Leading Sunni politicians families killed as Iraq implodes

Whilst Contileezza was beeing shown the sights of Bagdhad by Rummy and meeting the new President (pic) ,the killing was non-stop .Altogether, least 35 persons were killed or found dead on Sunday. Guerrillas killed 4 US troops in Anbar Province. 3 people were assassinated in Basra. Associated Press on Tuesday / Wednesday reported major car bombings in Baghdad, and 15 bodies showed up dead there and in Karbala. There were also deaths near Baqubah and in Kirkuk. AP counted 31 dead altogether. There was also a bomb in Fallujah.

The Oil Ministry's inspector general Ali al-Alaak said graft and smuggling are the main threat to Iraq's economy. He estimates US$4.2bn (£2.3bn; 3.4bn euros) worth of oil-related products were smuggled from Iraq last year, and crude was stolen directly from the country's leaking pipelines.

A US Government Accountability Office report says 8 of Iraq's 18 provinces are dangerously unstable and violent, not just the 4 usually cited.(Allawi BS from when he was President).

A U.S. military assessments in Iraq, suggests the country is on a downward slope. Insurgent attacks increased 23 percent between 2004 and 2005, and oil, electricity and water services are all below pre-invasion levels

Tariq-al Hashimi, the new Iraqi Vice President (objected to as President by the United Iraq Alliance and secure in the Green zone), who's brother Mahmoud was killed on April 13th is today to bury his sister Meysoun al-Hashemi who was killed (with her bodyguard) in a drive-by shooting in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Ms Hashemi head of the women's affairs department in the Iraqi Islamic Party headed by her brother , had just left her house in a southern suburb of the capital and was being driven to work when the attack occurred.

On April 15th the brother of another top Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlak, was abducted and killed.

Gunmen in another car fired a hail of bullets at her car, killing both her and her bodyguard Saad Ali, then sped off, police say.

Newly-appointed Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is visiting Najaf to meet Iraq's senior Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani... whose letter from george Bush received a month ago still lies unopened on his desk.