Emergency declared in Ramadi after two successive bomb attacks; al-Maliki expresses unhappiness over alleged meeting of US officials with Iraqi insurgent groups in Istanbul in March 2008; Ruling party leads in Kurdish election
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  • Authorities in Iraq’s western city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province declared a state of emergency and imposed a vehicle ban after two successive bomb attacks in the city killed three people and wounded 13 others. A vehicle ban was also imposed in Falluja, Anbar’s second biggest city1.

    Reports noted that PM al-Maliki expressed his unhappiness to President Obama regarding an alleged meeting of US officials with representatives of the ‘Iraqi resistance movement’ in March 2008 in Istanbul. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters in Washington that the Iraqi government found it “shocking” that US officials met with these people and added that Baghdad was investigating the issue. A State Department spokesman confirmed that the Istanbul meeting had taken place with Baghdad’s knowledge, and was part of reconciliation efforts between Shiite and Sunni insurgents2.

    In other developments, over 80 per cent of eligible voters participated in the July 25 parliamentary and presidential elections in Iraqi Kurdistan. Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) stated that the preliminary results would be announced by July 27. The ruling parties — the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), led by Kurdish President Masoud Barzani, and the Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani — competed against alliances of smaller parties. The opposition parties on their part charged that voting irregularities will hurt their chances3.

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