Free Republic

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN)ISIS has closed off a dam to the north of the Iraqi city of Ramadi -- seized by its forces last month -- cutting water supplies to pro-government towns downstream and making it easier for its fighters to attack forces loyal to Baghdad, local officials and residents said. ISIS militants are opening only two or three of the dam's 26 gates on the Euphrates River for brief periods daily, the officials and residents said. The head of the security council in the town of Khalidiyah, Sheikh Ibrahim Khalaf al-Fahdawi, and two residents of the nearby town of Habbaniya...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The remains of four American security contractors ambushed in Iraq (news - web sites) were recovered as US officials vowed to exact vengeance for their gruesome murder. US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy head of coalition operations, said the remains were handed over to US forces Thursday. The four, employees of the private US firm Blackwater Security Consulting of North Carolina, were killed Wednesday in an ambush and their vehicles set ablaze in Fallujah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Baghdad. Two of the charred bodies were then dismembered and publicly paraded as a gleeful mob cheered...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. Apache helicopter crashed west of Baghdad Tuesday but there was no immediate information on why it came down and whether there were any casualties, a U.S. military spokesman said. The helicopter, which usually carries a crew of two, crashed around 9:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. EST) near the town of Habbaniya, about 50 miles west of the capital. The area is known for attacks by guerrillas on coalition forces.

BAGHDAD, Dec 1 (Reuters) - An American soldier was killed west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Monday after his patrol came under attack from insurgents, the U.S. military said. In a statement, it said the soldier was wounded by small arms fire near the town of Habbaniya, and later died of his wounds. The town is a hotbed of anti-American sentiment