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Reports that two Sunni Arabs involved in drafting Iraq's constitution were assassinated in Baghdad, setting back the country's fledgling democratic process. Details of the attack on Mejbil al-Sheik Isa and Damin al-Obeidi and their bodyguard Azis Ebrahim; Roles of Isa and Obeidi in the new government; Concerns that efforts to undermine the insurgency by making the process more inclusive could be jeopardized; Possible suspects in the killings, including a militant group in Iraq led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; Condemnation of the assassinations by Sunni Arabs and Shiites.

The article reports that at least 39 people were killed in assassinations and car bombs in Iraq on July 17, 2007, and a massacre of Shiite civilians in Diyala Province killed 29 people on July 16, 2007. According to a police official at the Interior Ministry, one car bomb exploded in the Zayouna killing 20 people and wounding 20. In Diyala, the attack on the small hamlet of Dulayiya, a Shiite community, came when people gathered to watch a match of the Iraqi soccer in the Asian Games.

This article describes a suicide bomb attack in a marketplace in Baghdad, Iraq that killed at least 130 Iraqis and wounded at least 300. The bomb, ignited in a truck in the mostly Shiite neighborhood, will put more pressure on Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al Maliki by the U.S. to crack down on Shiite militias. The Shiites will be pressuring Maliki to avenge the bombing by attacking the Sunnis. The U.S. and others are trying to prevent such action to avoid the outbreak of full-scale civil war.

The article reports on sectarian violence killing Shiites in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 28, 2007. In the attacks believed to have been carried out by Sunni Arab militants, dozens of Shiites were killed in Shiite neighborhood of Baya. Ten Shiites were killed in a bombing in Kadhimiya, on June 27, 2007. The attacks were carried out days ahead of a scheduled rally of Shiites to condemn the destruction of Askariya shrine in Samarra.