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The boycotting six-member al-Sadr bloc says it will rejoin the Iraqi Parliament on Monday. Falah Shanshal, a member of the bloc, said that was the plan despite the arrest earlier Friday of Sheikh Abdel Hadi Al-Diraji, a close aide to the chief of the militia, Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, KUNA, the Kuwaiti news agency, reported. Shanshal urged al-Diraji be released and accused the government of breaching an agreement to halt "attacks targeting al-Sadar's movement." The legislator said al-Sadr had ordered restraint to avoid being drawn into an armed confrontation with the government.

U.S. intelligence leaders told Congress yesterday that Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will probably lower the profile of his powerful militia in Baghdad and watch to see whether the new U.S.-Iraqi strategy of placing more troops in the city is aimed at uncontrolled violence or specifically at him and his organization. "There's a clear indication at the present time he's not looking for contacts with coalition forces," CIA Director Michael V. Hayden told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday. "And to the degree he controls Jaish al-Mahdi -- and that's a very important factor -- to the degree that...

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - At least two mortars slammed into Somalia's presidential palace on Friday night as explosions and gunfire rocked Mogadishu in the latest outbreak of violence in chaotic Somalia, witnesses and officials said. "I can confirm two mortars have hit Villa Somalia," a senior government source told Reuters, of the building where President Abdullahi Yusuf stays. "We do not have word yet if there were casualties or not." Yusuf arrived in Mogadishu days ago to take up residence in the bullet and mortar-scarred building but it was not yet known if the 72-year-old former soldier was there during the...

CAIRO, Egypt Militants in Iraq with links to al-Qaida are claiming responsibility for an attack on a convoy that killed an American democracy worker. Contractors from Hungary, Croatia and Iraq also died in the ambush, along with the 28-year-old Ohio woman. The three-vehicle convoy was part of a mission for the National Democratic Institute, which gives advice on voter outreach. Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaida have claimed responsibility on a Web site. A statement praising the deadly attack came from a group considered to be a branch of al-Qaida in Iraq. U-S officials could not verify the Internet statement.

LONDON (AFP) - Iran offered to cut off aid and support for the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas, and promised full transparency on its nuclear program in a secret letter to the United States soon after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the British media reported. According to the BBC, the letter, which it obtained, was unsigned, but the US State Department understood that it came with the approval of the highest Iranian authorities. The Islamic republic also offered to use its influence to support stabilisation in Iraq, and in return asked for a halt in hostile...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Tehran's ambassador to Baghdad has said that Iraq stands ready to help train and equip Iraqi security forces to combat what he called terrorism. Speaking after talks with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Hassan Kazemi demanded Thursday to be shown "any shred of evidence that Iran is working to destabilise Iraq," as the United States alleges. "We are working for, not against, security in Iraq, because we know that insecurity justifies maintaining foreign troops in the country," Kazemi told reporters. He added: "Iran is disposed to helping to train and equip Iraqi security forces to combat terrorism."...

The US has also today come in for unprecedented criticism from the Iraqi Prime Minister. He has told a UK newspaper that he wishes that Baghdad could receive strong messages of support from the US. Nuri al-Maliki said Iraq's need for US troops could fall in three to six months if Washington equipped Iraqi security forces with sufficient weapons. He is also reported to have told an Italian paper that President Bush has never been in a weaker position than he is today. He is quoted as saying that it is the administration in Washington facing demise, not the Iraqi...

London (KurdishMedia.com) 16 January 2007: The Turkish army have gathered and intensified its forces on the Kurdistan’s boarder ready for attack, reported local sources on Tuesday. While Turkey is holding a conference on Kirkuk without the participation of the Kurdistan Regional Government or any Kurdish political party, Turkey has intensified its forces on the Kurdistan’s border. Some Turkmens, Arabs and a high number of Turkish MP’s have participated in the conference. It was revealed by local sources that only Turkish flag displayed in the conference. Radio Nawa stated that the Turkish army ready for zero o’clock to attack Kurdistan. The...

KHARTOUM- Sudan on Wednesday summoned the senior U.S. diplomat in Khartoum after it said American troops raided the Sudanese embassy in Baghdad, violating diplomatic conventions, a foreign ministry spokesman said. In Baghdad, U.S. spokesman Christopher Garver denied U.S. troops had raided the Sudanese embassy, which is near the airport road where many bombs have targeted troops and convoys. "Nine American soldiers in four military vehicles forcibly went into the embassy after overpowering the guards and searched the embassy offices inside," said Ali al-Sadig, Sudan's foreign ministry spokesman. The embassy has been officially closed for more than a year after Sudanese...

LOS ANGELES: In late 2001, three months before my son, the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was kidnapped, he interviewed the influential Qatari cleric Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and asked him about suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. The sheik replied with a novel twist of logic. "Israeli society in general is armed," he said, implying that Israeli civilians — including women and children, doctors and journalists — are legitimate targets. At the time, it was still surprising to see an authoritative Muslim cleric give religious license to the ideology of terror. Daniel would fall victim to that ideology when he...

