Lt. Col. Dale C. Kuehl, commander of 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, who is responsible for the Amariyah area of the capital, confirmed the U.S. military's role in the fighting in the Sunni district. He said the battles raged Wednesday and Thursday but died off at night.

Although Al Qaeda is a Sunni organization opposed to the Shiite Muslim-dominated government, its ruthlessness and reliance on foreign fighters have alienated many Sunnis in Iraq.

The U.S. military congratulated Amariyah residents for standing up to Al Qaeda.

"The events of the past two days are promising developments. Sunni citizens of Amariyah that have been previously terrorized by Al Qaeda are now resisting and want them gone. They're tired of the intimidation that included the murder of women," Kuehl said...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - US forces have killed an Al-Qaeda kingpin they allege sent 12-year-old Iraqi boys to their deaths as suicide car bombers, a military statement said Wednesday.

US command said they had identified a suspect killed northwest of Baghdad on April 20 as Muhammad Abdullah Abbas al-Issawi, also known as Abu Akram and Abu Abd al-Sattar, the Al-Qaeda "security emir" in eastern Anbar province.

"Coalition forces were conducting operations targeting associates of a known senior leader within Al-Qaeda in Iraq," the statement said.

"During the operation the terrorists engaged ground forces with small arms fire. Coalition forces used appropriate self-defence measures and engaged the armed men, killing two and detaining one," it said.

According to the statement, suicide bomb vests were found at the scene, and "intelligence reports also indicate that his VBIED (car bomb) cell used 12- to 13-year-old children as VBIED drivers."...

RAMADI, Iraq - Not long ago it would have been unthinkable: a Sunni sheik allying himself publicly with American forces in a xenophobic city at the epicenter of Iraq's Sunni insurgency.

Today, there is no mistaking whose side Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Rishawi is on. Outside his walled home, a U.S. tank is on permanent guard beside a clutch of towering date palms and a protective dirt berm.

The 36-year-old sheik is leading a growing movement of Sunni tribesmen who have turned against al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Anbar province. The dramatic shift in alliances may have done more in a few months to ease daily street battles and undercut the insurgency here than American forces have achieved in years with arms.

The American commander responsible for Ramadi, Col. John W. Charlton, said the newly friendly sheiks, combined with an aggressive counterinsurgency strategy and the presence of thousands of new Sunni police on the streets, have helped cut attacks in the city by half in recent months.

[...]

Al-Rishawi, whose father and three brothers were killed by al-Qaida assassins, said insurgents were "killing innocent people, anyone suspected of opposing them. They brought us nothing but destruction and we finally said, enough is enough."

[...]

But violence in some districts of Ramadi previously hit by daily street battles has dwindled to a degree so low that American soldiers can walk on the streets in some areas and hand out soccer balls without provoking a firefight — apparently a direct result of the sheik's influence.

U.S. Lt. Nathan Strickland, also of the 1-77th, said the sheiks were influenced by the realization that Shiite Iran's regional influence was rising, and "the presence of (Sunni) foreign fighters here was disrupting the traditional local tribal structure."

Al-Rishawi and other sheiks urged their tribesmen to join the police force, and 4,500 Sunnis heeded the call in Ramadi alone — a remarkable feat in a city that had almost no police a year ago...

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 18, 2007 — In Iraq there are signs that the government may be taking some of the steps President Bush has called for in his new strategy, including reining in Shiite fighters blamed for kidnapping, torturing and executing large numbers of Sunnis.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki claims he's going after the Mahdi Army, the largest, most dangerous Shiite militia in Iraq. They are blamed for a massive, murderous campaign of religious violence.

"Within the last few days," Maliki said, "400 members of the Mahdi Army have been detained."

The Mahdi Army is run by the radical religious leader Moqtada al Sadr, a fellow Shiite who helped Maliki take power. In an interview to be published in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Sadr confirms 400 of his men have been arrested.

"The final attack against us has already started," said al Sadr. "They can kill me but the Mahdi Army will survive."...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Saddam Hussein's date with death appears to be just hours away. The former president of Iraq will be hanged "within a matter of hours," a Bush administration official told FOX News on Friday.

"The final meetings have taken places," the official said, adding in Iraqis have requested Sddam be turned over to them. "The process is now in the final stage."

Earlier, the Associated Press reported via a top Iraqi official that Saddam would be hanged before 10 p.m. ET Friday night (6 a.m. Saturday in Baghdad).

