U.S. soldiers stand guard outside a mosque during a prisoner release in Baghdad, Iraq.

Fareed Zakaria | BIO
For the Washington Post

Remember Iraq? For months our attention has been focused on Afghanistan, and you can be sure that the surge will be covered exhaustively as it unfolds in 2010. But next year could be even more pivotal in Iraq.

The country will hold elections in March to determine its political future. Months of parliamentary horse-trading are likely to ensue, which could provoke a return to violence. The United States still has 120,000 troops stationed in Iraq, and all combat forces are scheduled to leave by August, further testing the country's ability to handle its own security. How we draw down in Iraq is just as critical as how we ramp up in Afghanistan: If handled badly, this withdrawal could be a disaster. Handled well, it could be a significant success.

Let's review some history. The surge in Iraq was a success in military terms. It defeated a nasty insurgency, reduced violence substantially and stabilized the country. But the purpose of the surge was, in President George Bush's formulation, to give Iraq's leaders a chance to resolve their major political differences. It was these differences - particularly between Sunnis and Shiites - that fueled the civil war in the first place. If they were not resolved, the war might well begin anew or take some other form that would doom Iraq to a breakup or a breakdown.

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CNN contributor Bob Greene says it seems as if many have half-forgotten that nation is still at war

Bob Greene
CNN Contributor

Another wartime Christmas week has arrived.

Yet on the streets of the United States, it often feels as if this is a nation that has half-forgotten that its sons and daughters are in combat.

Not literally, of course; Americans are intellectually aware that the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq continue. And for the families of the young soldiers, sailors, Marines and aviators in combat zones, the wars never go away, even for a single tick of the clock.

But the lack of shared sacrifice during these war years - the sense that those of us at home go on with our lives pretty much as usual while the men and women who have volunteered to be in uniform risk their own lives anew with each rising of the sun - is a notion that is especially acute during the holiday season.

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Chuck Hadad
AC360° Producer

In 2004, Roy Hallums was abducted in Iraq and held hostage by insurgents for 311 days.

The American contractor was ambushed at his company’s compound in Baghdad by the Mujahideen Army, made up primarily of former intelligence officers under Saddam Hussein’s administration. Although he was moved around, Hallums spent most of his captivity imprisoned in an underground cell in Al-Mahmoudiyah, about 15 miles outside of Baghdad.

Hallums was working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company when he was taken by insurgents. The company was involved in building projects in Iraq and had food service contracts with the U.S. military.

Roy Hallums, now 61, describes his experience living in captivity for 311 days.

Hallums, who was 56 when he was abducted, describes his experience in his new book, “Buried Alive.” He told CNN that his situation was excruciating. Temperatures soared to 120 degrees and every single day of his captivity he lived in fear that his captors would execute him.

Roy Hallums' rescue by U.S. Special Forces in 2005.

“A doctor told me a human system is built to be terrified for an instant and then run away from the bear, not to live with the bear wondering, ‘When is the bear going to eat me?’, which is the situation I was in for so long,” Hallums told CNN’s Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware.

Over the course of nearly one year in captivity, Hallums was beaten, interrogated, bound and blind-folded. But the most terrifying might have been the final few months, when he was – literally – buried alive.

The insurgents holding him, concerned that U.S. troops investigating his kidnapping were closing in, gave him meager rations, and cemented over the underground cell where he been locked. They disappeared and returned days later, smashed through the cement, replaced his rations and repeated the process.

“You’re buried in there, and if these people are really nervous, then why come back to the house,” Hallums said. “You’re sealed in, you’re not going anywhere and if they decide, ‘Well it’s just too dangerous to go back to the house’, and they never come back, then you’re in your tomb.”

Hallums was rescued by U.S. Special Forces on September 7, 2005. After searching for Hallums for much of his captivity, investigators obtained his exact location from an Iraqi suspect and immediately orchestrated a morning mission. With four helicopters and a predator drone and F-15 jet high overhead, U.S. troops swooped down to the house where he was being held, broke through the cement in the floor and ended Hallums 311-day imprisonment.

“I heard Special Forces pounding on this little door in the room where I was, and the guy jumps down in there and says, ‘You alright?’ It’s like, well, this can’t really be happening, you know, because after all this time, they actually found where I was, which was a miracle,” Hallums said.

