Two suicide car bombs exploded near the home of a tribal leader in the Abu Ghraib district west of Baghdad March 27, killing the sheikh's son and several other people. Sheikh Thahir al-Dari, whose home was targeted, is the head of the al-Zobaie tribe and belongs to a group opposed to al-Qaeda. Salam al-Zobaie, Iraq's deputy prime minister who survived an assassination bid last week, belongs to al-Dari's tribe. (AlJazeera, March 27)

In an apparent bid to buy peace with Sunnis. the Iraqi government plans to introduce a new law allowing former Baath Party members to return to official posts. The law creates a three-month period for the ex-members to be challenged, after which they will be immune from prosecution over Saddam-era crimes. (BBC, March 27)

See our last posts on Iraq and the sectarian warafre.