Report from Basra

The Cost of War

Shiite government official arrested on links to bombing that claimed US victims

BAGHDAD (AP) _ A senior official in Nouri al-Maliki's government was in custody Thursday suspected of ties to Iranian-backed Shiite militias and plotting a June bombing that killed 10 people, including four Americans, Iraqi authorities said.

ANALYSIS: REPORT FROM BASRA

Radical roots take hold in southern Iraq

While the United States battles Sunni extremists in northern Iraq, different but potentially more enduring Islamic radicals - many with close ties to Iran - have been allowed to take root in the South.

Bloody confrontation in Basra

The British army battled Iraqi forces they trained themselves yesterday as anti-British violence broke out in Basra, the country's second-largest city.

REPORT FROM BASRA

In new Iraq, shaken faith

For Yousef Lyon and other Christians in Basra, the downfall of Saddam Hussein has meant a terrible loss of religious freedom.

REPORT FROM BASRA

Deadly place for Shias

The professor sat at his computer, insistently pulling up pictures of Basra as the gem it was 30 years and four wars ago. He seemed fixated on the past, deflecting questions about the present and the future.

REPORTS FROM BASRA

Waiting for better times in Basra

It was called the Venice of the Middle East for its beautiful canals, an ancient port romanticized as home to Sinbad the Sailor in "Arabian Nights." Nine million stately date palms lined its riverfront and graced its fields. One of the world's largest pools of oil lies beneath its sands.