On July 25, the day after the vote, an opposition party claimed there had been violations in the presidential and parliamentary elections in Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region. The opposition front called Goran ("Change") is seeking to shake up the political establishment in Iraq's three Kurdish-ruled provinces that have been dominated by two parties for decades. Early projections suggest the KDP and PUK retain their parliamentary majority, while the Goran list scored big in the city of Sulaimaniyah, a stronghold of the PUK led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Change is led by Nosherwan Mustafa, a former PUK insider who broke with the party.

At least five people were killed and some 36 others injured July 16 as an explosion ripped through Baghdad's Shi'ite district of Sadr City. The improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated at the entrance of a funeral tent that had been set up on the street. The attack came hours after authorities began imposing a strict curfew on Baghdad and set up check posts across the city in preparation for the Sunday martyrdom anniversary of the seventh Shi'ite Imam, Musa al-Kadhim. Another eight people sustained injuries in a bomb blast targeting visitors at Imam Musa's mausoleum at Kadhimiya in northern Baghdad. (Press TV, Iran, July 16)

The National Court of Spain July 14 dismissed charges against three US soldiers who were accused of being involved in the death of Spanish cameraman José Couso. The soldiers allegedly opened fire on a Baghdad hotel frequented by Western journalists in 2003 without provocation, killing two cameramen.

The bombing of the Virgin Fatima Church in Mosul July 12—hours after a wave of attacks on churches in Baghdad—brings the total to seven churches bombed in Iraq over the weekend. The bombings came even though Assyrian Christian sources warned of the impending attacks days ago. Four have been killed and more than 30 injured in the apparently coordinated terror campaign.

In an extraordinary session at Irbil, the parliament of Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) voted July 9 to postpone a referendum scheduled later this month on the autonomous region's controversial constitution. The referendum was to be held on July 25 simultaneously with the region's parliamentary elections. Parliament speaker Adnan Mufti admitted the decision not to hold the referendum simultaneously with the parliamentary elections "has been influenced by the bad publicity the constitution has received in Baghdad." Shi'ite and Sunni Arab politicians in Baghdad have criticized the draft Kurdish constitution— which has been approved by the Kurdish legislature—as having "secessionist" tendencies.

What are we to make of apocryphal Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi? We have been repeatedly told he is dead, he is captured, or he never existed. Every time one of these theories is announced to the world, he issues another statement. In 2007, he issued a statement daring Washington to nuke Iran. After Obama's election he tentatively offered a truce if the US would immediately withdraw. Now he (supposedly) issues a statement urging his insurgents to keep fighting despite the US pull-back from Iraq's cities. From Stars & Stripes, July 10:

The Iraqi Oil Ministry announced that a contract will be signed to develop the Rumaila oil field—the largest in Iraq and one of the largest in the world—with a joint venture formed for the project by BP and the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC). Iraq's Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani hailed the awarding of the Rumaila contract as a "great achievement". (Dow Jones, July 1) A rival bid was placed by a joint venture of Exxon and Malaysia's Petronas. (Dow Jones, June 30)

Iraqi forces assume formal control of Baghdad and other cities June 20 as US troops hand over security in urban areas. A countdown clock broadcast on Iraqi TV ticked to zero as the midnight deadline passed for US combat troops to finish their pullback to bases outside cities. When the hour arrived, fireworks were set off in celebration. "The withdrawal of American troops is completed now from all cities after everything they sacrificed for the sake of security," said Sadiq al-Rikabi, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "We are now celebrating the restoration of sovereignty." Al-Maliki declared a public holiday, proclaiming June 30 as "National Sovereignty Day." (AP, June 29)