The official witnesses to the impending execution gathered Friday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, and state television broadcast footage of his regime's atrocities.

Saddam's chief lawyer said the U.S. had turned over custody of the mass murderer to Iraqi officials, one of the last steps necessary before the execution. An Iraqi parliamentarian, Methal Al Aloser, backed up the lawyer's claims. Al Aloser said not only had Saddam been handed over, but all papers and documents were finalized and the execution will be soon...

The Iraqi government is "anxious to get Saddam's execution done" and that it is likely to be carried out before the New Year — perhaps even within the next 24 hours, a U.S. military official told FOX News.

This official says American forces are now in the process of finalizing the former Iraqi dictator's transfer to Iraqi custody and to the location where he would be executed. Several U.S. officials say they are not ruling out Saddam being put to death as early as Friday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein bade two half brothers farewell on Thursday in a rare prison meeting as he awaits execution, a lawyer said, but U.S. and Iraqi officials gave conflicting accounts of whether he would hang within days.

A senior Bush administration official said the ousted president could go to the gallows as soon as Saturday.

But Iraqi officials backed away from suggestions they would definitely hang him within a month and a cabinet minister told Reuters a week-long religious holiday would stall any execution.

"He was in very high spirits and clearly readying himself," Badie Aref, a defense lawyer, told Reuters after the 69-year-old former leader met half-brothers Watban and Sabawi, who are also both held at the U.S. army's Camp Cropper near Baghdad airport.

"He told them he was happy he would meet his death at the hands of his enemies and be a martyr, not just languish in jail.

"He ... gave them letters to his family in anticipation."

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iraq's oil production is now over 2.5 million barrels a day, a record since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the country's oil minister said.

Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani said on US television that Iraq hoped to be producing 4.3 million barrels by 2010 and to be challenging Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer by 2015.

Production was about 2.5 million dollars a day when President Saddam Hussein was deposed by US-led forces in 2003. It then collapsed to virtually nothing and has been slow to rebuild because of insurgent attacks and other problems.

In an interview with CNN television, Shahristani emphasized that only one month and three days after the Iraqi government took office "we have been able to break a record".

"Today's oil production was in excess of 2.5 million barrel a day. And that's a record since the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003," he told CNN's "Late Edition" programme...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The security crackdown in Baghdad entered its second day as authorities sought to restore stability in the violence-plagued Iraqi capital.

More than 50,000 Iraqi and US forces descended on the streets of Baghdad Wednesday as part of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's new security plan for the city which has seen dozens of people killed each day in bombings and shootings.

The plan, Operation Forward Together, is one of the largest since the March 2003 invasion by US-led troops and Maliki called upon all political groups, religious leaders and ordinary Iraqis to support it...

BAGHDAD, Jun. 9 (UPI) — U.S. forces conducted at least 56 raids on targets connected with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq organization in the 48 hours after his death.

Citing military officials, The Los Angeles Times reported the raids were intended to capitalize on the killing of al-Zarqawi by disrupting his network of fighters.

After bombing a dwelling where al-Zarqawi and five others were killed Wednesday, U.S. forces carried out 17 raids across Baghdad. Forces hit 39 more sites on Friday, said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad.

Military officials displayed pictures of items seized in the raids -- including weapons, uniforms and ammunition -- and said at least 25 people were captured and one killed, the newspaper said. Hover, officials did not provide an assessment of the extent of damage from the raids on insurgent operations.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian government's security chief and a key player in rocket attacks on Israel was killed Thursday in an Israeli air strike on a Palestinian militants' training camp.

The Israeli military confirmed striking the Popular Resistance Committees camp in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, saying militants there were planning a large-scale attack on Israel.

It said "the camp was the target" when asked if Jamal Abu Samhadana, the No. 2 man on Israel's wanted list, had been the target.

Hospital officials said his body was incinerated in the strike, but his face was recognizable...

Some Democrats, breaking ranks from their leadership, today said the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in Iraq was a stunt to divert attention from an unpopular and hopeless war.

"This is just to cover Bush's [rear] so he doesn't have to answer" for Iraqi civilians being killed by the U.S. military and his own sagging poll numbers, said Rep. Pete Stark, California Democrat. "Iraq is still a mess -- get out."

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Democrat, said Zarqawi was a small part of "a growing anti-American insurgency" and that it's time to get out.

