Militants Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Forces  —  BAGHDAD — Wielding the threat of sectarian slaughter, Sunni Islamist militants claimed on Sunday that they had massacred hundreds of captive Shiite members of Iraq's security forces, posting grisly pictures of a mass execution in Tikrit as evidence and warning of more killing to come.

The brutal neoconservative legacy in Iraq  —  When we take stock of American policy in Iraq and its effects over the last decade, reasonable and humane people tend to focus on the devastating toll in blood, treasure and reputation.  Hundreds of thousands dead, even more injured …

Iraq, Syria and the Middle East - An essay by Tony Blair  —  The civil war in Syria with its attendant disintegration is having its predictable and malign effect.  Iraq is now in mortal danger.  The whole of the Middle East is under threat.  —  We will have to re-think our strategy towards Syria …

U.S. Plans to Evacuate Many Embassy Workers  —  ERBIL, Iraq — The American Embassy in Baghdad plans to evacuate a substantial number of its personnel this week in the face of a militant advance that rapidly swept from the north toward the capital, the State Department announced on Sunday.

Casey Kasem, Shaggy on ‘Scooby-Doo,’ Voice of ‘American Top 40,’ Dies at 82  —  Casey Kasem, the resonant voice of Top 40 radio and a vocal fixture on cartoon programs for the past 40 years, has died, according to his daughter.  He was 82.  —  Kasem died Sunday of Lewy body disease, a common form of progressive dementia.