BAGHDAD (AP) — About 1,500 people died violently last month in Baghdad — many shot execution-style by sectarian death squads, Iraqi officials said.

ISRAEL ON Wednesday expanded its ground offensive in Lebanon, and Hizbollah’s leader vowed to turn southern Lebanon into a graveyard for Israeli troops and unleash more rockets on the city of Haifa.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Four weeks into an offensive that has failed to stop Hizbollah rocket attacks, the Israeli military has changed a top commander of its Lebanon war effort in a blow to the pride of the Jewish state’s army.