Inside Roy Hallums' cell.

Ware himself was kidnapped in Iraq in 2004. He was documenting the rise of al Qaeda and its leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and was ripped out of his vehicle by the terrorist group and threatened with execution. He spoke with Anderson Cooper in 2007 about narrowly escaping death.

“These men intercepted my vehicle and with grenades, with the pins pulled so that they were live, hauled me from the car, and with my own video camera, they were preparing to film my execution. So as far as we're aware, after that day on Haifa Street, I'm the only Westerner that we know of who's been in the control of Zarqawi's organization, al Qaeda, and to have lived to tell the tale,” Ware said.

“I was in a vehicle with a mid-ranking Iraqi insurgent commander who'd told me of Zarqawi's takeover, essentially complained about it .. so he took me in there to show me that these radicals, these foreign Islamists, have taken our territory. When the foreign radical Islamists, essentially who became al Qaeda, dragged me from the car, this man was left to negotiate for my life. “

Ware’s captors returned him to Iraqi insurgents later that day and he was able to escape. Although estimates vary, more than 500 foreigners are said to have been kidnapped in Iraq and the number of Iraqis held hostage is in the tens of thousands.

Learn more about the experiences of both Hallums and Ware tonight.

Editor's Note: Roy Hallums was kidnapped in 2004. He was rescued in 2005. He endured 311 days as a hostage in Iraq. He was actually buried alive when he was rescued and now we have the exclusive videotape of his rescue. We’ll show you how the special forces team did it. Hallum says what might appear hyperbolic with a calm earnestness. "I hoped they wouldn't decide to just cut off my head and videotape the occasion for mass distribution to the international media." Instead, we have the videotape of his rescue. Michael Ware reports tonight at 10 p.m. ET.

The entrance to Hallums' cell.

Inside Roy Hallums' cell.

Roy Hallums, when he was rescued.

Roy Hallums today.

U.S. troops search for militants in the mountainous Taliban stronghold in Paktika Province in Afghanistan.

Jared Polis
Special to CNN

I recently attended the White House Christmas tree lighting and congressional holiday party. Christmas is traditionally a time of peace and love, quite a juxtaposition for a nation fighting three wars, one in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, and a global war on terror.

We went into Afghanistan eight years ago to oust the Taliban and capture their guest Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda associates. Eight years later, al Qaeda has largely been driven out of Afghanistan.

When should our nation go to war? Only as a last resort.

That's why I opposed the completely unnecessary invasion of Iraq, and why I now oppose an ongoing occupation of Afghanistan.

In meeting after meeting, I have been shown by generals and statesmen what we are doing in Afghanistan, how it could take decades, might not work, and is fraught with risks. In response, I ask the same repeated question: Why?

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CNN

At least 112 people were killed in central Baghdad and more than 400 were wounded early Tuesday when suicide bombers exploded their cars in a series of five terrorist attacks, Iraqi authorities said.

The attacks shattered a two-month period of relative calm in the capital that had existed since twin car bombings killed and wounded hundreds of people in late October.

Tuesday's attacks left at least 112 people dead and at least 425 wounded, the Interior Ministry said. Among the dead were children and students, said Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command.

The first of the vehicles blew up in southern Baghdad's Dora district at about 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), followed by four more car bombs about half an hour later.

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Sgt. Angela Peacock is seen in 2004, after she returned to the United States from duty in Iraq.

Thom Patterson
CNN

When Iraq war veteran Angela Peacock is in the shower, she sometimes closes her eyes and can't help reliving the day in Baghdad in 2003 that pushed her closer to the edge.

While pulling security detail for an Army convoy stuck in gridlocked traffic, Peacock's vehicle came alongside a van full of Iraqi men who "began shouting that they were going to kill us," she said.

One man in the vehicle was particularly threatening. "I can remember his eyes looking at me," she said. "I put my finger on the trigger and aimed my weapon at the guy, and my driver is screaming at me to stop."

"I was really close to shooting at them, but I didn't."

Now back home in Missouri, Peacock, 30, is unemployed - living in a friend's home in North St. Louis County without a lease and paying minimal rent.

