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GUEST: Dave Enders, reporting for FSRN, and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, live from Baghdad

We apologize for the poor quality phone line in the first half of the interview.

Violence continues to plague Iraq. A round-up of police, morgue and hospital officials reported a total of at least 59 people killed or found dead nationwide on Monday alone. This includes a series of car bombs in Baghdad that killed at least 18 people yesterday. Today, at least 26 people were killed when a suicide bomber struck a market in Hilla, a Shiite city 60 miles south of Baghdad. The explosion destroyed shops and cars and badly damaged a maternity hospital. The U.S. military yesterday announced the deaths of four more service members, bringing to at least 3,636, the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Meanwhile at the heavily fortified Green Zone in Central Baghdad today, representatives from the US and Iran are meeting to discuss Iraq’s stability. The US has accused Iran of supporting militias in Iraq, and in particular, providing some of the weapons used in deadly roadside bombs that have killed Americans in Iraq. Iran has detained 5 Americans they accuse of espionage.

Visit the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting at www.pulitzercenter.org. Listen to Dave Enders’ FSRN reports from Iraq at www.fsrn.org. Read his blog at: http://pulitzercenter.typepad.com/death_of_a_nation/