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Last week in Iraq

Attacks

-Ten people were reported killed in two bombings in Baghdad, and 10 suspected Sunni militants were killed and eight captured during a U.S. operation north of Samara on Nov. 25, Iraqi authorities and the U.S. military said.

-At least 44 Iraqis were killed or found dead Tuesday, according to police reports. The deadliest attack was in Diyala province, where a suicide bomber targeting a police headquarters killed six people, including three women, according to police.

-A woman wearing an explosive-rigged belt blew herself up near an American patrol near Baqubah on Tuesday, the military announced Wednesday. Seven U.S. troops and five Iraqis were injured.

-After a member of a neighborhood watch group was killed in Baghdad, Iraqi troops arrested the son of a leading Sunni politician and dozens of his associates, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Friday.

Military

-Nearly 6,000 Sunni Arab residents in north-central Iraq joined a security pact with American forces Wednesday in what U.S. officers described as a critical step in plugging the remaining escape routes for extremists flushed from former strongholds.

-President Bush on Thursday called on Democrats to approve money to fund the war "without strings and without delay" before leaving for the Christmas holidays, something congressional leaders have already indicated they will not do.

-Australia's Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd said Friday that he would pull his country's combat troops out of Iraq by the middle of next year, making good on election promises.

Rebuilding

-A draft law that would ease curbs on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party rejoining Iraq's civil service and military was taken up by Parliament on Nov. 25, but Shiite opponents forced postponement of the debate.

-Bush reached a deal with Iraq on Monday intended to lead to a more normalized, long-term relationship between the two countries by the time he leaves office, but it left unsettled the question of how many U.S. forces would remain there and for how long.

-Hundreds of Iraqi refugees in Syria boarded buses for home on Tuesday in the first convoy from an Iraqi-funded effort to speed the return of families that fled the country's violence and insecurity.

Deaths

As of Saturday, 3,882 U.S. troops have died in Iraq. Identifications as reported by the U.S. military and not previously published:

-Army Pvt. Isaac T. Cortes, 26, Bronx, N.Y.; explosion Tuesday; Amerli.

-Army Spc. Benjamin J. Garrison, 25, Houston; explosion Tuesday; Amerli.

-Army Sgt. Jonathon L. Martin, 33, Bellevue, Ohio; Nov. 22 in Regensburg, Germany, of wounds sustained in explosion Nov. 9 in Jisr Naft.

-Marine Cpl. Allen C. Roberts, 21, Arcola, Ill., vehicle accident Wednesday; Al Asad.

-Army Sgt. 1st Class John J. Tobiason, 42, Bloomington, Minn., injuries Wednesday; Baghdad.

[Last modified December 2, 2007, 01:43:40]