"We're there for all the wrong reasons," Mr. Kucinich said.

Officially, Democratic leaders reacted positively to the news and praised the troops that successfully targeted al Qaeda's leader in Iraq with 500-pound bombs at his safe house 30 miles from Baghdad...

BAGHDAD [MENL] -- The U.S. military has intensified its hunt for Al Qaida network chief Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi.

U.S. and Iraqi troops, acting on new intelligence, have been raiding suspected Al Qaida hideouts in the area of Balad, north of Baghdad. Officials said new information has been obtained that indicated Al Zarqawi's whereabouts.

"Iraq has a bright future planned for its children, and that future does not include Jordanian-born Zarqawi or Al Qaida," U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Thomas Wright, who did not confirm the effort, told Arab journalists in an April 30 briefing.

Since April 16, the U.S. military has launched four raids against suspected Al Qaida safe houses in Iraq in search of Al Zarqawi. Over the last year, the military has captured or killed at least 25 of Al Zarqawi's lieutenants in central and northern Iraq.

The welcome formation of a new unity government notwithstanding, the climate in Iraq remains poisonous. And now, observers lament, there are no more big "unifying events" on the calendar. America's reputation as freedom's champion is taking lumps around the globe, while here at home public support for the war is waning. Arab nations are using the situation in Iraq to push an anti-democratic and anti-American agenda. Terrorists have made the Iraq conflict the Spanish civil war of the war on terror.

I have an idea to help fix all that. Let's let the Iraqi people vote on whether American troops should stay in Iraq.

President Bush has said that if a democratically elected government of Iraq asked us to leave, we would. I think Bush is sincere, but the truth is that no Iraqi government is going to ask U.S. troops to withdraw anytime soon, because American troops are the only thing holding the country together.

The Iraqi people understand this, too. In the town of Talafar, for example, American troops are keeping Iraqi factions from killing each other. Sheik Abdullah Al Yawar, a leading Sunni in the province, recently told The New Republic's Lawrence Kaplan that if U.S. soldiers withdraw, "there will be rivers of blood." The Atlantic Monthly's Robert Kaplan (no relation) recently wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "My most recent searing, first-hand impression of Iraq, from last December, is this one: one town and village after another getting back on its feet, with residents telling American troops not to leave."...

Jordanian-born al Qaeda militant Abu Musab Zarqawi has been replaced as head of the terrorist organization in Iraq in a bid to put an Iraqi figure at the head of the group's struggle, said a leading Islamist.

But terrorism specialists were divided on whether the move represented a demotion for the figure most closely identified with a wave of suicide bombings and beheadings or a move by Zarqawi to focus his efforts on a larger regional war.

Huthayafa Azzam, whose father is seen as a political mentor of al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, told reporters in Jordan over the weekend that Zarqawi, who has not made a public statement in months, was no longer the head of al Qaeda in Iraq and that his role "has been limited to military action."

Azzam, who claims close contacts with leading insurgents inside Iraq, said Zarqawi had "made many political mistakes," including kidnappings and beheadings that sparked popular revulsion and unauthorized operations outside Iraq, such as the November bombing of a Jordanian hotel.

"The resistance command inside and outside Iraq, including imams, criticized [Zarqawi] and after long discussions demanded that he be confined to military action," Azzam told the Associated Press and other news outlets.

U.S. military officials in Baghdad have put a $25 million bounty on Zarqawi's head, and talked as recently as last week of the Jordanian terrorist's leading role and of attacks thought to be carried out by his group, al Qaeda in Iraq.

Reports that Zarqawi had been shunted aside are "nothing we can verify," Lt. Col. Barry Johnson told reporters in Baghdad yesterday...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An unmanned Air Force Predator fired a Hellfire missile at three Iraqis planting a roadside bomb near Balad Air Base north of Baghdad, killing all three, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

Cameras on the Predator sent back live pictures of the three insurgents for about half an hour Tuesday night as they dug a hole in the road, placed the explosive and ran triggering wires to a ditch near the road, according to a Central Command statement.

“This strike should send a message to our enemies that we’re watching you, and we will take action against you any time, day or night, if you continue to stand in the way of progress in Iraq,” Brig. Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing at Balad, said in the statement.

Balad, 40 miles north of Baghdad, has become the logistics hub for all U.S. military operations in Iraq. It was the former Iraqi air force academy.