Iraq has asked the US for air support in countering Sunni rebels, the top US general said last night, after the militants seized major cities in a lightning advance that has routed the Shi’ite-led government’s army.

Washington cannot sit back and allow Iraq to be overrun by a terrorist group that is capable of and willing to launch attacks on the US, writes Anja Manuel.

Barack Obama threatened US military strikes in Iraq yesterday against Sunni Islamist militants who have surged out of the north to menace Baghdad and want to establish their own state in Iraq and Syria.

Rumours about the shooting of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, sparked by Arab and Israeli media reports on Saturday, remain unconfirmed.

A SERIES of bombings hit Baghdad, killing at least 69 people in the first big assault on Iraq’s capital since a sectarian crisis erupted within its government days after the US troop withdrawal.

THE last convoy of US soldiers pulled out of Iraq yesterday, ending nearly nine years of war that cost almost 4,500 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives and left a country grappling with political uncertainty.

US forces formally marked the end of their mission in Iraq with a low-key ceremony near Baghdad, after nearly nine years of divisive war that began with the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

IRAQI authorities uncovered a mass grave with 900 corpses near the central city of Diwaniyah yesterday, believed to be Kurds killed during the rule of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, an official said.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon may have almost blown his chances of re-election by antagonising Moscow over the Balkans in 2008 but he has since focused on pleasing the US, Russia and other big UN powers, making his re-election tomorrow a certainty.

A Shia cleric who led two uprisings in Iraq has urged his followers to resist what he described as occupiers from the US, Israel and Britain.

IRAQ’S parliament approved Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his new government yesterday, nine months after an inconclusive election left politics in limbo and delayed investments to rebuild the country after years of war.

IRAQ’S high tribunal yesterday passed a death sentence on Tareq Aziz, once the international face of dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime, over the persecution of Islamic parties, the court said.

AN Iraqi general has called into question whether his troops are ready to defend the country against a stubborn insurgency and external threats.

THE Iraqi television reporter jailed for throwing his shoes at former US president George W Bush was freed yesterday and said he was tortured by electric shocks and simulated drowning in custody.

A SERIES of blasts in Baghdad yesterday killed 95 people and wounded 536 in Iraq’s bloodiest day this year, renewing doubt over Iraqi forces’ ability to maintain security after US troops pulled out of urban areas.

IRAQ regained full control if its towns and cities yesterday as US troops pulled back, six years after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

BRITISH forces have formally ended combat operations in Iraq, one month ahead of schedule, with a ceremony to remember their dead during six years of warfare.

About 12,000 US soldiers and 4,000 British soldiers will leave Iraq by September, it was announced, hours after a Baghdad suicide bomber killed about 30 people in a chilling reminder of the nation’s still-shaky security.

IRAQ has demanded changes be made to a draft security pact with the United States after it failed to win the support of its political leaders despite months of painstaking negotiations with Washington.

Joe Biden is Obama’s strongest line of defence against McCain, writes Karen McCarthy in New York.

IRAQI Premier Nuri al-Maliki last night said Washington and Baghdad have agreed there will be no foreign forces in Iraq after 2011, setting a timeline for a US withdrawal from the war-torn country.

NEGOTIATORS have finalised a deal that will see the complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by 2011, ending an eight-year occupation, the top official in the Iraqi team claimed.

THE number of Iraqis killed in March climbed to 1,082, the highest monthly figure since August 2007, amid a spike in violence driven by clashes between Shi’ite militiamen and security forces, officials have said.

US VICE President Dick Cheney yesterday declared the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq a “successful endeavour” in a visit to Iraq that was overshadowed by a suicide bombing that killed at least 32 people.

AN IRAQI traffic policeman told yesterday how Blackwater security guards caused carnage when they opened fire on civilians in Baghdad, as a senior officer probing the shooting insisted it was unprovoked.