Middle Orient

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish army entered northern Iraq on Saturday to stop a group of between 50 and 60 Kurdish rebels, the army said and added it could step up its “intervention” in the region if this is needed.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab political bloc walked out of parliament on Saturday and its leader said he had been placed under house arrest after his son and dozens of members of his entourage were detained.

GAZA (Reuters) – The Israeli army on Saturday killed six Palestinians, including five militants, in two separate incidents in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officials and Hamas said.

LAHORE (Reuters) – Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto is betraying Pakistan by not joining an election boycott that cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan said on Saturday was key to ousting President Pervez Musharraf.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Mazen returned home in Baghdad last week to a bare living room. He had sold his furniture to pay for life in Syria, where he fled in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Suspected al Qaeda militants killed 12 civilians and abducted 35 in an attack on Shi’ite Muslim village north of Baghdad early on Saturday, police said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The number of civilians killed in violence throughout Iraq fell this month to the lowest level in nearly two years, according to government statistics obtained by Reuters on Friday.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi clerics are not doing enough to discourage militancy among Saudi youth, including those who want to fight in Iraq, Interior Minister Prince Nayef said in comments published on Saturday.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul has approved the sackings of seven military personnel suspected of Islamist leanings, the military General Staff said, in a move that may help ease secularist reservations about him.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States withdrew on Friday a draft U.N. resolution endorsing action agreed at this week’s Annapolis Middle East peace conference, a document Israeli officials said they felt was inappropriate.