraqi Health Ministry official said. Plumes of smoke were visible from the historic heart of Najaf, which holds the tomb of Imam Ali, who is revered by Shiites worldwide. Warplanes...

Fallujah, Iraq - A U.S. AC-130 gunship raked Iraqi insurgents Friday night after hundreds of women and children fled the besieged city Fallujah during a U.S.-declared pause in the marine offensive. On the anniversary of the fall of captive Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's regime, Baghdad and parts of central Iraq were chaotic. At a square in the capital where Saddam's statue was toppled a year ago, soldiers took down a new icon: pictures of the radical Shiite Muslim cleric whose followers have risen up against coalition forces in the south. Gunmen running rampant on Baghdad's western edge attacked a fuel...

General: U.S. forces still fighting to retake Kut U.S. forces are engaging in heavy fighting to retake the southern Iraqi city of Kut and are still in the process of securing the town, a U.S. general returning from the city told CNN today. Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling said units from the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad have been deployed south to battle the Mehdi Army -- the banned militia loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

<p>BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military has halted offensive operations in the hostile Iraqi city of Fallujah (search), it announced on Friday, the first anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.</p> <p>The halt was called at noon local time to let humanitarian aid into the city and allow a delegation of city leaders to meet with U.S. commanders. There has not yet been a response to this latter offer, Fox News has learned.</p>

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. forces Friday said they had retaken most of a key southern city from a rebellious Shiite militia, and an American-declared halt to fighting in the embattled city of Fallujah was undercut by bursts of gunfire on the first anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. On the western edge of Baghdad insurgents hit a fuel convoy, killing one U.S. soldier and an Iraqi driver the military reported. A Baghdad correspondent for the Arab satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera said the convoy had been carrying fuel near Al-Amiriyah and that not fewer than nine people were killed in the attack....

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S.-led coalition forces have retaken control of the southern Iraqi city of Kut, a military spokeswoman said Friday. The spokeswoman had no other information about how troops regained control of the city, which had been overrun by a militia led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. On Thursday, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. general in Iraq (news - web sites), vowed that coalition forces would move "imminently" to break al-Sadr's hold over Kut, 95 miles southeast of Baghdad, and destroy his al-Mahdi Army militia across the country in a new operation dubbed "Resolute Sword."...

The US military admitted today that it has lost control of two cities to Shia militants as fience fighting continued to rage across Iraq. Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez said today that coalition troops in Najaf and Kut had been fought back by militants loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.He said coalition leaders-Ukrainians in Kut and Spaniards in Najaf-had retreated to bases on the outskirts of their cities, effectively ceding control to the Shia fighters.He vowed to retake Kut 'immediately' while conceding that the large number of pilgrims in the holy city of Najaf for a religious festival could hamper any...

KIEV, April 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine's Defence Ministry insisted on Thursday it had no plans to withdraw its troops from Iraq despite fierce attacks earlier this week that forced its soldiers to pull out of the southern city of Kut. "The issue of pulling out troops is not being considered now," a spokesman said. "The Ukrainian mission was a peacekeeping one and they (the soldiers) had only light weapons but if there is a need, we do not rule out the possibility of thinking about sending additional equipment for them." Ukrainian troops pulled out of Kut on Wednesday after one...