Muthana Security Goes To Iraqis.

In the south, the government on July 13 officially took full control of security of Muthana Province, a relatively calm desert region about the size of West Virginia with strong tribal influences, an overwhelmingly Shi'ite population and little recent history of sectarian friction. British troops, with Australian and Japanese military support, have been overseeing the province since 2003 but will now withdraw from the major cities, leaving day-to-day operations to the Iraqi military and police.

In a joint statement, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. Casey called the handover a milestone in Iraq's transition toward "self-governance".

Maliki is to visit Washington on July 25. It would be his first visit to the White House since becoming prime minister on May 20. George W. Bush and Maliki first met on June 13, when the US president showed up unexpectedly in Baghdad.

Iraq's largest Sunni bloc on July 13 said in the interest of promoting calm, it would end its 10-day boycott of parliament. It suspended participation on July 2 after a colleague, Ms Tayseer Najah al-Mashhadani, was kidnapped. Many Sunnis have blamed the abduction on Jaysh al-Mahdi, a militia loyal to the radical Shi'ite mullah Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr and his MPs have denied any involvement. Ala' Makki, a Sunni leader, said the bloc's decision to participate once again was influenced by Sadr, who on July 9 issued an appeal for harmony and the convening of a special meeting of parliament to address the sectarian bloodshed.

The sudden surge in violence began in the morning of July 9 as masked Shi'ite gunmen appeared on the streets of west Baghdad's Sunni area of Jihad and began executing people whose ID cards showed they were Sunnis. That vigilantism, after the bombing of a Shi'ite mosque on July 8, only ended after intervention by US forces. But it was closely followed by retributive car bomb attacks against another Shi'ite mosque.

In the most deadly attack on July 11, two pedestrians wearing vests made of explosives blew themselves up near a restaurant outside the walls of the Green Zone, within a few hundred yards of three busy entrances. Soon after the initial blasts, a hidden bomb was detonated nearby, adding to the carnage. The third explosion was caused by a car bomb. At least 15 Iraqi civilians and an Iraqi police officer were killed in the explosions, and 4 people were wounded. In an Internet posting, two prominent insurgent groups claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council in Iraq, which groups several Neo-Salafi organisations, said it was behind two of the suicide bombings, according to SITE Institute which monitors jihadis postings on the Internet. The Islamic Army in Iraq claimed credit for the third explosion. The claims raised the possibility of a co-ordinated strike by the Neo-Salafis. The Islamic Army said it had struck in revenge for the rape and slaying of an Iraqi girl and the killing of three other family members in Mahmudiya. Five US troops and a recently discharged soldier have been implicated the case.

In a predominantly Sunni area of Dawra, in southern Baghdad, gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Shi'ite mourners from the holy city of Najaf, where they had buried a relative. The gunmen pulled 10 people from the bus and executed them. An hour earlier in Taji, north of Baghdad, gunmen ambushed another bus, killing one person and wounding five. Two mortar grenades hit a Shi'ite mosque in Dawra, killing 9 and wounding 11 civilians.

In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, a time bomb exploded in the medical clinic of Ameera al-Rubaie, the wife of the governor of Salahuddin Province. Dr. Rubaie, a gynecologist, was killed and four of her patients were wounded. In Ba'quba, north of Baghdad, the mayor of the Um al-Nawa district was assassinated by gunmen. In the Shi'ite holy city of Karbala, a drive-by shooting killed two workers in the central market. An engineer and his bodyguard were assassinated on their way to work in Kirkuk on July 11. A car bomb in Mosul killed two people and wounded four.

On July 1, a suicide car bomber roared into a street market in Sadr City, killing at least 62 people in the deadliest explosion in Iraq in months. Sunni neighbourhoods of Baghdad were raided by Sadr's Jaysh al-Mahdi and attacked with mortars for days later. Sadr, however, is trying to have an anti-US alliance among Iraq's Sunni minority, while his movement is spit into several different factions.