A conservative Republican senator said Sunday most lawmakers believe President Bush will focus on reducing U.S. troops in Iraq once a top general reports in September on the war's progress.
The Iraq war, which for years has drawn militants from around the world, is beginning to export fighters to neighboring countries and beyond.
Arch foes Iran and the United States were poised on Monday to hold their highest-level official one-on-one talks in 27 years against a backdrop of mutual recriminations over the chaos in Iraq.
Supporters of both sides in the debate over the war in Iraq have gathered in a Delaware town every week since September 2004, sharing a faith in the power of silence.
U.S. officials are expected to call on Iran to stop arming and funding Shi'ite militias when Iranian and American diplomats hold rare talks in Baghdad on Monday to discuss how to curb sectarian violence in Iraq.
A US senator from President George W. Bush's Republican party said Sunday he and other members of Congress expect the number of US troops in Iraq to be reduced after September.
As of Sunday, May 27, 2007, at least 3,452 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 2,809 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Two U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Sunday, pushing May to the brink of becoming the deadliest month for U.S. forces this year.
U.S. forces have freed 42 Iraqi citizens who were kidnapped, held by al Qaeda in Iraq for as long as four months and possibly tortured, a U.S. military spokesman said Sunday.
U.S. and Iranian officials will hold rare talks in Baghdad on Monday to discuss security in Iraq, where Washington accuses Tehran of stoking violence.