Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Mon 07 Jul 2006Day of carnage as Maliki prepares to visit USIRAQ: Car bombs killed at least 62 Iraqis yesterday as the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, prepared for a White House visit expected to focus on halting what many see as Iraq's accelerating slide toward all-out sectarian civil war.Two separate blasts killed 42 civilians in Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum that is a stronghold of the Shia al-Mahdi army militia.