As the British plan a drawdown in Basra, the US has abandoned southern Iraq to warring factions
The security convoy that on Tuesday fired on a car in Iraq's capital, killing two Iraqi women, was an Australian firm, Iraq's Interior Ministry said. The firm, Unity Resources Group, has offices in Dubai.
As of Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2007, at least 3,818 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 3,109 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Two suicide car bombs killed 22 people in northern Iraq on Tuesday in attacks targeting a police chief and a tribal leader working with U.S. forces, part of an upsurge in violence that killed 56 across the country.
Government auditors have concluded the Bush administration's program to help provide essential services to the Iraqi people is marred by a lack of "overarching direction" in Washington and corruption and a lack of skills in Iraq.
Turkey's ruling party decided Tuesday to seek parliamentary approval for an offensive against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, a move that could open a new front in the Iraq war and disrupt one of that nation's few relatively peaceful areas.
Bombings and shootings in central Iraq and Baghdad, including twin suicide truck bomb attacks on leading figures in the fight against Al-Qaeda, killed at least 33 Iraqis on Tuesday, officials said.
A council of the country's top political and military leaders issued a statement allowing troops to cross the border to eliminate separatist Kurdish rebel camps in the mountainous border area of northern Iraq.
Britain's decision to bring half of its 5,000 soldiers home from Iraq by spring is the latest blow to the U.S.-led coalition. The alliance is crumbling, and fast: excluding Americans, the multinational force was once 50,000 strong — by mid-2008, it will be down to 7,000.
Turkey on Tuesday threatened a military incursion in northern Iraq as part of stepped up measures against Kurdish rebel bases there following the deaths of 15 soldiers in weekend attacks.