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American soldiers fire on former Iraqi soldiers protesting outside the U.S. military headquarters in Baghdad, killing two and wounding two others, the U.S. military reports. U.S. forces are seeking to suppress opposition in a central Iraqi region where Sunni Muslims -- once loyal to Saddam Hussein -- are blamed for coordinating a series of attacks on American troops. In the first of a three-part series on Iraq's diverse ethnic and religious groups, NPR's Deborah Amos reports the main flashpoint of these attacks is an area in central Iraq known as the Sunni triangle.

The Bush administration is considering wide-ranging changes in the U.S. approach to reconstruction in Afghanistan. American postwar policy has come under attack as a nation and a people struggle amid postwar turmoil. NPR's Jacki Lyden reports.

Retired Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina -- who spent nearly half his life in the U.S. Senate -- is dead at 100, mere months after leaving office. Thurmond was the longest-serving U.S. senator and the oldest man ever to serve in Congress. NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports.

A U.S. soldier dies and eight others are wounded in an ambush west of Baghdad. In a separate attack, a bomb kills one U.S. soldier and wounds another. A third incident involving grenade attacks kills two Iraqis traveling with a U.S. convoy. And U.S. officials say two American soldiers appear to have been abducted north of Baghdad. Hear NPR's Deborah Amos.

Gen. Tommy Franks tells a House committee that U.S. troop strength in Iraq will remain at current levels until at least the end of the year. Franks, who directed U.S. forces during the war, acknowledges the possibility that U.S. troops could still be in Iraq four years from now. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.

About 1,000 U.S. soldiers parachute onto an airfield in an area controlled by Iraqi Kurds in an effort to threaten the Iraqi regime from the north. It's the largest and most public deployment yet of U.S. ground forces in the Kurdish enclave -- and a sign that the United States may be opening a second military front against Baghdad. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

Facing sporadic clashes with Iraqi troops, U.S. Marines drive to the center of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. U.S. military planners had expected Iraqi forces to mount a last stand there, but U.S. troops face only pockets of resistance. Meanwhile, U.S. forces capture Saddam's half-brother; officials suggest they will use his DNA to check whether attempts to kill the Iraqi leader have succeeded. Hear NPR's Nick Spicer.

For the second time in a week, American troops open fire on anti-American protesters in Fallujah, killing at least one person and injuring 15. A U.S military spokesman says soldiers fired after demonstrators threw rocks and fired shots at a U.S. compound. The incident comes hours after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrives in Iraq to meet with American troops. Hear NPR's Scott Simon.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) charges the Bush administration with hiding the details of a postwar-Iraq oil contract awarded to a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corp., formerly run by Vice President Dick Cheney. The no-bid contract, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says included not only extinguishing oil fires but also "operation of facilities and distribution of products," could be worth up to $7 billion. Hear Rep. Waxman.

Muhammad Hazmaq al-Zubaydi, a former Iraqi prime minister who reportedly played a key role in suppressing the 1991 Shiite Muslim uprising, is arrested in Iraq. Al-Zubaydi is No. 18 on the U.S. list of 55 most wanted Iraqi regime leaders. Meanwhile, Jay Garner, the retired Army general charged with overseeing Iraq's reconstruction, meets with Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq to discuss their role in a future Iraqi government. Hear NPR's Jackie Northam.