BAGHDAD — More than 60 people were killed in a series of car bomb explosions targeting Shi'ite Muslims across Iraq on Monday, police and medics said, part of the worst sectarian violence since U.S. troops pulled out in December 2011. 

The attacks brought the number killed in sectarian clashes in the past week to over 200, and tensions between Shi'ites, who now lead Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims have reached a point where some fear a return to all-out civil conflict. 

No group claimed responsibility for the bombings. Iraq is home to a number of Sunni Islamist insurgent groups, including the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, which has previously targeted Shi'ites in a bid to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation. 

Nine people were killed in one of two car bomb explosions in Basra, a predominantly Shi'ite city 260 miles southeast of Baghdad, police and medics said. 

"I was on duty when a powerful blast shook the ground," said a police officer near the site of that attack in the Hayaniya neighborhood. 

"The blast hit a group of day laborers gathering near a sandwich kiosk," he added, describing corpses littering the ground. "One of the dead bodies was still grabbing a blood-soaked sandwich in his hand." 

Five other people were killed in a second blast inside a bus terminal in Saad Square, also in Basra, police and medics said. 

In Baghdad, at least 30 people were killed in car bomb explosions in Kamaliya, Ilaam, Diyala Bridge, al-Shurta, Shula, Zaafaraniya and Sadr City - all areas with a high concentration of Shi'ites. 

A parked car bomb also exploded in the mainly Shi'ite district of Shaab in northern Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 26 others, police and hospital sources said. 

In a separate incident, police said a parked car blew up near a bus carrying Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims from Iran near Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, killing five Iranian pilgrims and two Iraqis who were traveling to the Shi'ite holy city of Samarra. 

CORPSES FOUND 

 In the western province of Anbar, the bodies of 14 people kidnapped on Saturday, including six policemen, were found dumped in the desert with bullet wounds to the head and chest, police and security sources said. 

When Sunni-Shi'ite bloodshed was at its height in 2006-07, Anbar was in the grip of al Qaeda's Iraqi wing, which has regained strength in recent months. 

In 2007, Anbar's Sunni tribes banded together with U.S. troops and helped subdue al Qaeda. Known as the "Sahwa" or Awakening militia, they are now on the government payroll and are often targeted by Sunni militants as punishment for co-operating with the Shi'ite-led government. 

Three Sahwa members were killed in a car bomb explosion as they collected their salaries in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said. 

Iraq's delicate intercommunal fabric is under increasing strain from the conflict in neighboring Syria, which has drawn Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims from across the region into a proxy war. 

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main regional ally is Shi'ite Iran, while the rebels fighting to overthrow him are supported by Sunni Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar. 

Iraq says it takes no sides in the conflict, but leaders in Tehran and Baghdad fear Assad's demise would make way for a hostile Sunni Islamist government in Syria, weakening Shi'ite influence in the Middle East.

The prospect of a shift in the sectarian balance of power has emboldened Iraq's Sunni minority, embittered by Shi'ite dominance since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces in 2003. 

Thousands of Sunnis began staging street protests last December against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whom they accuse of marginalizing their sect. 

A raid by the Iraqi army on a protest camp in the town of Hawija last month ignited a bout of violence that left more than 700 people dead in April, according to a U.N. count, the highest monthly toll in almost five years. 

At the height of sectarian violence in 2006-07, the monthly death toll sometimes topped 3,000.

Jessica Rinaldi / Russell family via Reuters, file

Sgt. John Russell was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing five fellow service members at a base in Iraq in 2009.

An Army sergeant was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole for the 2009 killings of five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq.

A military judge, Army Col. David Conn, found Sgt. John Russell guilty of premeditated murder on Monday and imposed the sentence Thursday morning. The only other possible penalty for Russell would have been life in prison with the possibility of release.

Russell will be transferred within the next several days to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield said late Thursday.

The 14-year veteran from Sherman, Texas, had previously pleaded guilty to unpremeditated murder in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table. Under the agreement, prosecutors were allowed to try to prove to an Army judge at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state that the killings were premeditated. A streamlined court-martial ended Saturday.

