France's foreign minister paid an unannounced and highly symbolic visit to Baghdad on Sunday — the first by a senior French official since the war started and a gesture to the American effort in Iraq after years of icy relations over the U.S.-led invasion. Bernard Kouchner said Paris wanted to "turn the page" and look to the future.
The visit by the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, was the highest level visit by a French official to Iraq since the 2003 invasion.
When years from now historians and government officials reexamine precedents set by the U.S. experience in Iraq, many "firsts" are likely to pop up.
BAGHDAD, Aug. 19 -- A senior U.S. general said Sunday that about 50 members of an elite Iranian military unit are training Shiite militias south of Baghdad, the first time the U.S. military has alleged that Iranians are aiding insurgents from inside Iraq.
Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has pledged to commit his forces and followers to help the United Nations were it to replace American and British troops in Iraq, in an interview published on Monday.
Sapped by nearly six years of war, the Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if the Bush administration decides to extend the Iraq buildup beyond next spring.
As of Sunday, Aug. 19, 2007, at least 3,706 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 3,046 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Baghdad on Sunday on the first visit by a top French official to Iraq since the beginning of the U.S.-led war in 2003 which France vigorously opposed.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner made a landmark visit to Baghdad on Sunday and offered his country's support to try to end the turmoil engulfing Iraq, in a fresh sign of improving US-French ties.
Encouraged by widespread opposition to the conflict in Iraq, Hollywood film-makers are preparing to unleash an unprecedented wave of war movies on cinema-goers.