Posted on 09/08/2007 6:06:57 AM PDT by saganite
BAGHDAD - A small Sunni Arab bloc ended its parliamentary boycott Saturday, returning to the legislature as it considers key benchmark legislation demanded by Washington amid increasing pressure to end the political deadlock.
The return of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue ends the last boycott of parliament, which had contributed to the political paralysis.
Elsewhere, the U.S. military said it had brought a new weapon into the fight in Iraq, announcing the Army's first-ever use of a drone aircraft to kill enemy fighters in the country.
The Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, dropped a precision bomb on two suspected insurgents believed to be preparing to plant roadside bombs on Sept. 1, the military said. The drone was called in for the attack near Qarraya, 180 miles northwest of Baghdad, after a scout team from the 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, observed the insurgents at work.
"This accomplishment adds a precise and discriminate means for our Army to successfully engage the enemy in counterinsurgency warfare," Col. A.T. Ball, commander of the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, said in a statement.
In violence Saturday, a bomb went off midday at a crowded market in the Shiite holy city of Kufa, 100 miles south of Baghdad, killing four and injuring five, said Khalil al-Yasiri, a health official in the neighboring city of Najaf.
"I was shopping with my child Ameer, when a big explosion went off in front of us," said Salah Mihsin, 35, as he lay in his Najaf hospital bed with injuries to both legs. "I still don't know the fate of my child."
Gunmen in Najaf also killed Mohammed al-Qarawi, director of tribal affairs in anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office. The local police commander Maj. Gen Abdul-Karim al-Mayahi said the attack occurred Friday on the road between Kufa and Najaf.
A mortar shell hit a house in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Baladiyat in eastern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding three, police said.
Though sectarian violence has been down in recent weeks, the attacks reinforced the obstacles to U.S. goals ahead of a report to Congress by the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The two are to attending hearings starting Monday on progress in Iraq since the introduction of 30,000 more American troops, including whether advances are being made toward national reconciliation.
Parliament reconvened Tuesday after a monthlong summer break but has not yet taken up any of the key benchmark legislation because competing factions have still not been able to hash out compromises.
Major Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders said they had agreed in principle on some of the 18 issues that the U.S. has set as benchmarks. Among them were holding provincial elections, releasing prisoners held without charge and changing the law preventing many former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party from holding government jobs and elected office.
The so-called de-Baathification draft law appears to be the closest to being ready.
"We will receive it today or tomorrow and then it will be put forward in parliament for discussion this week," deputy parliament speaker Khaled al-Attiyah told The Associated Press by telephone.
Al-Attiyah did not say how long he expects the discussion to last or whether it will be approved.
But he has previously said he did not expect to parliament to begin discussing another key draft law — on oil revenue sharing — before mid-September. The measure has been in the hands of a constitutional committee for months.
Leaders of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue said the party had ended its boycott so that it could be present for the discussion of the draft laws.
"We have decided, as of today, to return to parliament meetings and practice our normal work," said Mohammed Salim al-Jabouri, a member of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue.
He added that parliament would question Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki about the security situation in the country, as the party demanded, and said the prime minister is scheduled to visit parliament on Monday.
ping
Thanks for the ping ... Kossack seething in 10 - 9 - 8 ...
The return of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue ends the last boycott of parliament, which had contributed to the political paralysis.
I betcha Turbin Durbin feels pretty stupid right now.
On second thought it would be a good bet the Iraqi parliament gets more done than the democratic controlled US Congress will get done in the next three months
It’s amazing how good the news has been lately from Iraq. We are more and more often hearing of high numbers of ragheads killed as the surge works its magic. I only hope that these numbers of slaughtered sh*theads represent a small fraction of the actual death toll. Even more satisfying is the panic that has set in among the slimy left as they frantically continue to push their absurd lies that the surge is not working, has in fact failed and we must leave now.
Can you imagine what it must be like to be represented by a political Party who very existence depends on your country being humiliated in defeat by a bunch of butchers who think nothing of slaughtering innocents in the name of their god, a god who happens to be a pedophile?
I feel a little guilty about it, but I live for the day when I can shame these idiots with their own words. That assumes that they will be capable of shame.
In a just America, the people who advocated the suicidal foreign policy of appeasement and surrender would never get re-elected.
Fat chance of that happening though.
Why, it's almost boring around here.
I'm ready to go to Iran. C'mon. ;-)
(Boring is good.)
When MSM news about Iraq becomes “boring,” then we will know we have won.
I don't use the MSM for any kind of measuring stick with Iraq.
But then again, I have a 50-yardline seat. What I see is so very different from the garbage they spew.
I tell the Iraqis they'll know the war is over when they see the Golden Arches going up in Baghdad and Starbucks popping up on all the major streets.
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