IRAQ \ Developments

The latest developments in the war in Iraq:
Sunni insurgents, resilient despite the five-week security crackdown in the capital, killed at least six more U.S. troops over the weekend. The American military said four U.S. soldiers died and one was wounded when the unit was struck by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad. A fifth soldier was killed in an explosion in Diyala, an increasingly volatile province just northeast of the capital. A Marine died in fighting the same day in Anbar province. All of the U.S. victims were killed Saturday, the military said in a series of statements that also reported that a seventh soldier died from noncombat injuries but gave no other details.
For a second consecutive day, thousands of protesters flowed through the nation's streets Sunday to call for an end to the funding of the Iraq war or the immediate return of U.S. troops. Demonstrators converged in San Francisco, New York, Portland, Ore., and elsewhere to mark the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and call on President Bush to heed what they said was the will of the people. In largely peaceful demonstrations, thousands in San Francisco closed Market Street, a major downtown thoroughfare; in New York, more than 1,000 protesters converged in a park near the United Nations headquarters.
An Army contract to privatize maintenance at Walter Reed Medical Center was delayed more than three years amid bureaucratic bickering and legal squabbles that led to staff shortages and a hospital in disarray just as the number of severely wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan was rising rapidly. Documents from the investigative and auditing arm of Congress map a trail of bid, rebid, protests and appeals between 2003, when Walter Reed was first selected for outsourcing, and 2006, when a five-year, 120 million contract was finally awarded. The disputes involved hospital management, the Pentagon, Congress and IAP Worldwide Services Inc., a company with powerful political connections and the only private bidder to handle maintenance, security, public works and management of military personnel.