Iraq Photos: Jan. 31 -- Feb. 6

Ropate Naulu from Fiji, left, and Craig Heaven of Britain's Duke Of Wellington Regiment, fire Ilumination mortar rounds towards Basra, Iraq, Feb. 4, 2005, to assist troops on the ground.

Neighborhood residents look on as a guard sifts through religious papers amongst rubble at the Tawhid Mosque, which was the target of an attack in Baghdad, Iraq, Feb. 4, 2005. Gunmen entered the Shiite mosque, ordering a few guards to

Smoke rises from the controlled detonation of one of four roadside bombs found and destroyed by U.S. Army troops in Mosul, Iraq, Feb. 3, 2005.

Passers-by look at a shot-out car which had been carrying Iraqis who work on a U.S. military base in Baqouba, north of Baghdad, Feb. 3, 2005. Insurgents ambushed the vehicle, which was carrying seven people, in the center of the city of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

A U.S. Marine cries during the memorial service for 31 killed U.S. servicemen at Camp Korean Village, near Ar Rutbah, western Iraq, Feb. 2, 2005. Thirty Marines and one sailor died on Jan. 26, 2005, when their helicopter crashed near Rutbah while conducting security operations.

Iraqi soldiers move a crate of ammunition into an outpost in Mosul, Iraq, Feb. 2, 2005. With elections complete, the U.S. Army is handing over control of several security outposts to the Iraqi troops in Mosul.

Soldiers from the U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, secure the perimeter while Iraqi soldiers move supplies into an outpost in Mosul, Iraq, Feb. 2, 2005.

Soldiers of U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, search for an insurgent sniper who shot and seriously wounded an Iraqi soldier in Mosul, Iraq, Feb. 1, 2005.

Soldiers from U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, take cover while searching for an insurgent sniper who shot and seriously wounded an Iraqi soldier in Mosul, Iraq, Feb. 1, 2005.

U.S. Army soldiers guard the outside of the Camp Bucca Theater Internment Facility near Umm Qasr, southern Iraq, Feb. 1, 2005, after U.S. guards opened fire on prisoners during a riot at the main detention facility for security detainees. Four prisoners were killed, the U.S. command said, and six others were injured.

A U.S. Army soldier guards the Camp Bucca Theater Internment Facility near Umm Qasr, southern Iraq, Feb. 1, 2005.

Iraqi election officials move ballot boxes to a central collection point in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 31, 2005.

An Iraqi policeman delivers a ballot box of votes from a polling station to a central collection point in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 31, 2005.

Soldiers in the U.S. Army 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment, emerge from an armored Stryker combat vehicle for a raid on insurgent targets in Mosul, Iraq, Jan. 31, 2005, one day after national elections.

Iraqi Army soldiers celebrate in the streets of Najaf, Iraq, Jan. 31, 2005, a day after Iraq voted in their country's first free election in a half-century.

An Iraqi soldier walks past U.S. Army tanks in Mosul, Iraq, Jan. 31, 2005, one day after national elections. Jubilant Iraqis sifted through ballots tallying the results of a vote that millions hoped would restore democracy for the first time in a half-century and lead to the departure of 150,000 American troops.

A U.S. Army sniper scans the horizon through his rifle scope during a raid on insurgent targets in Mosul, Iraq, Jan. 31, 2005, one day after national elections.

Some of the 52 Iraqis who were counting Monday, Jan. 31, 2005, Iraqi absentee votes in a 50-by-20 meter hall in one of Damascus' suburbs, Duma, Syria. Eighty international observers are supervising the counting process. Some 16,500 Iraqi exiles have registered for the Iraqi elections and by the end of the polling, 90 percent of the registrants had voted.

Iraqi policemen, their vehicles decorated in celebration of Sunday's landmark election, escort a convoy of ballots from a polling station in Jisr Diala, on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 31, 2005.

Residents celebrate on the street, waving with flowers, flags and posters of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and al-Sadr in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, Jan. 31, 2005.