Prime Minister Nouri Maliki

Senior politicians from Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's ruling coalition warned Tuesday that Shiite Muslim-dominated southern Iraq could severely loosen its ties with Baghdad if the nation's electoral commission failed to meet its demand for a manual recount of ballots in parliamentary elections. The politicians, who also echoed Maliki's warning Sunday that sectarian violence could return without a recount, accused the U.S. Embassy of working against them. In turn, Western diplomats and advisors to the Iraqi government described Maliki's circle as terrified of losing power and said Iraq was entering a dangerous period.

With the final headlong withdrawal this month of U.S. troops from Iraq, President Obama fulfilled a campaign promise to end the war. But was the nearly nine-year mission a success? Iraq is still struggling even to ensure its own security. Its air force has no jet fighters, and U.S. officials say it would be unable to detect incoming aircraft in time to stop them. The Iraqi army is improving, but its ability to mount complex operations remains weak. The Iraqis still have a long way to go on intelligence, training and logistics.

President Obama, meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki for the first time since U.S. troops pulled back from Iraq's cities last month, acknowledged Wednesday that "differences in strategy" between the two countries remained to be resolved, but said he was satisfied with developments in the war-torn nation. Obama downplayed concerns that Iraqi officials are restricting operations by U.S. troops. "Overall, we have been very encouraged by the progress that's been made," Obama said.

With the last U.S. troops set to depart Iraq, President Obama on Monday welcomed a new phase of "equal partnership" with the Iraqi government, even as both sides admit uncertainty about how that will work. "We're here to mark the end of this war," Obama said, appearing alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki at the White House, and to "begin a new chapter in the history between our countries — a normal relationship between sovereign nations. " The Obama administration faces a host of challenges in postwar Iraq, where the role of the U.S. military in providing future training and assistance for security forces has yet to be defined, beyond both leaders saying it was vital to Iraq's long-term stability.

It's a gesture that couldn't have been made while U.S. forces were breaking down the doors of Iraqi homes and detaining residents by the thousands. Or when civilians were being killed by frightened American soldiers in sometimes careless shootings that have claimed an untold number of Iraqi lives. But U.S.

Iyad Allawi, a secular politician who is Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's main rival for power in Iraq, warned in an interview with The Times this week that the country's security situation is likely to worsen after coordinated bombings killed 113 people in the capital Tuesday and extremists massacred 58 people in a siege of a Baghdad church two days earlier. Allawi, whose Iraqiya political bloc was widely supported by the country's Sunni Arab minority among others, won two more seats than Maliki's faction in March elections, which still have not produced a new administration.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's slate had an early lead Saturday as partial results trickled in from the parliamentary elections last weekend. With 10% to 30% of the vote counted in 11 of Iraq's 18 provinces, Maliki's State of Law slate was winning in Baghdad and four southern provinces, Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission reported. But his lead could easily be wiped away, with final election results expected to take at least a month to certify. State of Law, which bills itself as nonsectarian, had predicted it would win 100 seats in the 325-member parliament, taking Baghdad and Iraq's nine southern provinces.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki announced Saturday that Iraq plans to buy 36 U.S. fighter jets, signaling his intent to seek a long-term American military training presence in the country. But in an indication of the risks for the American military here, a U.S. watchdog group said that Iraq had become more hazardous. "Iraq remains an extraordinarily dangerous place to work," Stuart Bowen, chief of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in a report. "It is less safe, in my judgment, than 12 months ago. " The report notes that 44 Iraqi government and security officials have been assassinated since April.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Thursday emerged virtually unscathed from a parliament session called over this week's car bombings in the capital and a series of explosions since August that have caused lawmakers to publicly question his handling of the security situation in Iraq. As Maliki parried with lawmakers for nearly six hours, the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group for insurgents that includes Al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's bombings, which killed 127 people.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki sat in a gilded chair Tuesday at the start of the three-day Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice. He rose to greet his guests in a newly furbished palace, built under the late dictator Saddam Hussein. Politicians came in their elegant dark suits; sheiks approached in their brown robes; generals marched in crisp uniforms, emblazoned with swords and epaulets. All kissed him twice on both cheeks. And Maliki smiled and whispered into their ears, or chuckled.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Saturday accepted the resignation of Iraq's top corruption fighter, whom some observers labeled a casualty of political infighting in a country where graft is rampant. Raheem Uqaili, the chairman of the independent watchdog Integrity Commission, had drawn admirers and detractors alike for taking on cases targeting key figures in the Defense Ministry and other government agencies. A statement by Maliki's office said that "based on the wishes of the chairman of the Integrity Commission," the prime minister had accepted the request to step down.

