BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Twelve U.S. troops have been killed in attacks in expanded operations against insurgents in Iraq during the past 48 hours, according to the U.S. military.

In the deadliest attack, a roadside bomb Thursday struck a military vehicle in northeastern Baghdad, killing five U.S. soldiers, three Iraqi civilians and an Iraqi interpreter. A U.S. soldier and two civilians were wounded.

Also Thursday, a rocket-propelled grenade struck a U.S. military vehicle in northern Baghdad, killing a soldier and wounding three others.

On Wednesday, a roadside bomb killed two troops southwest of Baghdad.

In addition, two Marines were killed in combat operations in Iraq’s Anbar province on Wednesday.

With the deaths, 3,538 U.S. military personnel have died in the Iraq war — 68 of them in June. Seven civilian contractors working for the military also have been killed since the 2003 invasion. Read the rest of this entry »

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Attackers struck 10 Sunni mosques in Baghdad and south of the Iraqi capital in the aftermath of Wednesday’s bombing of Al-Askariya Mosque — a major Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, police said Thursday.

Four people died in sectarian fighting in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Elsewhere, thousands across Iraq staged angry but peaceful demonstrations protesting the second bombing at the shrine, which also was struck and badly damaged in a February 2006 attack — a major event that spawned widespread sectarian violence and population displacement in the country.

The latest attack, which destroyed two minarets at Askariya, sparked calls from officials across the globe and in the Salaheddin province city of Samarra for unity and calm.

“You are sons and grandsons of the two greatest imams who ever lived,” said Salaheddin Gov. Hamed Hamoud Shekti in a public announcement from the Askariya Mosque on Thursday morning. “Please stop the sabotage and destruction, and work on the aims and goals of the city.”

Shekti, whose remarks were passed along in a U.S. military news release, was referring to the tombs of the 10th and 11th Shiite imams at the Askariya shrine. Those historic figures are Ali al-Hadi and his son Hassan al-Askari, who both died in the ninth century. Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (AP) — Majority Democrats in the Senate are forcing their Republican colleagues on the record about whether embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should keep his job.

No one is predicting that a symbolic resolution expressing no confidence in Gonzales will survive even the test vote Monday. Most Republicans are likely to vote no, dismissing the whole exercise as a ploy to embarrass President Bush.

At a news conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, the last stop on a weeklong visit to Europe, the president reaffirmed his support for Gonzales, a longtime friend and legal adviser.

“They can have their votes of no-confidence but it’s not going to make the determination about who serves in my government,” Bush said Monday. “This process has been drug out a long time. … It’s political.”

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SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — President Bush, turning from adulation in the Balkans to difficulties back home, said Monday that his stalled immigration overhaul would be revived and his embattled attorney general would not fall under a Senate vote of no-confidence.

“I believe we can get it done,” Bush said of the immigration bill that has run into deep trouble on Capitol Hill. “I’ll see you at the bill signing.”

Warmly welcomed in both Bulgaria and Albania, the president spoke at a news conference with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov on the last stop of his eight-day trip in Europe. Bush said he would make a trip to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to lobby lawmakers in person on immigration.

He dismissed a planned Senate vote against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as purely political, and said it would have “no bearing” on Gonzales’ fate. “I’ll make the determination as to whether he’s effective,” Bush said. Read the rest of this entry »

(CNN) — U.S. President George W. Bush said Tuesday that Russia was not his country’s enemy and had nothing to fear from U.S. plans for a Europe-based missile defense program.

President Bush is expected to meet his Russian counterpart on Wednesday.

Ahead of a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Bush attempted to allay Russian fears over the proposed missile shield saying it was meant to target “rogue nations” not escalate a new Cold War.

“Russia’s not our enemy,” Bush said, adding that the missile defense shield is “a purely defensive measure aimed not at Russia but at true threats.”

Bush urged Russian cooperation with U.S. efforts to build a weapons system that would help “safeguard free nations against a missile attack launched from a rogue regime,” inviting Putin to send military personnel and scientists to learn about the system. Read the rest of this entry »