Is this Los Angeles? Miami, maybe. If you were to guess where that photo above was taken, Iraq would probably not be your first guess. In our minds, that country looks more like full of violence and no extravagant life.

In better times, the Baghdad Zoo had more than 500 animals, including giraffes, elephants and exotic birds. But its location, inside Zawra Park in the city's center, put it in the middle of heavy fighting between invading U.S. troops and Saddam Hussein's forces in 2003. U.S. shells damaged the compound and inadvertently freed some animals; looting that followed the fall of Baghdad stripped away everything else.

A series of rockets or mortars has struck Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government headquarters.

The U.S. military says Iraqi and coalition forces have killed a suspected insurgent and detained 15 others in a raid on Baghdad's Sadr City district.

To many Americans, convenient shopping means easy, safe parking at clean, wholesome supermarkets. In Iraq, where shoppers often risk their lives buying groceries and vendors watch produce rot for lack of electricity or transport, marketing has different requirements.

The U.S. military says it has carried out a third air assault on a suspected militant stronghold south of Baghdad.

Iraq and other Gulf states have seen rare weather conditions, with snow falling in Baghdad for the first time in around 100 years, Saudi Press Agency reported.

At least 30 people have been killed in a suicide bombing in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. The bomb hit a crowd of mourners at the funeral of a Shiite army officer.

Iraqi police say a bomb exploded in a crowded animal market in central Baghdad Friday, killing at least 13 people. Authorities say the blast wounded at least 40 others, including four police officers.

Iraqi security officials say two civilians have been killed in a roadside explosion near a U.S. military patrol outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. embassy and several Iraqi government offices are located.

The Iraqi government cordoned off the building and seized the west Baghdad headquarters of a powerful Sunni Muslim group. They accuse the group of supporting al-Qaida.

Fifteen al-Qaida suspects were killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops in a daylong battle south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Tuesday.