Free Republic

Gunmen Kill Sister of Iraq's Sunni VP Thursday , April 27, 2006 BAGHDAD, Iraq — A sister of Iraq's new Sunni Arab vice president was killed in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad on Thursday, police said. She died one day after her brother called for the Sunni-dominated insurgency to be crushed by force. In southern Iraq, a bomb hit an Italian military convoy at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, killing three soldiers -- two Italians and a Romanian -- and seriously injuring another passenger, Italy's government said. The explosion near an Italian military base was caused by a roadside bomb that hit...

Iraq's vice president has asked President Bush for a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, the Iraqi president's office said. Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, made the request during his meeting with Bush on Tuesday, when the U.S. president made a surprise visit to Iraq. "I supported him in this," President Jalal Talabani said in a statement released Wednesday. Al-Hashimi's representatives could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. Bush made it clear during his visit that the U.S. military presence — now at about 132,000 troops — would continue, though he stressed the fate of...

Baghdad (CNN) -- Iraq's Judicial Committee issued an arrest warrant Monday for Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, who is accused of orchestrating bombing attacks. The warrant was issued under "Article 4," which is terrorism. The Interior Ministry, at a news conference, showed what it called confession videos from people identified as security guards for al-Hashimi, the country's Sunni vice president. In the videos, the men described various occasions in which they purportedly carried out attacks under direct orders from al-Hashimi. One man said he carried out assassination attempts using roadside bombs and guns with silencers. He said the orders came from...