A U.S. Air Force staff sergeant and interpreter unload a sheep purchased as a gift for a promoted Iraqi police officer from the back of a U.S. combat vehicle in western Mosul, Saturday, July 30, 2005, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. U.S. forces are training some 1,500 police officers in the western half of the city.
An Iraqi man reads posters explaining the voting procedures for the upcoming mid-October constitutional referendum, Aug. 6, 2005, in Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq. Sunni Arab members of the committee drafting Iraq's new constitution rejected Kurdish demands for a federal state that day, saying such a change should not be implemented during foreign military occupation and an unstable security situation.
Sunni Muslim worshippers arrive Aug. 5, 2005, at the Abu-Hanifa Mosque in the Azamiyah area of Baghdad, Iraq, for sunset prayers, a time when most in the country's capital keep indoors in fear of random insurgent attacks.
An Iraqi woman waits to buy gasoline in Baghdad, Iraq. Despite major fuel shortages, the Sunni Arab quarter of the Azamiyah neighborhood in Baghdad displays a new sense of tranquility through its self-made security that other areas of the capital have yet to reach.
U.S. Marine Cpl. Frank Rye, left, of Hamilton, Ohio, and Lance Cpl. Benjamin Adams, right, of Worthington, Ohio, patrol in Parwana, near Haditha, Iraq, Aug. 5, 2005. Both are in the 3rd Platoon from Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment, from Ohio, which has seen many casualties this week.
An Iraqi pipeline security guard inspects a damaged oil pipeline caused by a bomb explosion, Aug. 4, 2005, in the northern town of Kirkuk, 124 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq. The pipeline passes by Kirkuk toward the Baiji refineries and is frequently under attack by insurgents from the surrounding areas.
U.S. Navy Corpsman Brendan John McGuire, left, of Manalapan, N.J., and U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Benjamin Adams of Worthington, Ohio, guard a house in Parwana, near Haditha, Iraq, Aug. 5, 2005. Adams is in the 3rd Platoon from Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment, from Ohio, which has seen many casualties this week.
A relative of Ibrahim Omar grieves over the coffins of his family who were killed in their home by unknown gunmen in the early hours of Aug. 4, 2005, in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Omar, a member of the Iraqi National Guard, was not at home when it was ambushed, killing his wife, son, and daughter, while injuring three other daughters.
A U.S. Marine inspects the remains of a vehicle destroyed by a roadside bomb Wednesday, killing 14 Marines and a civilian interpreter, in Barwana, near Haditha, Iraq, Aug. 4, 2005.
Marines inspect the remains of a vehicle destroyed by a roadside bomb Wednesday, killing 14 Marines and a civilian interpreter, in Barwana, near Haditha, Iraq, Aug. 4, 2005.
U.S. Marines inspect the remains of a vehicle destroyed by a roadside bomb Wednesday, killing 14 Marines and a civilian interpreter in Barwana, near Haditha, Iraq, Aug. 4, 2005. This was the deadliest roadside bombing suffered by American forces in the Iraq war.
Relatives of victims whose bodies were found the previous day in an open lot in Baghdad grieve during funeral services, Aug. 2, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi police discovered the bound bodies of 19 men, some of whom showed signs of torture, in an open field of garbage in the Um Al-Maalif area of south Baghdad.
An Iraqi man looks at the car of Iraqi policeman Col. Mizhir Hamad Yousif, half submerged nose first into a canal, Aug. 2, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq. Yousif was killed and his driver injured when unknown gunmen fired on the car, causing it to lose control and crash into the canal.
Neighbors look at the damage to a vehicle from a U.S. troop raid, Aug. 3, 2005, in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, Iraq. Local residents say the house was raided early Wednesday by U.S. troops and as they entered, there was an exchange of gunfire that left three Iraqi men and one Iraqi woman dead.
As Iraqi and U.S. troops secure the area, children gather to view the wreckage of a car-bomb attack, Aug. 2, 2005, in Baqouba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq. The explosion targeted an Iraqi police patrol in south Baqouba, killing one civilian and injuring two including one police officer.
Covered with white flame retardant powder, a bomb crater is seen in front of a charred U.S. military Humvee that was the target of a roadside attack, Aug. 2, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq. The bomb exploded at the entrance to a tunnel in central Baghdad, targeting a U.S. military convoy, police said.
The wrists of one of the 12 tortured bodies are seen bound with plastic tie-wraps as the bodies are brought to the Yarmouk hospital, Aug. 1, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi police discovered the bodies of 12 men in an open field of garbage in the Um Al-Maalif area of south Baghdad. Relatives of the victims say that insurgents dressed as police took the 12 men away the previous day.
Relatives break down as they try to untie the bound hands of a relative's body, at the Yarmouk hospital, Aug. 1, 2005, in Baghdad, Iraq.
Iraqi troops try to diffuse an angry mob of Iraqi army recruit applicants outside of the main recruitment center, Aug. 1, 2005, in the southern city of Basra, 340 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq. Hundreds of applicants came to Basra to enlist in the Iraqi army. When some were turned away for unknown reasons, the crowd began throwing rocks and advancing on the recruitment center.
Local shop owners sit outside shops that were bombed in the earlier morning by insurgents, Aug. 1, 2005, in the Al-Baladiyat area of Baghdad, Iraq.