Militiamen Wound 6 British Soldiers

Militiamen Wound 6 British Soldiers
Sadrist Rejoin Parliament

Shiite militiamen fired mortars at a British base at Basra, seriously wounding one British soldier and lightly injuring 5 others.

The Sadr Bloc of deputies in Parliament, who had staged a walkout to protest PM Nuri al-Maliki’s meeting with George W. Bush, are now returning to the United Iraqi Alliance (the Shiite fundamentalist coalition). They did so despite the arrest by US and Iraqi forces of Abdul Hadi Darraj, a major Sadr aide.

Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that Muqtada al-Sadr’s lieutenants are predicting major chaos if the US moves against him.

Mclatchy reports on political violence in Iraq, including several bombings and 17 bodies showing up in the street on Friday

Iraq’s system of higher education was near to collapsing even before the recent bombing at al-Mustansiriya University. Attendance is down by as much as half, and thousands of professionals have fled the country.