Baghdad - Iraqi security forces on Thursday said they had killed a top military commander in the Iraqi branch of the al-Qaeda network.

General Tariq al-Assil, police chief for Iraq's western al-Anbar province, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that his forces had killed Hamza Ubid Idris, also known as Abu al-Ansar, on Wednesday night.

Al-Assil said that Idris was responsible for directing attacks in western Iraq by the al-Qaeda in Iraq organisation.

Baghdad- Al-Qaeda militants in Iraq on Wednesday shot and killed a tribal Sheikh, his wife and their son near their home in the northern city of Tikrit, a police source said.

The source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa that the militants apparently wanted to take revenge on Sheikh Ziab Ahmed Ziara.

The sheikh was leader of al-Ahbab tribe in Balad district and had a strong connection with the Awakening Councils, a tribal group who collaborated with the US forces to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Qaeda militants had killed three members of the Sheikh's family.

Baghdad - As political jockeying among Sunni parties continues, the Iraqi parliament remains without a speaker and unable to conduct its business.

Abd al-Karim al-Samrai, a lawmaker with the Iraqi National Accord on Tuesday announced that he had filed a lawsuit with the Iraqi Federal Court to force a decision on the issue on procedural grounds.

Baghdad - Dozens of Iraqi Sunni tribal leaders gathered on Tuesday to protest the visit of the former president of Iran, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to Iraq.

Rafsanjani, who was president of Iran following the 1980-88 Iran- Iraq war and was parliamentary speaker during the conflict, is now chairman of an influential advisory committee in the Iranian government. He was described by the protestors as the "killer of Iraqis."

Baghdad - The Iraqi High Tribunal on Monday sentenced former senior Iraqi official Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali", to death for his role in the 1999 crackdown on Shiite Iraqis following the killing of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad al-Sadr.

Al-Sadr's supporters blame the intelligence agencies of the former regime of Saddam Hussein for his death. Al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam, served as intelligence chief and defence minister at the time.

Baghdad (Iraq), Mar. 2 : The general who has spearheaded Britain''s two longest and most controversial wars of the past 60 years, claimed today that the army will leave Iraq with al-Qaida largely defeated and the roots of democracy firmly planted.

Lieutenant-General John Cooper, who stands down tomorrow as deputy commanding general in Iraq and also retires from the army after more than 30 years, said Basra, which the British will leave by early summer, is back on its feet and buttressed from any militia resurgence.

Lt. Gen. Cooper believes January''s nationwide provincial elections were a turning point and said Iraq would be handed over in better shape than when Britain invaded six years ago.