US Soldier Killed in South; Provincial Elections Bill Passes Presidential Council

Shiite guerrillas deploying a roadside bomb killed a US soldier in Amara.

Iraq’s presidency council approved the enabling legislation for provincial elections scheduled early next year. The council had shot down the first such bill, in part over the question of how the disputed oil province Kirkuk would be dealt with.

Aljazeera English interviews former British foreign secretary Lord David Owen on the Iraq War. Owen had supported the war but says he did so in part because Tony Blair lied to him about Saddam’s nuclear and biological weapons programs. He admits that the war, which he had supported, has been an unimitigated disaster.