BAGHDAD — In a shift toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism, Iraq's largest Sunni bloc ended a nearly yearlong boycott Saturday and rejoined the cabinet, retaking six ministry spots.

Until now, some Iraqis questioned how well Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's Shiite-led government represented the nation's Sunnis, who were part of the ruling class under Saddam Hussein. Only two of the 38 ministries were given to Sunnis even though they make up 20 percent of Iraq's population. Many hope that new posts will symbolize that the government is committed to much-needed reconciliation.

Reconciliation could lead the Iraqi government to find the economic and political means to maintain the recent security gains. While Iraqis nationwide celebrate the improvements, they believe their government is too divided to compromise across sectarian lines. » read more

BAGHDAD — Under sweltering heat Friday, the prayer leader urged the crowd of thousands to show forbearance and not to retaliate for what he called daily humiliations at the hands of the Iraqi army.

The plea has become a weekly ritual. Baghdad's Sadr City district after Friday prayers is a massive slum seething with unrest, which backers of firebrand cleric Muqtada al Sadr are managing to control, but only just.

The Friday sermon is the key to keeping the peace. After prayers, hundreds of young men began demonstrating Friday in front of nearby government forces. Some men began lunging at the Iraqi troops; most held them back. » read more

WASHINGTON — The United States and Iraq have agreed to a "general time horizon" for further reductions of U.S. combat troops in Iraq, the White House said Friday, the first time the Bush administration has agreed to set any kind of timeline for troop withdrawals.

The agreement appears to be a political favor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, but the White House said it wasn't a reversal of President Bush's long opposition to any fixed schedule for troop reductions, including the veto of bills that included timetables for withdrawal.

But Democrats — including presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama — hailed it as belated recognition of the need to hasten the end of the Iraq war. » read more

Two bedraggled enlisted men, exhausted after days of dodging snipers and artillery barrages, are awakened to search for a captain who went to a latrine outside the perimeter and got lost in the desert. 'Bleepin' officers will be the death of us yet,'' grumbles one as they resignedly head off into the night.

The moment is both the perfect distillation of every grunt's war, from Thermopylae to Valley Forge to Fajullah, and the perfect summation of Generation Kill, a raucous, raunchy and utterly loving account of life at the bottom of the military food chain.

A seven-part miniseries that debuted Sunday on HBO, Generation Kill is adapted from the nonfiction book of the same name by Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone reporter embedded with a Marine reconnaissance platoon during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. » read more