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BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government Monday ordered Blackwater USA, the security firm that protects U.S. diplomats, to stop work and leave the country after the fatal shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a State Department convoy. The order by the Interior Ministry, if carried out, would deal a severe blow to U.S. government operations in Iraq by stripping diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection. The presence of so many visible, aggressive Western security contractors has angered many Iraqis, who consider them a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their...

The Iraqis are at present conducting an experiment with no equivalent anywhere else in the world. Despite a confrontation between terrorists from all over the world and the forces of the state, a democratic experiment is being built and developed. But we are bound by a principle of unanimity. We must all be in agreement - we different Iraqi political families - before moving forward. This does not facilitate decisionmaking. It is less easy than in democracies that function according to a simple majority, or a two-thirds majority, for fundamental decisions. Of course our European friends and Arab brothers are...

For Americans to talk so disdainfully about a "dysfunctional" government in Iraq is just a little on the cocky side. The term was already common before early September, when a Government Accountability Office report said Iraq's Maliki administration had failed to meet 11 out of 18 benchmarks. Now it is part of everybody's vocabulary when referring to the Iraqi government. So, we hear regularly of a government in Baghdad paralyzed by partisan ideology and strife. Sound a little familiar? Substitute the U.S. Congress for the Iraqi Parliament and substitute Republicans and Democrats for Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds, and things might...

U.S. officials say the battle to clean up Iraq's government has suffered a "serious blow" with the resignation of the nation's top corruption fighter. The former watchdog, Judge Radhi Al Radhi, tells NBC News that Iraq's current government, headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is riddled with so much corruption that the U.S. must stop supporting it. Rahdi is now in the United States, and his departure from the Iraqi government comes just as the U.S. prepares for a key report from Gen. David Petraeus about the military "surge" in Iraq. Until last week, Rahdi headed the Iraqi government department...

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...

Politics Of War: The surge is working, and now Iraq's leaders appear to have forged a political deal that could serve as a template for a lasting peace in the fractious country. What's that you say? First you've heard of it? That doesn't mean it didn't happen. As the Reuters news service dutifully reported Monday, "Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders announced yesterday they reached consensus on several key measures seen as vital to fostering national reconciliation." Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the deal standing with leaders of Iraq's major political groups — President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd; Vice...

BAGHDAD - Iraq's top Shi'ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political leaders announced on Sunday they had reached consensus on some key measures seen as vital to fostering national reconciliation.The agreement by the five leaders was one of the most significant political developments in Iraq for months and was quickly welcomed by the United States, which hopes such moves will ease sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands.But skeptics will be watching for action amid growing frustration in Washington over the political paralysis that has gripped the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore congratulated Iraq's...

Updates with Islamic Party official's denial) By Waleed Ibrahim BAGHDAD, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister said on Sunday the country's biggest Sunni Arab political party had agreed to join a new alliance with Shi'ites and Kurds to end political paralysis, but a top official of the party denied it. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, under pressure from the United States to show progress towards national reconciliation, said the Iraqi Islamic Party of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi would join the alliance of moderate Shi'ite and Kurdish parties. The party has rebuffed overtures by the four leading parties in Maliki's government...

Iraq's top Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish political leaders reached consensus on some U.S. benchmarks on Sunday that are seen as crucial to healing the deep rifts in the country, Iraqi officials said. Three Iraqi officials said the leaders had signed an agreement that would ease curbs on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party joining the civil service and military. Two of the officials also said consensus had been reached on holding provincial elections and releasing many detainees held without charge across the country.

PRIME Minister John Howard has warned the Iraqi Government that unless it makes faster progress towards resolving the country's political differences it faces the prospect of Australian and other Western troops withdrawing. In a letter to his Iraqi counterpart Nouri al-Maliki, Mr Howard urged the Iraqi Government to speed the sharing of oil wealth among all sections of the Iraqi community, including the minority Sunni population, The Weekend Australian newspaper reported. Mr Howard warned that if the Iraqis failed to make progress, the public support for Australia's military deployment to Iraq may not be sustainable. The clear implication in Mr...

