The drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq is moving forward with the U.S. military announcing the reduction of 12,000 troops over the next six months as the next step toward the goal of ending combat operations by August 2010.

Three bombings struck Baghdad Monday morning in separate attacks that killed at least 20 people. The bombings came two days before a planned vote on a security pact that would allow U.S. troops to stay in the country for three…

A bomb struck a municipal council building Tuesday in Baghdad, killing two U.S. soldiers, two U.S. government civilian employees, four Iraqi civilians and an Italian of Iraqi origin working as an interpreter for the Americans, U.S. officials said.

A car bomb exploded in a crowded market area in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people and wounding 75 others, officials said. It was the deadliest such attack in the Iraqi capital in months.