Ibon Villelabeitia
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/ 10 January 2007

Calm in Sunni bastion ahead of Bush speech

Streets were quiet in a Baghdad district where United States and Iraqi forces killed 50 people in a major battle as President George Bush prepared on Wednesday to unveil a plan to send more troops to turn the war around. Iraqi troops sealed off some areas in Haifa Street, a Sunni Arab stronghold, but fighting from a major US and Iraqi operation to rid the area of ”terrorist hideouts” had ended.

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/ 4 January 2007

Iraq identifies two guards in Saddam video

Investigators have identified two guards who illicitly filmed Saddam Hussein’s execution, an official said on Thursday, as the Iraqi government sought to dampen growing outrage from Sunni Arabs over the unruly hanging. The mobile-phone video of Shi’ite officials taunting Saddam on the gallows has inflamed sectarian passions in a country on the brink of civil war.

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/ 5 December 2006

Baghdad attacks kill 30

Gunmen and bombers killed 30 people in Baghdad on Tuesday, including 14 Shi’ite religious workers after a powerful Iraqi Shi’ite leader urged President George Bush to strike harder at Sunni rebels to avert civil war. Gunmen killed the 14 employees of a Shi’ite religious foundation in the capital, while officials said three car bombs killed 16 people and wounded 25.

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/ 5 December 2006

Gunmen kill 15 Shi’ites in northern Baghdad

Gunmen killed 15 employees of a Shi’ite religious foundation on Tuesday, a day after one of Iraq’s most powerful Shi’ite leaders urged President George Bush to strike harder against Sunni rebels to avert a civil war. In a separate attack, three car bombs killed 16 people and wounded 25 near a fuel station in a religiously mixed area in southern Baghdad, officials said.

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/ 12 November 2006

Suicide bomber kills 35 at Iraqi police centre

A suicide bomber killed 35 people at an Iraqi police recruiting centre in Baghdad on Sunday, in the latest attack that undermines United States and Iraqi government efforts to bolster the country’s security forces. Interior Ministry sources said 56 people were also wounded in the attack after a bomber wearing an explosive-laden vest walked into the recruiting centre for police commandos.

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/ 24 October 2006

US urges Iraqi leaders to ‘step up’

The United States urged Iraqi leaders on Tuesday to work harder to achieve key political and security goals, amid mounting pressure on US President George Bush to change his policy. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told a news conference in Baghdad that success in Iraq was still possible and could be achieved in a ”realistic timetable”.