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Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost

CNN Special Investigations Unit

A CNN investigation reveals why the Army's rules for holding detainees may have led to the murders of four Iraqis by three decorated Army sergeants.

Here is a map of the approximate location of where the killings took place along Baghdad canal.

Watch Tuesday through Friday on "AC360" at 10 p.m. ET.

See the location of the incident and learn more about the story.

A Pakistani soldier pictured during operations against militants in June.

Thomas L. Friedman
The New York Times

It is crunch time on Afghanistan, so here’s my vote: We need to be thinking about how to reduce our footprint and our goals there in a responsible way, not dig in deeper. We simply do not have the Afghan partners, the NATO allies, the domestic support, the financial resources or the national interests to justify an enlarged and prolonged nation-building effort in Afghanistan.

I base this conclusion on three principles. First, when I think back on all the moments of progress in that part of the world — all the times when a key player in the Middle East actually did something that put a smile on my face — all of them have one thing in common: America had nothing to do with it.

America helped build out what they started, but the breakthrough didn’t start with us. We can fan the flames, but the parties themselves have to light the fires of moderation. And whenever we try to do it for them, whenever we want it more than they do, we fail and they languish.

The Camp David peace treaty was not initiated by Jimmy Carter. Rather, the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, went to Jerusalem in 1977 after Israel’s Moshe Dayan held secret talks in Morocco with Sadat aide Hassan Tuhami. Both countries decided that they wanted a separate peace — outside of the Geneva comprehensive framework pushed by Mr. Carter.

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President Obama and his national security team meet in the White House Situation Room.

Ed Henry
CNN Senior White House Correspondent

There's an air of mystery hanging over President Obama's war council, which meets in secrecy yet again this week to discuss a new strategy for Afghanistan in the highly secure White House Situation Room.

But senior officials closely involved in the decision-making process reveal that the president and his team are grappling with one particularly urgent question: Will Gen. Stanley McChrystal's push for 40,000 more U.S. troops really secure Afghanistan?

McChrystal, who has been joining the president's war council by secure videophone, framed this debate weeks ago by writing in his now-famous memo that failing to send that many troops could result in the mission failing. But some of Obama's other top advisers are privately expressing heavy skepticism that sending 40,000 troops will result in a successful Iraq-style surge.

"Afghanistan is not Iraq," one senior administration official said. "To say that we can take what we did in Iraq and Xerox it and send it to Afghanistan is obtuse."

A second administration official confirmed this viewpoint has real currency inside Obama's war council.

"With 40,000 more troops, you cannot do an Iraq-style surge," this official said. "It's totally different than Iraq. The strategy is not easily transferable - there are unique challenges in Afghanistan."

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Alyssa Fetini
TIME

The split between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims is one of the most important schisms in modern religion — yet in the West, at least, it's one of the least understood. The centuries-old strife sporadically erupts into new bloodshed throughout the Middle East — today, particularly, in war-torn Iraq, where the power vacuum left by the fall of Saddam Hussein has reopened old wounds. As British-born journalist Lesley Hazleton argues, these wounds have been left to fester by a lack of adequate planning or understanding of the issue's complexities on the part of American policymakers. Her new book, After the Prophet, recounts the epic story of the split between Islam's two main factions and its present role in the Middle East. TIME talked to Hazleton about the history and misunderstandings of this dispute and what, if anything, can be done to extinguish it once and for all.

What's the Shi'ite-Sunni split really about?
It's about who should lead Islam, and it began at the moment of Muhammad's death. As the founder of Islam, he was the undisputed leader. And if he had had a son, the split might never have happened — a son would automatically have inherited his father's authority. But he died without sons and without leaving a clear will. His closest male relative was his cousin and son-in-law, the philosopher-warrior Ali, whose followers — the Shiat Ali [followers of Ali], or Shi'ite for short — say that he was the only one with the spiritual authority to succeed Muhammad. The Sunnis believed that the caliphate should go to whoever would be best equipped politically to maintain the burgeoning Muslim empire, backing Muhammad's father-in-law Abu Bakr. In the end, Abu Bakr was named the first caliph. Though Ali eventually assumed the caliphate 25 years later, he was assassinated, power fell to the founder of the first Sunni dynasty, and the Shi'ites felt a terrible, lasting sense of dispossession. In a nutshell, the difference between the two is that the Sunnis tend to respect how power actually works rather than the way it should work in an ideal world. In a sense, the Shi'ite ideology is more idealistic, while the Sunni one more pragmatic.