The shooting was one of the worst instances of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war and raised questions about the mental stresses of serving repeated tours of duty.

Killed in the 2009 shooting in Baghdad were Navy Cmdr. Charles Springle, of Wilmington, N.C., and four Army personnel: Pfc. Michael Edward Yates Jr., of Federalsburg, Md.; Dr. Matthew Houseal, of Amarillo, Texas; Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos, of Paterson, N.J.; and Spc. Jacob D. Barton, of Lenox, Mo.

Russell's lawyers argued that he was deluded by depression and despair at the time. An Army mental health board found that Russell suffered from severe depression with psychotic features and post-combat stress.

Russell had long sought help with sleep troubles and was stammering and crying for help in the days before the shooting. His commanders were so alarmed that they disarmed him and sent him for repeated visits to mental health clinics, said attorney James Culp.

However, prosecutors argued that Russell was trying to paint himself as mentally ill in an attempt to win early retirement — just as he was facing a sexual harassment complaint that could derail his career and his benefits.

The day before the killings, psychiatrist Michael Jones told him that a mental disability retirement would require "some kind of suicidal psychotic crisis," Maj. Daniel Mazzone said during closing arguments, according to the Los Angeles Times.

But when Russell saw Jones again the next day, the psychiatrist said he had no intention of giving him "a golden ticket" out of the Army.

When Russell returned about an hour later, prosecutors say, he was looking for Jones, but wound up killing two patients, a bystander and two other mental health workers, including Navy Cmdr. Springle, who had also briefly treated Russell in the days before the shootings. Jones escaped injury by jumping out a window.

The Associated Press

Related:

• 'An evil chuckle': Survivor recalls shooting spree
• Father says Army 'broke' his son
• Doctor says soldier who killed 5 was 'psychotic'

Vincent Elkaim / AP via The Canadian Press

Iraq war resister Kimberly Rivera speaks at a press conference in Toronto in August. Rivera, who is pregnant with her fifth child, returned to to the U.S. in September and on Tuesday was sentenced to 10 months in prison for desertion.

DENVER -- An Army private believed to be the first female U.S. soldier to seek refuge in Canada rather than return to duty in Iraq was sentenced to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to desertion, military officials in Colorado said on Tuesday.

Kimberly Rivera, who said she grew opposed to the war during a three-month tour of duty in Iraq, pleaded guilty at a court-martial proceeding in Fort Carson, Colo., on Monday and was sentenced immediately.

In addition to the prison time, the 30-year-old private was reduced in rank, ordered to forfeit pay and benefits and given a bad-conduct discharge, base spokeswoman Meghan Williams said.

Rivera fled to Toronto in 2007 while on leave after serving in Iraq with Fort Carson's 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, in Baghdad, according to her lawyer, James Branum.

She surrendered to authorities at the U.S. border in upstate New York last September after a Canadian court ordered her deported to the United States, capping several years spent by Rivera unsuccessfully seeking asylum in Canada.

Branum said Rivera was the first and, as far as he knows, the only female U.S. military deserter to flee to Canada during the Iraq war. The advocacy group War Resisters Support Campaign has said Rivera was the first U.S. female soldier to seek asylum in Canada to avoid redeployment to Iraq.

Rivera, who had been living in Toronto with her partner and four children, deserted because she developed an opposition to the U.S. military mission in Iraq based on her experience there, the group said.

Her case had drawn attention of such international human rights advocates as retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who urged Canadian authorities to allow Rivera to stay.

Under a deal struck with military prosecutors, Rivera agreed to plead guilty in exchange for having her prison term limited to 10 months. Rivera faced a maximum five-year sentence and a dishonorable discharge had she been convicted at trial, military authorities said.

Rivera approached a U.S. military chaplain in Iraq to express her moral reservations about continuing to serve in the conflict but was not informed of her right to seek conscientious objector status, a move that might have headed off prosecution for desertion, her lawyer said.

