Iraq violence

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Islamic militants' growing influence in Iraq and Syria is a threat to Americans, lawmakers from both political parties agreed Sunday even as they sharply split on what role the United States should play in trying to crush them.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Francis on Sunday expressed outrage at violence aimed at religious minorities in Iraq, where fleeing children have died of thirst, and called on the world `'to stop these crimes."

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The message played over loudspeakers gave the Christians of Iraq's second-largest city until midday Saturday to make a choice: convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi police say gunmen have killed at least 33 people, including 29 women, in a raid on two buildings in a housing complex in Baghdad.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi officials discovered 50 bodies, many of them blindfolded and with their hands bound, in an agricultural area outside a city south of Baghdad on Wednesday, raising concerns over a possible sectarian killing amid the battle against a Sunni insurgency.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Iraq is increasingly turning to other governments like Iran, Russia and Syria to help beat back a rampant insurgency because it cannot wait for additional American military aid, Baghdad's top envoy to the U.S. said Tuesday.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The audacious declaration of the establishment of a new Islamic state made by the al-Qaida breakaway group that has overrun much of northern Syria and neighboring Iraq sparked celebrations in the group's Syrian stronghold but was condemned by rival rebels and authorities in Baghdad and Damascus.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi helicopter gunships struck suspected insurgent positions in Tikrit on Sunday as part of a government offensive to retake the northern city from Sunni militants led by the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, residents and officials said.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq's top Shiite cleric stepped up pressure on deeply divided political blocs Friday, calling on them to agree on the next prime minister before the newly elected parliament convenes next week to pave the way for an inclusive government in the face of Sunni militants who have seized large swaths of territory.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraqi insurgents executed at least 160 captives earlier this month in the northern city of Tikrit, Human Rights Watch said Friday, citing an analysis of satellite imagery and grisly photos released by the militants.