Police and hospital officials say a bomb has exploded in a building used by a Sunni-backed political group north of Baghdad, killing at least seven people and wounding 10.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday he sees “some chance of a modest acceleration” in the pace of U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates got a firsthand look Tuesday at the future of the U.S. military mission in southern Iraq.

The total cost of the U.S. response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would top $1 trillion under a Pentagon funding bill approved by a key House panel.

The U.S. military said Friday that three soldiers were killed in an attack on a base outside Iraq’s second largest city of Basra, in the south.

Heavy combat in Iraq where U.S. soldiers witnessed the deaths of many fellow troops may have contributed to hostile behavior by Colorado-based veterans accused or implicated in 11 slayings back home.

Two suicide bombers on Thursday killed at least 34 people and injured 70 in an attack on the home of an anti-terrorism officer in northern Iraq, while three roadside bombs in Baghdad killed seven others, authorities said.

Victims of traumatic events sometimes get so hung up thinking about what happened to them that they can’t let go of their torment. Rigid, “black-and-white kinds of thoughts” play over and over in their minds and keep them from moving forward in life, says University of Richmond researcher Kristen P. Lindgren. “Those kinds of thoughts can keep people stuck in their lives,“ she said.

Stephen Colbert will broadcast four shows next week from Baghdad, where he says he’ll be “Bob Hoping” it for the troops.

An Iraqi man accused in the 2004 kidnapping and slaying of British aid worker Margaret Hassan has been sentenced to life in prison.

A Fredericksburg man who was an Army Ranger died Wednesday of wounds received by small-arms fire in central Iraq. Cpl. Ryan C. McGhee, 21, and his unit were conducting operations to rid Iraq of a weapons facilitator and suicide-bomber cell known to be operating in the area when they came under attack, the Army said in a statement. McGhee was an automatic rifleman assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Benning, Ga.

A U.S. Army sergeant shot and killed five fellow soldiers after an altercation at a counseling center on a military base yesterday, officials said. The attack drew attention to the issue of combat stress and morale among soldiers serving multiple combat tours over six years of war.

Sport sometimes enters a soldier’s day without being invited. Such an episode occurred when Army Captain Brett Prillaman strolled into the mess facility at his base in Baghdad, Iraq, last December. “All they have open at that time of day”—between lunch and dinner—“is a sandwich bar,“ he said. “And you have to get the sandwich ‘to go.‘ I decided to sit down at a shaded picnic table to eat my lunch. Two other soldiers were sitting there eating, and there was a third lunch there, unattended. Both soldiers were grinning as I sat down and started to eat. I asked them what they were grinning about. They both said that in about two minutes, I’d find out.“

Fun and games? That depends upon who’s playing. And where. And when. Sports played by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan sometimes test not only the athletic ability but also the toughness and tolerance of those who participate. “There are some very competitive guys” serving in Iraq, said Army Capt. Brett Prillaman, an alumnus of Midlothian High School and Virginia Military Institute. “Anytime you get together with a bunch of young, competitive soldiers who are trying to vent some combat stress, it can get pretty rough.“

Attended: Goochland High School, VMI
  Service branch: Army (captain)
  Served in: Iraq
  Currently: Reassigned last summer to the Virginia National Guard. Works with the State Corporation Commission’s Division of Utility and Railroad Safety.
  When duty no longer calls: Angle intends to maintain his level of fitness by riding his road and mountain bikes and by visiting the gym on his schedule, not Uncle Sam’s. During his 15 months in Iraq, he said, “those of us who were constantly going out on missions had a harder time utilizing the available (athletic and conditioning) assets.“