3500 American troops dead how many more?

IRAQ: Lawmaker Confirms Kurd-Shia Clashes in Baghdad

By Ali al-Fadhily*

BAGHDAD, Jun 9 (IPS) - A May 29 IPS report on clashes between Kurdish Peshmerga troops and militiamen of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad has been confirmed by an Iraqi member of Parliament, representing the Sunni-led Iraqi Accordance Front (Al-Tawafuq).

Speaking on condition of strict anonymity inside the heavily-fortified Green Zone of central Baghdad where the Iraqi government meets, the MP told IPS that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "sold Kirkuk in exchange for Kurdish support for his collapsing government, and other matters such as not being in the way of Shiite militias in Baghdad."

U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies
"Sunni Arab groups",,,,Sunni insurgents?

By JOHN F. BURNS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
The New York Times
June 11, 2007

BAGHDAD, June 10 — With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.