IRAQIS reacted with scepticism to promises from US President George W Bush of an independent future, saying an offer of sovereignty did not go far enough to restore their freedom.

Ahmed Chalabi was once the Pentagon’s favourite Iraqi – seen as a possible president following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Ahamd Chalabi, once the Pentagon’s favourite Iraqi, found himself the target of a US army raid in Baghdad today.

US soldiers and Iraqi police surrounded the residence of Iraqi political leader Ahmad Chalabi today, and an aide said the troops raided the house to search for fugitives.

Iraqi leaders have set up a tribunal of judges and prosecutors to try ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

THE Irish National Congress (INC) was invited by the chairperson of the sub-committee on the Barron Report, Sean Ardagh, to present a submission outlining our views and concerns on Mr Justice Henry Barron’s interim report.

In what is purported to be his last known wartime speech – a video never before televised – Saddam Hussein appears exhausted, at times confused and seemingly resigned to defeat, but he tells Iraqis that God, somehow, will help them expel the American-British occupiers.

TWO leading figures in Saddam Hussein’s former regime are now in custody after one was captured and the other surrendered.

A top enforcer in Saddam Hussein’s regime may face war crimes charges after being captured and handed over to Allied forces in Iraq, officials said today.

SADDAM HUSSEIN remains in Iraq and is moving around the country, the leader of a US-backed Iraqi opposition group said in an interview broadcast yesterday.

The man charged with overseeing the re-building of Iraq arrived in Baghdad today as the United States faced growing calls to withdraw from the country.

Ahmed Chalabi, the Pentagon’s favourite to lead Iraq, today denied he was a candidate for the top job.

THE suddenness of Saddam Hussein’s fall has opened a power vacuum in Iraq, a power struggle in Washington and another transatlantic tug-of-war.

THE US military has begun flying Iraqi opposition fighters to join in the war, a top general said, as the Pentagon warned the military may have to run the country for more than six months after the conflict.

A group of non-Iraqi Arabs belonging to terrorist network al-Qaida are operating in the Najaf and Karbala regions of Iraq, according to a leading opposition group.

The Iraqi National Congress (INC): Founded in 1992 as an umbrella group for other exiled opposition groups, the INC has since faced claims it acts unilaterally as its own party.

AHMED Chalabi has been described by his supporters in Washington as a "rare find" a man deeply rooted in the Arab world but fundamentally a Westerner.

Hundreds of Iraqi opposition figures today began talks on the future of Iraq after the end of the Saddam Hussein regime.

Baghdad’s forces would crumble if the US invaded, a prominent Iraqi opposition leader told US officials in Washington yesterday.

An exiled Iraqi opposition group that wants to increase its intelligence activities inside the country said it had held meetings with an ex-CIA chief and US State Department officials in London.