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Marium Al Wata, 32, used to own a pharmacy in Iraq.

Charity Tooze
AC360° Contributor

Marium and Hassan Al Wata* are stalked by their shared past. They are haunted by memories of death threats and murder. In 2006 they fled the violence in Baghdad in search of a safe haven. They settled in Amman, Jordan but their security quickly turned to imprisonment.

They say their modest apartment in the city’s Heshami Shamali neighborhood feels like a cage. Their days and nights are spent within the confines of sheet rock, sweat and anxiety. “We never leave the house during the day,” Marium said, “At night we’ll go on the balcony and talk about how we’re feeling.”

During the escalation of sectarian violence between 2005 and 2007, thousands of Iraqis fled to Jordan and other neighboring countries. According to a Fafo Research Foundation report, commissioned by the Jordanian government, there are between 450,000 and 500,000 Iraqis living in Jordan. But many of these people find themselves isolated in their new homes, fearful of deportation and waiting in limbo. The United Nations now recognizes the situation as the largest urban refugee crisis in history.

After their arrival three years ago, the Al Watas discovered layers of bureaucracy that made their life in Jordan difficult. Jordan did not sign the 1951 Convention on refugees and while it has been historically welcoming to displaced people, Iraqis are not officially recognized as refugees and therefore cannot work legally. The large influx of Iraqis was a shock to Jordan’s infrastructure and the country quickly changed its immigration policies and began requiring visas for Iraqis. The visa requirement - and the inability to work legally - has made it nearly impossible for an Iraqi to live some semblance of a normal life in Jordan.

Because of their traumatic past and the threat of deportation the Al Watas spend nearly all of their time in the confines of their apartment.

“We don’t have any friends that come over,” Marium said. The Al Wata’s windows are covered and their 3-year-old son, Hamsa, has hardly left the house since birth. “He’s never been to a playground. He’s not socialized very well. He doesn’t know how to play with children his own age,” she added.

Hassan, 32, holds a masters degree in mechanical engineering and worked with the General Motors distributor in Iraq’s Green Zone. Marium, 32, is Iraqi but spent her childhood in Iowa. She owned a pharmacy in Iraq. Their lives resembled that of a middle class American family. “We would go to work, the children went to school, and we had a nice life.”

After 2003, Marium began receiving death threats at the pharmacy. The Al Watas are Sunni Muslims and they lived and worked in a predominantly Shiah neighborhood. Hassan also received death threats, like this one: “If you want to go back to your family leave your work with the American dogs or we will bring your head to your wife.” Marium recounted her reaction, “I only have one man, so I begged him to quit.”

Hasam Al Wata was born shortly after his family arrived in Jordan.

The Al Watas, like many Iraqi refugees, said prior to the war there was no difference between Shiah and Sunni in their neighborhood. This problem, they claim, came from outside Iraq. “I didn’t know I was Sunni until I was 20-years-old,” Marium said. “But now it’s different, the children are growing up with this concept. It will be very difficult to heal.”
Iraq was a secular state prior to the war, and although more governmental positions were held by Sunnis, the Al Watas claim there weren’t many conflicts between Shiah and Sunni.

The Al Watas thought the violence in Iraq was just a phase but it continued to escalate. Marium’s brother was killed by a bomb when he was on his way to a job interview. He had just finished his bachelor’s degree. Marium said his death left a huge scar on her mother, who was terrified the same fate would find Marium’s two young sons. She begged them to leave Baghdad.

It took them 19 terrifying hours to drive to Jordan. In addition to traveling with their two sons, Marium was nine months pregnant and didn’t know when she would give birth. “It was a very difficult journey for us. We had never left our families,” she said. They were given a two-week visa. They cannot afford to pay the $1.50 Dinar - roughly $2 U.S. dollars - per day to legally extend their visa. They attempt, like thousands of families, to live outside the gaze of the government.

After several years in exile most families have exhausted the resources with which they fled. “As time goes on the situation continues to get worse,” said Fusayo Irikura director of the Women’s Federation of World Peace.