Rivera will remain at a county jail in Colorado for seven to 10 days before she will be transferred to a military prison, mostly likely the brig at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California, Branum said.

Rivera is pregnant with her fifth child, and Branum said he will appeal to an Army judge for clemency on "humanitarian grounds."

Related:

10 years after Iraq invasion, troops ask: 'Was it worth it?'

Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' as Bush vowed?

Full Iraq coverage from NBC News

The specter of the bogus claims that former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction — used to justify war —  hangs over the debate on how world leaders will respond to the possibility that Syria deployed chemical weapons.

Obama administration officials say they know they have to deal with the Iraq WMD legacy and will need definitive proof to persuade Russia, Syria’s only remaining ally in the U.N. Security Council, that Bashir Assad’s regime used deadly sarin gas against the opposition in the country’s bloody two-year civil war.

One senior U.S. defense official told reporters Thursday, "We have seen very bad movies before" — referring to previous instances where initial intelligence was proven wrong.

President Barack Obama has called the use of chemical weapons by Assad, a "red line" that if crossed would be a "game-changer" in the U.S. response to Syrian aggression.

The White House said Thursday that the U.S. believes "with some degree of varying confidence" that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons — specifically the nerve agent sarin — against its own people.

A letter from the White House to members of Congress said the assessment was based on "physiological samples" but called for a United Nations probe to corroborate it and nail down when and how they were used.

"We are continuing to do further work to establish a definitive judgment as to whether or not the red line has been crossed and to inform our decision-making about what we'll do next," a White House official said.

"All options are on the table in terms of our response," the official added.

U.S. intelligence agencies say that blood samples from two attacks last month in Aleppo tested positive for sarin.

Still, those sources say there is “no absolute proof” deadly agents were deployed by Assad's troops.

Administration sources tell NBC News they still have not been able to connect all the dots to prove who actually used the chemical weapons, whom they used them against, or when or where they were used. 

Secretary of State John Kerry discussed Syria with his Russian counterpart in Brussels last week, but the Russians remain unpersuaded to take action against the Syrian government, and the international community is demanding hard evidence to prove Syria is using chemical agents.

The proof, however, could be difficult to obtain.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said that the United Nations can't take action based on intelligence from one country, said a team of experts assembled to investigate chemical weapons in Syria remains "grounded" in Cyprus because the Assad regime has blocked it from entering the country.

The U.N. has repeatedly called on Syria to let its inspection team in.

"The fact-finding team is on standby and ready to deploy in 24-48 hours," the U.N. spokesman said. 

Syria's information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, said in an interview with Russian TV that the government has not and will not use chemical weapons and blamed potential evidence of their existence on "armed terrorist groups," the state news agency reported.

The chemical weapons investigation and counterclaims recall the experience in Iraq, where U.N. inspection teams were hampered in their effort to find weapons of mass destruction amid U.S. intelligence reports suggesting they were being hidden by Saddam.

It was the alleged existence of the so-called WMD the George W. Bush administration used to justify war in Iraq.

Despite a massive search by U.S. forces, no weapons of mass destruction ever turned up.

Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz.,  was swift to react to the latest reports that Syria used chemical weapons, saying, “I think it's pretty obvious that red line has been crossed." He said the administration should now consider a military approach in Syria he has been advocating for two years that falls short of boots on the ground.

“That is to provide a safe area for the opposition to operate and  to establish a no-fly zone and provide weapons to the people in the resistance who we trust,” McCain said.

A White House official called for a high level of scrutiny, but also caution.

"Given our own history with intelligence assessments, including intelligence assessments related to weapons of mass destruction, it's very important that we are able to establish this with certainty and that we are able to present information in a way that is airtight," the official said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related: White House: US believes Syrian regime used chemical weapons

BAGHDAD -- Car bombs and attacks in cities across Iraq -- including two blasts at a checkpoint at Baghdad’s international airport -- killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 200 on Monday, police said.

