Middle Orient

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Gunmen, some on rooftops, ambushed Shiite pilgrims walking in their tens of thousands to a sacred shrine for a major festival in Baghdad, killing up to 20 and wounding more than 300, Iraqi officials said.

SEWSENAN (Reuters) — Saddam Hussein and six former commanders will go today on trial in Baghdad on charges of killing tens of thousands of Kurdish villagers in a genocidal campaign that devastated northern Iraq 18 years ago.

DEIR QUANUN AN-NAHR, Lebanon — The low murmur began as the coffins were taken from waiting vans and hoisted onto the shoulders of dozens of young men. By the time the nine corpses were carried half a kilometre to the cemetery in this southern Lebanese town, it had reached a …

Taliban ambushed a convoy of coalition and Afghan National Army forces and destroyed their 10 vehicles in Panjwai district of Kandahar province. After a while Taliban attacked three security posts in the area which were demolished. 

The United States has named a “manager” for its intelligence operations against Venezuela and Cuba. North Korea and Iran are the only other countries that have been assigned so-called “mission managers”, who supervise intelligence operations against them.

WASHINGTON — A US-backed diplomatic pact to end more than a month of war between Israel and Islamist fighters in Lebanon may stop the worst of the killing and retire the daily television images of burning buildings and suffocated children.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Three back-to-back explosions killed 47 people and wounded more than 70 Sunday night in a mostly Shiite neighbourhood in southern Baghdad, police said.

GENEVA (AFP) — The International Committee of the Red Cross on Sunday slammed the ongoing heavy civilian casualties in the conflict in Lebanon as “unacceptable”.

Jordan takes first step among Arabs to post ambassador BAGHDAD (Agencies) — Security forces were on high alert Saturday as hundreds of thousands of Shiite devotees marched into Baghdad to mark the death of a revered imam, a year after a stampede killed nearly 1,000 pilgrims.

GENEVA (AP) — Most Lebanese refugees have left Syria for home, shifting aid workers’ focus to providing clean water, food, shelter materials and other essentials to help them re-establish their lives, UN officials said.