An Iraqi civilian flees the scene of two apparent car bombs that exploded just minutes apart outside nearby churches in central Baghdad, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2004, as the sun shines through smoke caused by burning wreckage. The attacks appeared to be the first targeting churches during the 15-month violent insurgency.
An injured woman holds a child at Ibn Al-Nafees hospital after two apparent car bombs exploded just minutes apart outside nearby churches in central Baghdad, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2004. The attacks appeared to be the first targeting churches.
Iraqi civilians walk amid the debris and charred vehicles left after a bomb blast went off in front of a Christian church in the Al Doura neighborhood in southern Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2004.
A huge plume of black smoke rises over the Karada neighborhood in central Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2004. A large explosion was heard in central Baghdad on Sunday evening. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear.
Abbas cries for his brother, Ali Hussein, who was killed in April's clashes in Kufa at age 30, as a friend comforts him in the cemetery in the southern Iraqi town of Kufa Friday ,July 30, 2004. The Radical Shiite cleric for whom he died in battle, Muqtada al-Sadr, has condemned the beheading of hostages, saying it was illegal in Islamic law.
Waving strips of cloths and whistling as they lean out of bus windows, 128 Iraqis held in Abu Ghraib's detention camp ride past the gates of the prison compound to freedom in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Aug. 1, 2004. The men had been kept at Camp Redemption for at least three months each, while their cases were evaluated and processed by U.S. and Iraqi authorities, the military said.
Worshippers ask for water to quench their thirst in the hot Iraqi summer, dispensed free at the Shiite Qadimiya Mosque for noon prayers, Friday July 30, 2004. Influential Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has condemned the beheading of hostages, saying it was illegal in Islamic law. "Any body doing this is criminal and we will sue him in accordance to Islamic law".
Iraqis look over battle damage in Fallujah, Iraq, Friday, July 30, 2004. Hospital officials said four Iraqis were killed and four wounded during fierce fighting between U.S. forces and insurgents Thursday in Fallujah, a turbulent city west of Baghdad. U.S. Marines said they suffered no casualties.
An Iraqi man looks at the ruins of a house destroyed in an air strike near the village of Al-Suwariyah, southern Iraq, July 28, 2004. Coalition and Iraqi forces faced off Wednesday against insurgents suspected of infiltrating from Iran in a lengthy gunbattle that killed 35 of the militants and seven Iraqi police, the military said.
Armed men escort the funeral cortege Thursday, July 29, 2004, of a victim killed the previous day in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. A suicide car bomb tore through a downtown street, killing 70 Iraqis and turning a bustling area of shops and fruit stalls into charred wreckage and twisted metal. It was the deadliest attack in a month.
Women react at the door of the morgue, pleading to see their loved ones who were killed during a car bomb blast in Baqouba, Wednesday, July 28, 2004. A suicide attacker killed at least 70 people when he exploded a bomb-laden vehicle outside a central Baqouba police station Wednesday, a top police official said.
Civilians and Iraqi police inspect charred vehicles left after a car bomb exploded in Baqouba Wednesday July 28, 2004. A suicide attack killed at least 70 people outside a central Baqouba police station Wednesday.
The charred remains of a bus sits at the site of a suicide car bombing in Baqouba, Iraq, Wednesday, July 28, 2004. A suicide car bomb exploded outside a police recruiting center Wednesday morning, in the worst attack in Iraq since the U.S. transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government last month.
U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division soldiers raid a home while searching for car bomb makers and supplies in Khan Bani Sa'ad, near Baqouba, Iraq, before dawn Tuesday, July 27, 2004. Eight Iraqi men were detained.
U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division soldiers raid a home while searching for car bomb makers and supplies.
Iraqi civilians gather around a damaged vehicle at the site of a mortar attack near an Iraqi police station in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, July 26, 2004. A car-bomb blast and mortar fire rocked central Baghdad early Monday, and three Iraqi civilians suffered minor wounds.
Cars drive past an American security checkpoint set up to detect possible threats and curb the violence in the streets of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, July 26, 2004. The latest violence followed Sunday's start of delegate selection in Baghdad for a three-day national conference, considered a key step in moving the country away from its totalitarian past and toward a democratic future.
Birds circle in the air as smoke billows from the site of a large blast in central Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, July 26, 2004. Several loud explosions were heard in central Baghdad early Monday morning. The source of the blasts was not immediately clear.
U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division Staff Sgt. Rufus Beamon watches a U.S. supply convoy pass by on a highway in Baqouba, Iraq, Monday, July 26, 2004. Several convoys have been struck with roadside bombs in the area in recent months.
At right, Um Duraid, 43, wife of Musab al-Awadi, the ministry's deputy chief of tribal affairs, who was shot by insurgents this morning, mourns his death at their home in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday July 26, 2004. His sister, Um Ahmed, 41, grieves at left. Attackers shot and killed the senior Interior Ministry official and two of his bodyguards in a drive-by shooting at the official's Baghdad home Monday morning.