Word: thursday
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...base to resist U.S. demands will likely be greater than whatever leverage President Bush can bring to bear: The Iraqi leader has long made clear that he can only move against the Shi'ite militias after the Sunni insurgent threat has been removed, and the bloodshed in Sadr City Thursday will only reinforce that point. Indeed, Sadr's party threatened to quit the government if Maliki's meeting with Bush goes ahead next week - and Sadr's support has been critical to keeping him in power...
...latest escalation in bloodshed began with a two-hour siege Thursday by Sunni gunmen on the Ministry of Health; then suspected Sunni insurgents detonated a series of bombs in crowded places in Sadr City and other Shi'ite neighborhoods that killed more than 160 people. Shi'ite militiamen retaliated by firing mortars at mosques and other targets in neighboring Sunni suburbs. And tensions were further inflamed by an incident in which U.S. troops, searching in Sadr City for a kidnapped American soldier, fired on a van that refused to slow down in response to a signal, killing four civilians...
...safe bet that those responsible for Thursday's bombings calculated their political effect - the most extreme wing of the Sunni insurgency, which routinely engages in the mass killing of Shi'ite civilians, has no interest in the success of a national reconciliation project in which they would be the big losers. And while Iraqi leaders issued by-now routine calls for reconciliation and calm, many observers feared that Thursday's bombings could have a similar effect to the bombing of the Shi'ite shrine at Samarra in the spring, which dramatically escalated the sectarian confrontation. It will certainly take more...
...last week as the top Democratic hopeful in New Hampshire’s 2008 Senate race—but she still hasn’t said whether or not she will throw her hat into the ring. After a top aide to New Hampshire Governor John Lynch confirmed last Thursday that the first-term Democrat doesn’t intend to run for senator, Shaheen became the party’s best chance to win the ’08 race, observers say. Shaheen, who was appointed IOP chief in 2005, served three terms as the Granite State?...
...Hizballah and the pro-Syrian opposition have promised mass demonstrations and strikes, perhaps as early as Thursday, to press their demand for the government's resignation and replacement by a cabinet in which they have greater representation. The government's supporters have promised counter demonstrations. Now, the death of Gemayel raises the prospect of a confrontation between the two sides. Already, supporters of Gemayel have rioted in the streets around the hospital that contains his remains...