Reporter Opens Notebook On Iraq

A series of attacks near Baghdad killed eight soldiers yesterday as Iraq's elections campaign kicked off officially.

Iraq is holding its first parliamentary elections since U.S. troops pulled out in late 2011. Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish candidates are vying for 328 assembly seats in the deeply divided country which has seen a upswing in violence.

Last year had the highest death toll since the worst sectarian violence of the Iraq war. NPR's Alice Fordham is just back from Iraq and joins Here & Now's Robin Young to talk about what's going on there.