The Iraqi government agreed late Tuesday to start negotiations with U.S. officials on whether to authorize the U.S. military to remain in Iraq on a mission training Iraq's security forces after 2011. The announcement came the same day that Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the country and warned that Washington needed a clear signal from Iraq about whether it would ask the American military stay on. Senior Pentagon officials have been imploring Iraq's government for months to make a decision on a continued U.S. military presence, and last month, on a visit to Baghdad, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta expressed that frustration by saying, "Damn it, make a decision," referring to the Iraqis.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki announced Saturday that Iraq plans to buy 36 U.S. fighter jets, signaling his intent to seek a long-term American military training presence in the country. But in an indication of the risks for the American military here, a U.S. watchdog group said that Iraq had become more hazardous. "Iraq remains an extraordinarily dangerous place to work," Stuart Bowen, chief of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, said in a report. "It is less safe, in my judgment, than 12 months ago. " The report notes that 44 Iraqi government and security officials have been assassinated since April.

In an illustration of its growing muscle in Iraq as U.S. influence wanes, anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr's movement has won pardons for at least 50 prisoners jailed for crimes including murder, kidnapping and attacks on U.S. troops. The amnesties come at a time when U.S. forces remaining in Iraq have faced an increased number of attacks, many by Shiite Muslim militias associated with the Sadr movement. And they have angered some senior Iraqi officials, who charge that the law is being applied selectively and bent to fit a hidden political agenda.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta told Iraq's leaders Monday that they must decide soon whether to ask for U.S. troops to remain beyond the end of the year. But the U.S. does not intend to broker negotiations among Iraqi politicians that could ultimately lead to agreement for a continuing presence, senior American officials said. Panetta's visit stood in sharp contrast to past tours by high-ranking U.S. officials under the George W. Bush administration or even by Vice President Joe Biden in trying to push Iraqi leaders to take action.

The White House is prepared to keep as many as 10,000 U.S. troops in Iraq after the end of the year, amid growing concern that the planned pullout of virtually all remaining American forces would lead to intensified militant attacks, according to U.S. officials. Keeping troops in Iraq after the deadline for their departure at the end of December would require agreement of Iraq's deeply divided government, which is far from certain. The Iraqis so far have not made a formal request for U.S. troops to remain, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Clamor for political change across the Arab world has reached Iraq, where protests against poor government services have broken out in the capital and other cities. On Saturday, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki vowed not to run for a third term, a day after he announced that he would cut his pay in half. Other officials agreed to decrease their salaries in a bid to stave off the kind of unrest erupting elsewhere in the region. "We will also enact a law that guarantees equilibrium between the salaries of officials and ordinary Iraqis," said lawmaker Abbas Bayati.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, whose Iraqiya alliance edged out Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's party in national elections last month, Thursday warned of potential chaos and violence if he is denied the right to form the country's next government. Allawi said Maliki and his supporters' refusal to accept final election results, in which Allawi's bloc won 91 seats in parliament versus 89 for Maliki's State of Law alliance, could provoke bloodshed among the Iraqi people. "This will bring the country into really severe chaos," Allawi told the Los Angeles Times at his Baghdad office.

Six months after agreeing to form a national unity government, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and his secular rival Iyad Allawi are again exchanging insults and cannot agree on such basic issues as who should run the nation's police and army. The rift, though unlikely to send Iraq back into sectarian violence, does have Iraqi and Western analysts concerned that the country will continue on a dysfunctional path as American troops move to complete their withdrawal by year's end, nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Clamor for political change across the Arab world has reached Iraq, where protests against poor government services have broken out in the capital and other cities. On Saturday, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki vowed not to run for a third term, a day after he announced that he would cut his pay in half. Other officials agreed to decrease their salaries in a bid to stave off the kind of unrest erupting elsewhere in the region. "We will also enact a law that guarantees equilibrium between the salaries of officials and ordinary Iraqis," said lawmaker Abbas Bayati.