Iraqi troops freed a kidnapped British journalist for CBS News on April 14, after finding him hooded and bound in a house during a raid in a Shiite militia stronghold in Basra.

Richard Butler's rescue after two months in captivity came on a day in which nearly 40 people were killed or found dead countrywide — half of them in bombings near or in the northwestern city of Mosul.

On April 15, car bombs and suicide attackers struck crowded areas in Baghdad and former insurgent strongholds to the north and west of the capital, killing more than 70 people and breaking the lull in violence in the predominantly Sunni areas.

The attacks were a deadly reminder of the threat posed by suspected Sunni insurgents even as clashes between Shiite militia fighters and U.S.-Iraqi forces continued elsewhere.