WASHINGTON Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says the United States should cap the number of troops in Iraq, while increasing American forces in Afghanistan. Clinton is the expected front-runner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. She was quick to seize the spotlight the day after Illinois Senator Barack Obama took a major step toward entering the race. Appearing on network television and radio shows to discuss her recent trip to Iraq, the New York senator said she opposes President Bush's plan to increase U-S troops in Iraq. She favors redeploying troops out of Baghdad and eventually Iraq. She said she also...

CRITICS OF THE PLAN PROPOSED by the American Enterprise Institute's Iraq Planning Group (IPG) have been pointing to supposed discrepancies in the numbers of troops required to secure Baghdad in my writings, the IPG, and the Bush administration's statements. I noted before the IPG met that it would require a surge of 80,000 additional troops to clear the entire Baghdad capital area, according to traditional counter-insurgency norms and under a variety of other unlikely conditions. I did not advocate such an operation. I noted consistently, again before the IPG met, that I thought it would take about 50,000 additional U.S....

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber driving a lorry packed with explosives killed 10 people and wounded 42 at a police station in central Kirkuk on Wednesday, police and a hospital source said. Police and residents said several buildings had collapsed. "There are still people under the rubble of the houses," a police source said. On Tuesday, one of the bloodiest days in months, bombers killed 70 people, many of them young women students, at a Baghdad university. In all, at least 105 were killed in bombings and a shooting in the capital on a day when the United Nations...

BAGHDAD, Iraq: Talks between Shiite members of parliament to end a boycott by legislators and Cabinet ministers loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ended Tuesday without agreement, two lawmakers said. The so-called Sadrist lawmakers and cabinet ministers were asked to amend conditions they set for ending their six week boycott that has kept them from their 30 seats in parliament and six Cabinet offices since they walked out over the late November meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Amman, Jordan. A member of al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc said earlier in the day that...

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki linked Tuesday's deadly bombing at a leading Baghdad university with the execution of two senior members of Saddam Hussein's regime. The Shiite leader also said his government would do its best to protect educational institutes. In a statement issued hours after a deadly explosion killed and wounded dozens of students at Al-Mustansiriya University in north-central Baghdad, al-Maliki promised to punish those responsible. He blamed "terrorists and Saddamists" for the blasts and said the deadly explosions were the work of those seeking revenge for Monday's hanging of Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and...

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Tuesday the chaotic execution of Saddam Hussein looked like "kind of a revenge killing" and showed that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "has still got some maturation to do." In his toughest assessment yet, Bush criticized the circumstances of Saddam's hanging and the execution of two top aides, including Saddam's half brother. "I was disappointed and felt like they fumbled the - particularly the Saddam Hussein execution," the president said in an interview PBS' Jim Lehrer. A cell phone video of the Dec. 30 hanging of Saddam showed the deposed Iraqi leader being...

KABUL, Afghanistan - The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Tuesday he wants to extend the combat tours of 1,200 soldiers amid rising violence, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was "strongly inclined" to recommend a troop increase to President Bush if commanders believe it is needed. Gates also said Pakistan must act to stem an increasing flow of Taliban fighters into Afghanistan as U.S. military officials cited new evidence that the Pakistani military, which has long-standing ties to the Taliban movement, has turned a blind eye to the incursions. The prospect of a troop increase in Afghanistan, at...

Report: Iran eyeing southern Iraq's oil BASRA, Iraq, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- British military intelligence officials are concerned Iran is building its influence in the southern oil-rich Iraqi city of Basra, The Telegraph said Tuesday. "We know some extreme elements in Basra are being given support and succor from Iran and get weaponry, money and (improvised explosive device) technology in order to try to destabilize this part of the country," said Lt. Col. Justin Maciejewski, commanding officer of Britain's 1,200-strong Royal Green Jacket battle group. British troops are scheduled to turn over security of the Shiite-dominated city to local authorities...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Two years ago, then-private citizen Robert Gates recommended the United States engage diplomatically with Iran. That diplomatic effort was also a critical part of the Iraq Study Group's findings released in December, a group Gates was part of until he was nominated to become U.S. defense secretary. The White House swiftly rejected the possibility of engagement with Iran about its meddling in Iraq until Iran agrees to stop enriching uranium, a key component to a nuclear warhead. Since becoming defense secretary, Gates says he has changed his mind about diplomatic engagement with Iran. "I co-chaired...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, already facing fierce opposition to his decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq, will confront a tough audience next Tuesday when he delivers his State of the Union address to the first Democratic Congress in 12 years. Reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil and supporting alternative fuels are expected to be prominent themes of his speech. Bush also will challenge Congress to fix Social Security's long-term solvency problem, find a way to compromise on immigration and preserve tax cuts. Lawmakers also will be listening for hints of what he might veto. Republicans see the...