Iraq’s parliament speaker slapped a fellow Sunni Arab lawmaker on the face today as he was leaving a stormy session in which he accused “three-quarters” of the house’s 275 members of involvement in sectarian violence.

A majority of Iraqi politicians have signed draft legislation that calls for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.

Insurgents penetrated security today in a city sacred to Shiites, planting a car bomb near one of Iraq’s holiest shrines and killing at least 37 people in a continued surge in attacks outside Baghdad during a security crackdown there.

Few Iraqi MPs managed to attend a rare emergency legislative session today after a suicide bomber ripped through their cafeteria in a brazen attack inside Baghdad’s US-guarded Green Zone.

Radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr today announced his followers were returning to the political fold in an apparent bid to regain legislative influence ahead of a planned security crackdown.

A curfew that had banned vehicles from Baghdad’s streets and closed its international airport to all civilian flights for three days was lifted today, clearing the way for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to travel to Iran for an official visit.

Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders today called for an end to Iraq’s sectarian conflict and vowed to track down those responsible for the war’s deadliest attack.

Iraq’s largest Sunni-Arab political party today condemned a car bomb attack inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone that apparently attempted to kill Iraq’s controversial speaker of parliament.

Six bomb attacks in Baghdad killed at least 17 people and wounded more than 50 today, hours before a highly anticipated ceremony in which the US-led coalition was to hand over control of the country’s armed forces command to Iraqi authorities.

Gunmen kidnapped a Sunni female member of parliament in Baghdad today along with her guards, the parliament speaker’s office said.