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Last week in Iraq

By TIMES WIRES
Published July 8, 2007

Attacks

- Iranian operatives helped plan a January raid in Karbala in which five American soldiers were killed, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said Monday. Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner also said that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has used operatives from the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah as a "proxy" to train and arm Shiite militants in Iraq.

- A car bomb killed 18 people Tuesday at a Baghdad market, police said.

- A bomb killed 17 people and wounded 28 on Thursday when it blasted a photographers' shop in a Shiite part of Baghdad.

- A suicide car bomber struck at a cafe in the Kurdish village of Ahmad Maref near the Iranian border Friday, killing 26 people and wounding 33, police said.

Military

- A third U.S. soldier has been charged in an investigation into alleged attempts to cover up the deaths of Iraqi civilians by planting weapons to portray them as combatants, the U.S. military said Monday. Sgt. Evan Vela of Phoenix, Idaho, was charged with premeditated murder, making a false official statement and obstruction of justice.

- Federal prosecutors said Tuesday they will seek the death penalty if former soldier Steven D. Green is convicted of killing an Iraqi family and raping a 14-year-old girl in March 2006.

Rebuilding

- Republican Sen. Richard Lugar on July 1 called for a bipartisan approach to scale back the U.S. military involvement in Iraq. Lugar was one of two Republican senators who announced last month that President Bush's Iraq strategy was not working and that the United States should downsize the military's role.

- U.S. and Iraqi officials said July 1 that they saw a decline in the monthly civilian casualty count in June, a development that occurred as the U.S. troop increase reached full strength. The size of the decline was hard to gauge because death counts in Iraq are highly inaccurate.

- The Iraqi government replaced the top security commission in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, because of suspected links to Shiite militias as authorities prepare for a reduction in British forces, officials said Monday.

- The Iraqi Cabinet signed off Tuesday on a revised bill to regulate the country's oil industry and sent it to Parliament - a major step in reaching a long-delayed benchmark sought by the United States to promote reconciliation between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites.

- Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., broke with Bush on Thursday and called for an immediate change in U.S. strategy that could end combat operations by the spring.

- The Iraqi government announced Friday that an al-Qaida militant, Oras Mohammed Abdul-Aziz, was hanged Tuesday in connection with the August 2003 bombing that killed 85 people, including Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a leading Shiite group. Abdul-Aziz was tried and sentenced in October.

Deaths

As of Saturday, 3, 603 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. Identifications as reported by the U.S. military and not previously published:

- Army Spc. James L. Adair, 26, Carthage, Texas; explosion June 29; Baghdad.

-Army Sgt. 1st Class Raymond R. Buchan, 33, Johnston, Pa.; small-arms fire July 1; Tameem.

- Marine Lance Cpl. William C. Chambers, 20, Ringgold, Ga.; noncombat boat accident July 1; Anbar province.

- Army Sgt. William W. Crow Jr., 28, Grandview Plaza, Kan.; explosion June 28; Baghdad.

- Navy Petty Officer First Class Steven Phillip Daugherty, 28, Barstow, Calif.; combat Friday; Baghdad.

- Army Pfc. Steven A. Davis, 23, Woodbridge, Va.; grenade attack Wednesday; Baghdad.

- Army Pfc. Andrew T. Engstrom, 22, Slaton, Texas; noncombat incident Wednesday; Taji.

-Army Spc. Victor A. Garcia, 22, Rialto, Calif.; small-arms fire July 1; Baghdad.

- Army Pfc. Cory F. Hiltz, 20, La Verne, Calif.; explosion June 28; Baghdad.

- Army Sgt. Shin W. Kim, 23, Fullerton, Calif.; explosion June 28; Baghdad.

- Navy Petty Officer First Class Jason Dale Lewis, 30, Brookfield, Conn.; combat Friday; Baghdad.

- Army Sgt. Michael J. Martinez, 24, Chula Vista, Calif.; explosion June 28; Baghdad.

- Navy Petty Officer First Class Robert Richard McRill, 42, Lake Placid; combat Friday; Baghdad.

- Army Sgt. Giann C. Joya Mendoza, 27, North Hollywood, Calif.; explosion June 28; Baghdad.

- Army Chief Warrant Officer Scott A.M. Oswell, 33, Washington; helicopter crash Wednesday; Mosul.

- Army 1st Lt. Christopher N. Rutherford, 25, Newport, Ohio; explosion Monday; near Balad.

- Marine Lance Cpl. Juan M. Garcia Schill, 20, Grants Pass, Ore.; combat Monday; Anbar province.

- Army Staff Sgt. Robb L. Rolfing, 29, Milton, Mass.; small-arms fire June 30; Baghdad.

- Army Staff Sgt. Michael L. Ruoff Jr., 31, Yosemite, Calif.; small-arms fire July 1; Tameem.

- Marine Lance Cpl. Jeremy L. Tinnel, 20, Mechanicsville, Va.; noncombat boat accident July 1; Anbar province.

- Army Spc. Dustin L. Workman II, 19, Greenwood, Neb.; explosion June 28; Baghdad.

[Last modified July 8, 2007, 01:11:58]