The wave of attacks in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmato and other towns came just days before Iraqis vote in provincial elections that will test political stability more than a year after U.S. troops left the country.

No one claimed responsibility for Monday's bombings, but al Qaeda's local wing, the Islamic State of Iraq, and other Sunni Islamist groups have vowed to wage a campaign against Shiites and the government to stoke sectarian confrontation.

Ako Rasheed / Reuters

Iraq was hit by a wave of attacks on Monday, including a bomb blast in Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

Two people were killed by car bombs that exploded at a Baghdad airport checkpoint, police sources said.

Attacks on the heavily guarded airport and the fortified International Zone housing many embassies are rare, but insurgents have stepped up bombings this year.

"Two vehicles managed to reach the entrance of Baghdad airport and were left parked there. While we were doing routine searches, the two cars exploded seconds apart. Two passengers travelling to the airport were killed," a police source said.

The most deadly attack was in Tuz Khurmato, 105 miles north of Baghdad, where four bombs targeting police patrols killed five people and wounded 67, officials said.

Iraqis vote on Saturday for members of provincial councils in a ballot that will test Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's political muscle against Shiite and Sunni rivals before a parliamentary election in 2014.

Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, al Qaeda is regaining ground, especially in the western desert close to Syria's border. Islamic State of Iraq says it has joined forces with al-Nusra Front rebels fighting in Syria.

Sunni insurgents, especially al Qaeda, see Baghdad's Shiite-led government as oppressors of the country's Sunni minority and see Shiites in general as apostates from true Islam.

Related:

Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions as Bush vowed?

Ten years after Iraq invasion, US troops ask: 'Was it worth it?'

Bombs kill at least 50 on 10th anniversary of Iraq invasion

REUTERS/Paul J. Richards/Pool

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talks to reporters after finding out that the aircraft had a mechanical failure before take off, at the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland April 6, 2013.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will press Turkey on Sunday to quickly normalize relations with Israel, keep its border with Syria open to refugees and improve ties with Iraq, a senior U.S. official said. 

Kerry arrived in Istanbul some two weeks after U.S. President Barack Obama brokered a rapprochement between Turkey and Israel, whose relations were shattered by the killing of nine Turkish citizens in a 2010 Israeli naval raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. 

The rapprochement could help regional coordination to contain spillover from the Syrian civil war and ease Israel's diplomatic isolation in the Middle East as it faces challenges posed by Iran's nuclear program. 

Despite Obama's having pulled off a diplomatic coup on March 22 - a three-way telephone call with the Israeli and Turkish prime ministers, who had not spoken since 2011 - Washington has some concerns that Turkey might be backtracking on the deal. 

Israel bowed to a long-standing demand by Ankara, once its close strategic partner, to apologize formally for the deaths aboard the Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara. It was boarded by Israeli marines who had intercepted a flotilla challenging Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian-run Gaza Strip. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said he had agreed to conclude an agreement on compensation and that he and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan agreed to normalize ties, including returning their ambassadors to their posts. 

A senior U.S. official told reporters traveling with Kerry that he "will encourage Turkey to expeditiously implement its agreement with Israel and fully normalize their relationship to allow for deeper cooperation between the two countries." 

While the official denied the United States was worried the Turkish government might be backing away from the deal, another U.S. official earlier this week said Washington was concerned. 

Kerry will also raise Syria and Iraq during his talks on Sunday with Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul, his first stop on a 10-day trip to the Middle East, Europe and Asia. 

One of the underlying motivations for the Israeli-Turkish rapprochement, at least on the Israeli side, has been a desire to secure allies in the region as the Syrian civil war churns into its third year. 

Kerry's message in Istanbul will include "reiterating the importance of keeping the borders open to Syrians fleeing from violence," the senior U.S. official told reporters with Kerry. 

The official said this was a reference to reports, which Turkey denied on March 28, that it had rounded up and deported hundreds of Syrian refugees following unrest at a border camp. 

