Iraq

The big news of the day would be the return of the Sunni IAF to the Maliki government, but we don't really know if that's happening or not.

There's a 2:54 AM Reuters story "Sunnis Agree to Rejoin Government," but there's also a 6AM AFP story carrying a statement from the IAF spokesman "Sunni bloc says it still negotiating return to Iraq government." (The negotiations are close?)

Two interesting articles on the US backed Sunni militias.

(McClatchy) In Diyala, the local Sunni support has gone on strike until the local Shiite police chief is removed and the local police force removes Shiite death squad members and takes in more Sunnis.

(AP) In Mosul, where the Iraqi government is now beginning its "final" showdown with Al Qaeda, there are no US backed Sunni militias.

There are approximately eight Awakening Councils around Qarraya, a predominantly Sunni Arab city about 45 miles south of Mosul. But the rest of the province is so mixed that — if the U.S. military were to support one group — it could upset a perceived balance of power and lead to fighting, Simmering said.

The main friction could be caused by the Kurds and their peshmerga fighting force, believed to have more than 60,000 members, and whose semi-autonomous region borders Nineveh.

"The Kurds are expansionists and they would very much like to annex Mosul and parts of Nineveh to the Kurdistan regional authority," Cole said. "There is severe tension between the peshmerga and the Sunni Arabs — and Mosul is something like 80 percent Sunni Arab."

(AP) Five American soldiers were killed in two roadside bombings. 4 in Baghdad, 1 around Kirkuk.

(AP) 31 Shiites arrested, 15 in Kerbala, 16 in Sadrist Nasiriyah. (The US is rounding up as many Shia as it can before Sadr's ceasefire ends in late Feb.)