A US federal judge has ruled that the Research Triangle Institute (RTI), a USAID-funded organization providing local governance services in Iraq, can be sued in the United States for the deaths of two Iraqi women killed by their security guards in Baghdad in October of 2007. The judge will also allow the victims' attorneys discovery on whether the security company, Unity Resources Group, has sufficient business contacts in the United States to be sued in a US court. Whether Unity Resources Group can be sued should be decided within the next few months.

The death toll from bomb and rocket attacks in Baghdad on March 7, reached 37 with 62 others wounded, as Iraqis voted in the country's parliamentary election. Most of the attacks were on residential buildings in densely populated neighborhoods far from the Green Zone. (Xinhua, March 7) One day earlier, a car bomb ripped through a parking lot used by Shi'ite pilgrims at the Imam Ali shrine in the holy city of Najaf, killing three—two Iranians and one Iraqi. The attack near an Iranian tour bus also wounded 54 people, 19 of them Iranians. (LAT, March 7)

Doctors in the Iraq city of Fallujah are reporting an unusually high amount of birth defects in the region, with many medical professionals saying the weapons used by US forces in the intense 2004 fighting are to blame. Heart and nervous system defects among newborn babies is said to have soared in the city in the years since the fighting, now at levels 13 times those of Europe. Doctors and parents interviewed by BBC say they believe toxic materials left over from the 2004 fighting entered the water supply in Fallujah. One doctor says medical officials note two or three cases of birth defects each day, and are urging local women not to have children.

Christian families are fleeing Mosul in droves in the aftermath of the murder of a Christian family in the city—a replay of the 2008 exodus in which thousands of families fled the city. The fleeing families are heading for the string of Christian villages, towns and monasteries to the east and north of the city. Anti-Christian attacks have intensified recently in the city, with five killed in the past two weeks. Many Christians were openly told to leave or face the consequences.

On Feb. 21, 67 corpses were brought to Baghdad morgue all shot with silencer guns, medical sources told Baghdad's Azzaman daily Feb. 26. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said most of the victims were civil servants, former Baathists and army officers. Three more were killed with silencer guns Feb. 22, including Dr. Thamer Kamel, a university professor who was head of the human rights section at the Ministry of Higher Education. The gunmen drive in mainly four-wheel vehicles and quickly disappear from the crime scene.

A suicide car bomber in Iraq struck a vehicle checkpoint in Ramadi, Anbar province, killing at least 11 people, both police and civilians, Feb. 18. The attack also left 15 people wounded. Four police and a young girl were among the dead. (AlJazeera, Feb. 18) On Feb. 13, provincial officials in Maysan charged that US forces shot eight Iraqis, most of them "innocent bystanders," in a raid in a village north of the provincial capital of Amara. "What happened this morning was a massacre in every sense of the word," said governor Mohammed Shia al-Sudany. The US military said the raid was against suspected members of an Iran-backed militia. (Press TV, Feb. 13)

Iraq's Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against the US and UK over their use of depleted uranium bombs, an Iraqi minister says. Iraq's Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Mikhail Salim, told Assabah newspaper that the suit will be based on reports from the Iraqi ministries of science and the environment finding an increase in the number of babies born with defects in the countries' southern provinces. The US and UK are said to have dropped nearly 2,000 tons of depleted uranium bombs following the 2003 invasion. (Tehran Times, Feb. 2)

The US Department of Justice is investigating whether Blackwater, now known as Xe, bribed Iraqi officials to allow the company to continue operating in the country following shooting deaths in 2007, the New York Times reported Jan. 31. The Justice Department's fraud division reportedly began an inquiry into the alleged $1 million bribery in late 2009. Bribery of foreign officials is a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Blackwater will likely claim that the $1 million was restitution to the families of the individuals killed in 2007, which would exempt the company from violation of federal law. A conviction under the FCPA may include both criminal and civil penalties. (Jurist, Feb. 1)

A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside of the Forsenics Lab of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior's Criminal Investigation Department on Jan. 26, killing 21 people and injuring at least 80 others. The building collapsed shortly after the attack, which comes one day after coordinated deadly attacks against several Baghdad hotels frequented by westerners left 36 dead. Some have suggested that the attacks might be in retaliation for the previous day's execution of "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid. The bombing has also aroused concerns about Iraq's ability to ensure citizens' safety in the run-up to the general election scheduled for next month. Iraq's election legislation was just amended in December following a political impasse, causing the election to be pushed back from Jan. 31 to Feb. 27.

US Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled Jan. 19 that charges may be brought again against six individuals accused of massacring 17 people in Nisur Square, Baghdad, in 2007 while working for Blackwater Worldwide. The decision comes two weeks after a previous indictment was dismissed without prejudice.