Sarah Al Wata is the youngest of Marium and Hassan's children.

Marium puts her newborn baby, Sarah, to sleep on a converted coffee table next to the foam cushions that constitute their bed. “I wake up every hour to check on her. Now that she is getting older she can roll over and I am scared she will roll off.” They worry about their two oldest children who continue to show psychological symptoms from the violence they witnessed in Iraq.

“Our children faced a lot of terror in Baghdad. They saw killings in front of them, they saw bodies – dead bodies in the streets and once when they were in school, armed people came inside the school and killed the gym teacher because she was wearing pants and training clothes.” Annes, 11, continues to suffer. He can’t sleep without the lights on and sleepwalks. Marium holds her tears back when she talks about how the boy’s only uncle, her brother, was killed. She said his death aggravated her son’s fears.

The Al Watas wait. They don’t know when or if they will ever be free from the confines of their apartment’s drab walls. They are registered with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) for resettlement. Resettlement to a foreign country seems to be their only glimmer of hope.

“Our children refuse to return to Iraq,” Hassan said. They hope to be resettled in the U.S. where they will be free to work and rebuild their lives.

*The names of the subjects in the story have been changed for their protection.

Hana Al Badree, a translator, contributed to this story.

Editor’s Note: Charity Tooze is a freelance journalist currently working in Jordan. She was the executive producer of Rites of Passage, www.ritesofpassage.tv, a weekly television program by and for young women in the Bay Area. She is currently in the Middle East developing a body of work on Iraqi Refugees as part of her master’s thesis.

Three-year-old Saba Fahed, an Iraqi refugee, plays with Legos on the floor of her family's apartment.

Neba Fahed, 4, laughs when company comes to visit her family in Jordan.

Charity Tooze
AC360° Contributor

Mohammad Fahed is an Iraqi refugee living in Jordan. He and his family fled Iraq in 2004 after their house was bombed. His mother was paralyzed during the attack.

Fahed is a tall, thin man with piercing blue eyes and an angular face. He speaks quietly, with measure, and stares across the room with intense frustration. He sits upright in his chair and his striped button-down short-sleeve shirt is tucked neatly into his navy-blue trousers. His two youngest daughters Saba, 3 and Neba, 4, stand next to him as he talks about his life in Jordan.

Fahed first arrived in Jordan in 2002, before the war, to find work. He said the economic situation in Iraq made it impossible for him to earn a living and provide for his family. He found work in Jordan in commercial trade, doing odd jobs as a blacksmith and plumber.

Immediately following the outbreak of the war in 2003, he returned to Iraq to gather his family. “Since the war everything has changed,” Fahed said. Like most of Iraq’s neighbors, Jordan is not a signatory of the 1951 Convention on refugees and therefore they do not recognize Iraqis as refugees. Arafat Jamal, deputy representative of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), said, “despite the fact that it’s not a signatory on the main international instrument on refugees its [Jordan’s] practice has been very generous.” Jordan classifies Iraqis as “guests.” Iraqis can apply for residency and work permits but, still, many reside in Jordan illegally. Only those with “specialized skills,” that Jordan’s labor market lacks - such as physicans - receive work permits. Hundreds of thousands are not allowed to work.

According to a Fafo research foundation report funded by the Jordanian government, there are 450,000 to 500,000 Iraqis living in Jordan. Yet many people working in aid organizations believe the number is closer to 750,000. Since the increase in refugees, the UNHCR has increased its operating capacity from 32 staff members to 160.

The Faheds live in squalor conditions waiting for the political terrain in Iraq to cool. Like thousands of Iraqi families in Jordan, they depend on the UNHCR for monthly cash assistance. The small donations they receive are not enough to cover the most basic needs of a family of nine. Fahed’s frustration stems from his desire to work and his fear that if he does he will be caught and deported.

“I am afraid to go out of my house here because of the security. Maybe they will make me return to Baghdad . Sometimes I want to see my friends but I am afraid, so I am stuck at the house,” Fahed said.

He has been arrested three times for not having a visa. Until 2007, Iraqis were not required to have visas to enter Jordan. The escalation in militia attacks, torture and murder caused thousands of Iraqis to flee their country in late 2005. In response to the influx of refugees, Jordan changed its visa policy to mandate that all Iraqis have visas before entering the country. In 2007, the UNHCR classified all Iraqis outside the country as refugees. This official status granted by the UNHCR is meant to protect displaced people from deportation. Fahed said the police laughed when he showed them his UN documents. He said he was sent to a Jordanian jail for two days.

