Staff Sgt. Conrad College of Huntsville, Ala., left, gives a Christmas present to Lt. Aaron Southward of Fritch, Texas., right, who was injured in combat and recovering at the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Monday Dec. 22, 2003. Other soldiers are unidentified.
Ala'a Nasser, injured in yesterday's attack, waits for treatment at al-Husseiniyah hospital in Karbala, Iraq, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2003. Suicide bombers and assailants with mortars and grenade launchers blasted two coalition military bases and the governor's office on Saturday killing six coalition soldiers, six Iraqi police officers and a civilian and wounding at least 172 people.
Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov bows down to a coffin of one of the five Bulgarian soldiers killed in Iraq at Sofia airport Tuesday morning, Dec. 30, 2003. Five Bulgarian soldiers were killed and 26 wounded in a terror attack on their camp in Karbala, Iraq, on Saturday. The attack, which appeared to be the biggest since the Dec. 13 capture of Saddam Hussein, left a total of 19 dead and almost 200 injured. (AP Photo/Dimitar Deinov)
Daud Salim holds his injured one-year-old son Benin, at al-Husseiniyah hospital in Karbala, Iraq, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2003. Suicide bombers and assailants with mortars and grenade launchers blasted two coalition military bases and the governor's office in Karbala on Saturday killing six coalition soldiers, six Iraqi police officers and a civilian and wounding at least 172 people.
President Bush arrives in the White House from his Crawford, Texas ranch, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2004, in Washington. Gearing up for a possible election year fight on his education initiative, President Bush defended his 'No Child Left Behind' law against critics who say it's been shortchanged and assumes all students learn at the same rates.
In Iraq, four Iraqis were killed when a US convoy opened fire on their car in northern Iraq. Three US soldiers were confirmed dead in separate insurgency attacks. A top commander warned that guerrilla assaults were growing more sophisticated. In the US, the Department of Agriculture has quarantined a third cattle herd in Washington state.
In the meantime, Bush returned to Washington after a week of seclusion at his Crawford, Texas ranch, where he ventured out only once to hunt quail with his father, former President George H. W. Bush, on New Year's Day.