Early reports suggest that in his testimony to a congressional committee today, General David Petraeus will claim that the Iranians assisted the Mahdi Army militia to fight the forces of Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki in the recent week-long battle in Basra.
Dortmund went closer in the 67th minute with a Nuri Sahin free-kick from a dangerous position which Stephan Lichtsteiner headed out at the far post.
What undermines Bush's assertions on Iran's destabilising activities in Iraq is the absence of any such statements by the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki's government.
Nuri Bilge Ceylan wins the Palme d'Or for Winter Sleep Giant cheer as the Turkish director's name is called.
Read Xan's review of Winter's Sleep Nuri Bilge Ceylan collects the Palme d'Or from Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman.
A wave of sectarian bloodletting elsewhere in the country cast doubt on the survival of Nuri al-Maliki's Shia-dominated coalition government.
IS is a new security headache, sucking in Islamist radicals from Europe and America, but America has so far resisted sending regular troops to fight the militants.After eight years in power, Nuri al-Maliki quit as Iraq's prime minister.
The prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, will tighten an authoritarian grip, albeit that he was democratically elected in 2010.
LAST May, Iraq's newly-chosen prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, declared his government's intention to "put an end to the militias" believed to be responsible for most of the country's hideous sectarian violence.
In Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, by far the most powerful of the rebel militias, has been absorbed by al-Qaeda in Iraq, which itself has re-energised the bloody Sunni insurgency against the Shia-dominated government of Nuri al-Maliki.
Recruitment to radical jihadist groups has surged and the hideous cycle of sectarian attacks and counter-attacks, which had died down four years ago, has restarted with a vengeance.This is not wholly the fault of the hastily written constitution, but its vague wording has notably failed to check the powers of the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki.
