Iraq leader meets Blair as security plan fails to halt killing

[spindrifter]

The Times July 24, 2006

By James Hider in Baghdad

NOURI AL-MALIKI, the Iraqi Prime Minister, will meet Tony Blair in London today to discuss the crisis in Baghdad, where the new leader’s much-touted security plan has failed to stem the bloodshed that is dragging the city to the point of breakdown.

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On Tuesday he will arrive in Washington to discuss with President Bush fresh ways of curbing the killing, including deploying additional US troops in the capital — a significant turnabout for the US military, which had hoped to move its forces out of Iraqi cities and hand over security to local troops. As the bombings demonstrated yesterday in the militant Shia Baghdad district of Sadr City and the tense northern oil city of Kirkuk, the country is still mired in violence that appears to be getting worse.

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As well as the security plan, which Iraqi and US officials agree has fallen short of expectations, Mr al-Maliki has staked his last hopes of preventing the total collapse of his country on a reconciliation council that met for the first time over the weekend to try to thrash out differences between the various Sunni and Shia Arab factions, as well as the Kurdish parties.

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The main Sunni group in parliament did not attend the reconciliation meeting, casting doubt on the process.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2282719,00.html