Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received what the United Arab Emirates' Gulf News called a "hero's welcome" in Baghdad, where Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the Islamic Republic's recent approach towards his country has been "extremely helpful." He described his discussions with Ahmadinejad as "friendly, positive and full of trust," adding that his landmark visit to Baghdad sends a positive message to neighboring countries to reinforce their ties with Iraq. He also pledged to crack down on Iranian guerillas operating from Iraqi territory, including the Mujahedeen Khalq Organization (MKO) and the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK). Slogans on the walls of houses and public markets in Baghdad's Sadr City welcomed Ahmadinejad and hailed him as a hero. Signs in Sunni neighborhoods condemned him as a villain and architect of Iraq's sectarian violence. (Gulf News, UAE, March 3; Press TV, Iran, March 2)

At last two are dead and 12 wounded in an ambush 130 kilometers south of Kirkuk on a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims returning from the Arbaeen celebrations in Karbala March 1. "Two people, including a woman, were killed and 12 others injured in an attack by unidentified gunmen on a bus carrying civilians returning from the Arbaeen pilgrimage near Soliman Pak area, south of Kirkuk, on Saturday morning," a medic at Kirkuk's hospital told Aswat al-Iraq/Voices of Iraq news agency. (VOI, March 1)

Unknown gunmen kidnapped Chaldean Archbishop Faraj Rahho in Mosul after killing two of his bodyguards and his driver soon after he left Mass in the northern Iraqi city's Safina Church. Pope Benedict XVI regretted the kidnapping and said he is praying for Iraq to reach the path of reconciliation and peace. For the past year, Mosul's Christians have been targeted in a wave of attacks that have damaged several churches and seriously wounded four parishioners—as well as leaving a priest dead in June 2007. In October, two priests from Mosul were abducted and held for nine days. A Syriac archbishop was kidnapped in Mosul in January 2005. (Al-Sumariia TV, March 1)

by Richard Sanders, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade

A Canadian Brigadier General, Nicolas Matern, has just arrived in Baghdad. This former commander of Canada's Joint Task Force 2 counter-terrorism unit is the deputy commander of the US 18th Airborne Corps and he now reports to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III, who leads the 170,000-strong Multi-National Corps—Iraq. Its primary task is to conduct "offensive operations to defeat remaining non-compliant forces."

In a major setback to US-backed national reconciliation efforts, Iraq's presidential council rejected a plan for new provincial elections and sent the bill back to parliament Feb. 27. Many Sunnis boycotted the January 2005 elections for the 275-member parliament and local offices, which gave majority Shi'ites and minority Kurds the bulk of power. The US hopes new elections, to be held Oct. 1 under the draft measure, would give the Sunni bloc more power and thereby undercut the insurgency.

Shihab al-Timimi, 74, chief of the Iraqi Journalists' Union, died Feb. 27 of wounds suffered in an ambush outside the union headquarters in the Waziriya district of Baghdad five days earlier. His deputy at the journalists' union, Mouayed al-Lami, said, "We have lost a pious, irreplaceable and honest man... This shows that Iraqi journalists are still living under constant danger." Al-Timimi's son was also wounded in the attack.

Patrick Cockburn writes for The Independent, Feb. 27:

Iraq is disintegrating faster than ever. The Turkish army invaded the north of the country last week and is still there. Iraqi Kurdistan is becoming like Gaza where Israel can send in its tanks and helicopters at will.

Kinda says it all, doesn't it? From AP, Feb. 23:

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi military on Saturday indefinitely banned all motorcycles, bicycles and hand-pushed and horse-drawn carts from the streets of Baghdad, a military spokesman said.