US and Iraqi puppet troops clashed with Iranian army forces in the border area near the town of al-Mandali in Diyala Province on Thursday, September 7, 2006. 

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon put on a boisterous show Thursday — with a low-flying passenger jet circling the capital — to celebrate the end of Israel’s air blockade.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — The United States formally handed over control of Iraq’s new military to Prime Minister Nuri Maliki’s government on Thursday just as rebels unleashed a fresh wave of deadly bomb attacks on Iraqi security forces.