IRAQ: Iraqi leaders broke a rancorous stalemate over plans for regional autonomy yesterday by agreeing to put off any final decision for at least 18 months on an issue many fear might tear the country apart in sectarian civil war.
Pulling parliament back from the brink of a Sunni minority boycott over federalism, Shia majority leaders, who have been keen to set up a large autonomous region in their oil-rich south, agreed that legislation needed to implement such a move could not take effect for 18 months after it was passed.
Two US marines were killed yesterday in the Anbar province and a dozen people died in several bomb attacks, mostly in Baghdad. The Iraqi army announced the capture of a person it described as a leading insurgent. The suspect was said to be head of the western Baghdad wing of the 1920 Revolution Brigades.