BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi police commandos captured the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq in a raid in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said Thursday, in what could mark a significant blow to the Sunni insurgency in its last urban stronghold.  

BAGHDAD (AP) -- About 3,500 American soldiers who were part of last year's troop "surge" are scheduled to leave Iraq in the coming weeks, the U.S. military announced. 

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A car bomb aimed at a U.S. patrol in Baghdad on Thursday killed at least nine Iraqi civilians and wounded 26, police said. 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- White House officials this week privately cautioned lawmakers not to go too far in restricting U.S. aid to Iraq, warning that doing so might only prolong the war, now in its sixth year. 

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The killings of three U.S. soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad pushed the American death toll for April up to 47, making it the deadliest month since September. 

WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD, Hawaii (AP) -- A Hawaii-based soldier accused of killing an unarmed Iraqi last year admitted Thursday to shooting the man. But he said it happened when the man was in the backyard of a house his platoon had just raided in search of insurgents.  

BAGHDAD (AP) -- U.S. troops killed 12 militants during an "uptick" in fighting Sunday, the military said, as fierce clashes broke out in Baghdad's Sadr City district after radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned he will declare war if a crackdown against his followers persists. 

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Al-Qaida's No. 2 said in an audiotape released Friday that the United States will lose whether it stays in Iraq or withdraws, and he sneered that President Bush just wants to pass the problem on to his successor. 

BAGHDAD (AP) -- An attack on a U.S. convoy sparked a large fire in an eastern Baghdad market Monday, as gunmen in Basra assassinated a police commander who was also a senior member of a leading Shiite political party, officials said.  

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Republican John McCain insists last year's U.S. troop buildup in Iraq brought a glimmer of "something approaching normal" there, despite a recent outbreak of heavy fighting and an American death toll that has surpassed 4,000. 

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi security forces say a large explosion demolished a building in the southern city of Basra. At least three militants were killed and four were wounded. 

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi police say a suicide bomber has struck a funeral for a Sunni police officer north of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people and wounding eight. 

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A U.S. airstrike destroyed a house in the southern city of Basra, killing a militant, the U.S. military said Thursday, and Iraqi witnesses and hospital officials said at least three civilians were among the dead. 

FORT RILEY, Kan. (AP) -- Another Florida soldier has died in Iraq. The Defense Department identified the Fort Riley-based soldier as 23-year-old Private First Class Patrick Miller of New Port Richey. 

BAGHDAD (AP) -- When American soldiers get off duty in Iraq, the men usually return to their quarters, the women to theirs. But Staff Sgt. Marvin Frazier gets to go back to a small trailer with two pushed-together single beds that he shares with his wife.