The Iraqi government is failing and the U.S. must plan cautiously for a withdrawal, Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, President George W. Bush's nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political bloc announced its withdrawal from the government Wednesday, undermining Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's efforts to seek reconciliation among the country's rival factions. Violence continued unabated, with 17 civilians killed in a car bomb in central Baghdad and the U.S. military announcing the deaths of three American soldiers killed by a sophisticated, armor-piercing bomb. Rafaa al-Issawi, a leading member of the Front, said at a news conference in the capital that the bloc's six Cabinet ministers would submit their resignations later in the day.

Iraq's Parliament has adjourned for its summer recess today. The Parliamentary speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani said in a statement that he had dismissed lawmakers until September 4, 2007. Mahmoud stated, "It is our constitutional right to take it (a break)." A preliminary White House assessment earlier this month faulted Iraqi leaders for failing to enact laws aimed at curbing violence, including measures to distribute oil revenue, hold provincial elections and loosen restrictions on members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party returning to public life. The recess means parliament will resume just before U.S. military

BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament on Monday shrugged off U.S. criticism and adjourned for a month, as key lawmakers declared there was no point waiting any longer for the prime minister to deliver Washington-demanded benchmark legislation for their vote. Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani closed the final three-hour session without a quorum present and declared lawmakers would not reconvene until Sept. 4. That date is just 11 days before the top U.S. military and political officials in Iraq must report to Congress on American progress in taming violence and organizing conditions for sectarian reconciliation. The recess, coupled with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's failure...

Measures Designed to Boost Iraq's Capacity, End Fuel Shortages WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- Iraq's Parliament has approved a law privatizing the country's oil-refining sector in order to lure investment and stem a fuel shortage. The law, approved Tuesday, is a step toward relinquishing government involvement in the refining sector and, when poverty is alleviated, moving Iraqi consumers from state-subsidized to market prices for fuel. Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told United Press International Wednesday from his mobile phone in Baghdad that the government will provide incentives to both domestic and foreign private oil companies whose refinery plans the ministry approves....

Iraq's largest bloc of Sunni politicians suspended membership in the government Wednesday, a bid that appeared timed to deepen disenchantment in Washington with the Shiite prime minister's faltering leadership. ... The Iraqi Accordance Front, which has six Cabinet seats and 44 of 275 in parliament, gave Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki a week to meet its demands or see ministers quit the 14-month-old government. The suspension was only the latest challenge to al-Maliki's dwindling ability to govern the country and promote national reconciliation. In April, five ministers loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr quit the government over al-Maliki's refusal to...

WASHINGTON — Senior military sources in Iraq said Tuesday they have no intention of moving up an assessment on progress in Iraq from September nor will an interim report due this week suggest that the Iraqi government has failed to reach any benchmarks for success. A spokesman to Gen. David Petraeus, the head of Multinational Forces in Iraq, told FOX News that the report that is due in September will be delivered in September. The remark was made following reports that Petraeus may deliver the report early in the face of growing impatience for the war on Capitol Hill. "There...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (June 8, 2006) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki finalized his cabinet today with the Iraqi parliament’s vote on the three remaining security ministry positions. Abdul Qadir Muhammed Jasim, a Sunni Arab, was confirmed as the new Minister of Defense. Jawad al-Bolani, a Shiite, was confirmed for the Minister of Interior. The final position of state minister of national security was put in the hands of Sherwan al-Waily, also a Shiite. The top positions of defense and interior were filled by former generals, both under the former regime. Neither Jasim nor al-Bolani are said to not have any...

WASHINGTON, May 31, 2006 – Although 1,500 U.S. troops were deployed this week from Kuwait to help calm the recent surge of violence in Ramadi, Iraq, the decision about how to handle the problem in that area ultimately belongs to the Iraqi government, a U.S. general involved in planning operations said here today. "There is a contest in Ramadi right now, and that is a contest for the Iraqi government to figure out how to deal with. Our job is to help them do that," Army Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, deputy director for regional operations for the Joint Staff, said...

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2006 – One day after Iraq's unity government was sworn in, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it's too soon to try to project when major U.S. troop withdrawals might occur. Speaking today on NBC's "Meet the Press," Rice said conditions on the ground and consultations with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government would play the question out over time. "We are going to sit with the new Iraqi prime minister and his team and look at the security situation both in terms of what remains to be done and who should do it," Rice said. The secretary...