The massive influx of Iraqis has strained Jordan’s already limited resources. To deflect some of the burden, the UNHCR sponsors projects in health, education and water sectors. In 2008 the Jordanian government opened up the education system to Iraqis, but before that they were not allowed to enroll in Jordanian schools. According to a UNHCR report there are approximately 540,000 Iraqi children who are either out of school or have severe gaps in their educational development.

As time passes, the financial situation of many of these Iraqis in Jordan worsens. Fahed is just one of thousands of people awaiting resettlement. He cannot work legally in Jordan and refuses to return to Iraq. Being trapped in this limbo has put an enormous strain on family dynamics and domestic violence has become a major problem in the community.

Fahed’s face betrays no emotion when he admits he beats his children to release his frustration.

His youngest daughter, Saba, sits on the floor at his feet, trying to open a bag of Legos. She giggles and turns her face, making the small bruise on her tiny cheek all the more visible. Fahed’s wife sits next to Saba, her head tilted down and her features tucked behind a dark hejab.

The UNHCR and community-based organizations in Jordan are trying to address domestic violence among the Iraqis. Hiba Azaizeha, a field worker with the UNHCR, said men are targets for questioning by police. Because of stereotypes about Iraqi men – such as the assumption they might be terrorists and the threat they pose to the Jordanian labor market - Iraqi men say they are consistently targeted by Jordanian police forces.

Many Iraqis have said that while in Iraq, both women and men worked outside of the home. In Jordan, many women have an easier time finding under-the-table jobs. “Women are less likely to be questioned by police, so women go out to bring bread and work as domestic labor (under the table) and the man sits at home,” Azaizeha said. “Imagine you are just sitting at home and you have your children all over you and children have this way of forgetting, so they giggle and laugh and crawl everywhere and the father is very stressed so he starts hitting those children, ” she added.

In response to the growth of domestic violence, the UN has developed empowerment courses for women. It also offers skill-building classes for men, such as computer electronics and mobile phone repair. Azaizeha said her primary goal is to keep the family members busy.

“Changing gender roles in exile is a common phenomena that we see in refugee situations particularly in exile. Suddenly you come to a refugee situation where the man who is used to being the bread winner, the head of household, finds himself in a situation of diminished status,” Jamal said. The upheaval of tradition is a major factor contributing to violence in Iraqi households.

Fahed said he doesn’t want to see a psychologist for his anger problems. Rula Dajani, program coordinator for The International Rescue Committee (IRC), said there is a cultural taboo about sharing problems with people outside the family. The IRC is opening a gender-based violence unit in Jordan to address the growing number of cases.

“The gender role divisions have changed in the homes. This contributes to increased tensions in the families,” Dajani said. The IRC is developing culturally sensitive interventions such as mediation that include the whole family. Those who have suffered severe trauma are the ones who are most susceptible to psychological problems. “I’ve seen cases especially those that have a well-founded fear of not returning to Iraq that remain in the trauma phase and they don’t leave the house,” Azaizeha said.

Fahed is one such case. He is trapped by his fear and sits waiting for his normal life to return.

Editor’s Note: Charity Tooze is a freelance journalist currently working in Jordan. She was the executive producer of Rites of Passage, www.ritesofpassage.tv, a weekly television program by and for young women in the Bay Area. She is currently in the Middle East developing a body of work on Iraqi Refugees as part of her master’s thesis.

Editor's note: This is a video of a church in Baghdad. It was the worst hit on Sunday evening.

Landmines are laid out after being turned in at an Iraqi police station in 2004.

Editor's Note: According to a new report released today, Iraq has a landmine problem that could take decades to clean up. That fact concerns the report's authors – UNICEF, the U.N. Development Program, and the Iraqi Ministry of Environment – as it could jeopardize the country's commitment to the global treaty to ban landmines. To read the report in its entirety, click below. Tune in to AC360° tonight 10p ET to hear the latest on the situation in Iraq from CNN's Michael Ware.

Click here to read the UN's report