Witnesses said hundreds of Syrians were bussed to the border after clashes in which refugees in the Suleymansah camp, near the Turkish town of Akcakale, threw rocks at military police, who fired teargas and water cannon. 

Turkey's foreign ministry said 130 people, identified as being "involved in the provocations," crossed back into Syria voluntarily, either because they did not want to face judicial proceedings or because of repercussions from other refugees. 

The incident highlighted the strain that the exodus from Syria's civil war is placing on neighboring states. 

Since the revolt in Syria began two years ago, more than 1.2 million Syrians fleeing violence and persecution have registered as refugees or await processing in neighboring countries and North Africa, according to U.N. figures. 

They include 261,635 in Turkey, mostly staying in 17 camps, many of them teeming. 

Kerry also plans to nudge Turkey to improve ties with Iraq, which is troubled by efforts by its autonomous Kurdistan region, where ethnic Kurds have administered their affairs since 1991, to sell energy to Turkey. 

The Iraqi central government argues that this would deprive it of oil revenues that belong to Iraq as a whole.

A suicide bomber killed 20 people and wounded dozens on Saturday at a political rally in the Iraqi city of Baqouba, officials said.

The bomber detonated his explosives as Muthana al-Jourani, a Sunni candidate for the provincial council, was hosting lunch for supporters in a large hospitality tent pitched next to his house, councilman Sadiq al-Huseini said.

Baqouba, a mixed Sunni-Shiite city some 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, has been a focus of insurgent attacks and sectarian conflict in the decade since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Violence is expected to surge in the lead up to Iraq's provincial elections on April 20.

A health official and police officer who provided details about the attack spoke anonymously because they weren't authorized to speak to media.

The police officer said al-Jourani, who was injured in the attack, had not requested any extra security for the political event.

Eyewitness Ahmad al-Hadlouj, a 34-year-old who was wounded in the blast, said hundreds of people had gathered in the side street for the rally. His father, a member of the candidate's political bloc, was also wounded.

"This is our blood (shed) for the people," said al-Hadlouj. "We will still participate in elections."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the police officer said the attack was the hallmark of al-Qaida militants who have used suicide bombers, car bombings and coordinated attacks to shake security in Iraq, hoping that will undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government. The hard-line Sunni extremists see Shiites and those who work with them as heretics.

A wave of deadly bombings and attacks in March prompted Iraqi officials to conclude that al-Qaida's Iraqi branch, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, has been getting stronger. They say rising lawlessness on the Syria-Iraq frontier and cross-border cooperation with the Syrian militant group Nusra Front has improved the militants' supply of weapons and foreign fighters.

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• Kerry has strong message for Iraq's Maliki
• FAA allows US airlines to operate in parts of Iraq
• Gunmen attack Iraq's Akkas gasfield, four local workers killed: officials

Jason Reed / Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Iraq, March 24, 2013.

Secretary of State John Kerry made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday and said he told Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of his concern about Iranian flights over Iraq carrying arms to Syria.

Washington believes such flights and overland transfers take place nearly every day and help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his efforts to crush a two-year-old revolt against his rule, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kerry said he had told Maliki the Iranian flights through Iraqi airspace were "problematic".

"Anything that supports President Assad is problematic," Kerry told reporters. "I made it very clear to the prime minister that the overflights from Iran ... are in fact helping to sustain President Assad and his regime."

Speaking before the meeting, the U.S. official said the Iraqi government had inspected only two flights since last July and that Kerry would argue Iraq did not deserve a role in talks about neighboring Syria's future unless it tried to stop the suspected arms flow.

Iraqi officials denied allowing the transfer of weapons from Iran to Syria through Iraqi airspace. Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the Security and Defence parliamentary committee, said: "We have done our duty by randomly inspecting a number of Iranian flights and we did not find any leaked or smuggled weapons."

"If the U.S. is keen to push us to do more they have to give us the information that they have relating to this," he said.

More than a decade after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq still struggles with insurgents, sectarian friction and political feuds among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions who share power in the government of Shi'ite premier Maliki.

Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda and invigorated by the war next door in Syria - where Sunni rebels are battling Assad, an ally of Shi'ite Iran - are regaining ground in Iraq and have stepped up attacks on Shi'ite targets in recent months in an attempt to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation.

Kerry held talks with representatives of all three communities, including Osama al-Nujaifi, the Sunni speaker of parliament.

He also spoke by telephone to Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdish region, whose regional government is pressing ahead with plans to build an oil pipeline to Turkey that Washington fears could lead to the break-up of Iraq.

According to reporters at a picture-taking session at the start of Kerry's talks with Maliki, the U.S. diplomat appeared to joke that Hillary Clinton, his predecessor, had said Iraq would do whatever Washington asked.

"The Secretary told me that you're going to do everything that I say," Kerry said, according to the reporters.

"We won't do it," Maliki, also joking, replied, the reporters said.

SUICIDE BLASTS

In his talks with Maliki, Kerry also asked the Iraqi prime minister and his cabinet to reconsider a decision to postpone local elections in two Sunni-majority provinces, Anbar and Nineveh, the U.S. official said.

The Iraqi cabinet last week postponed the votes, which were due on April 20, for up to six months because of threats to electoral workers and violence there - a step Washington believes will only increase tensions.

While violence has fallen from the height of the sectarian slaughter that killed tens of thousands in 2006-2007, insurgents have carried out at least one major attack a month since U.S. forces left. Bombings and killings still happen daily, often aimed at Shi'ite areas and local security forces.

More than a dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore through Shi'ite Muslim districts in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and other areas on Tuesday, killing nearly 60 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam.

Further complicating security, thousands of Sunni protesters have rallied in Anbar against Maliki, whose Shi'ite-led government they accuse of marginalizing their minority sect since the fall of Sunni strongman Saddam.

Additional reporting by Suadad al-Salhy

Mohammed Ameen / Reuters

Iraqis examine damage inflicted on their house by a car-bomb attack in the Al-Mashtal district of Baghdad Tuesday. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility and warned of more attacks to come.

BAGHDAD - Al Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings and suicide attacks on Tuesday that killed around 60 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.

Islamic State of Iraq, the country's al Qaeda wing, is regaining strength, invigorated by the Sunni Muslim rebellion in next door Syria and has carried out dozens of high-profile attacks since the start of the year.

"What has reached you on Tuesday is just the first drop of rain, and a first phase, for by God's will after this we will have our revenge," the al Qaeda statement posted on a jihadist website said.

Car bombs and suicide blasts hit mainly Shiite districts in Baghdad and other cities on Tuesday.

Suicide attackers have struck nearly two times a week since January, a rate Iraq has not seen for several years.

Sunni Islamists see Iraq's Shiite-led government as oppressors of the country's Sunni minority and target Shiites to try to provoke a sectarian confrontation like the inter-communal slaughter that killed thousands in 2006-7.

A decade after U.S. and Western troops swept into Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein, the oil-producing country still struggles with sectarian tensions and political instability that test the fragile unity among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish ethnic groups.

Related:

Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions as Bush vowed?

'People turned on Christians': Persecuted Iraqi minority reflects on life after Saddam

Then and now: Revisiting Iraqi sites a decade later

Al-Jazeera via AP

Josh Rushing of Al-Jazeera English is seen this publicity image released by Al-Jazeera TV.

• Jessica Lynch
• Hans Blix (UN arms inspector)
• Colin Powell
• Tariq Aziz (Saddam Hussein’s foreign minister)
• Ahmed Chalabi (Iraqi exile leader)
• Tony Blair
• Gen. Tommy Franks
• Josh Rushing (Marines spokesman)
• Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks (Army spokesman)
• Paul Bremer (Iraq administrator)
• Farris Hassan (teen journalist)
• Lynndie England (Abu Ghraib)
• Mohammed Al-Rehaief (aided Jessica Lynch)
• Ali Hassan Al-Majid  (‘Chemical Ali’)
• Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf (‘Baghdad Bob’)