WASHINGTON – After starting the 110th Congress with a big antiwar mandate, Democrats are scrambling to find a way forward on an issue that is driving wedges deep into their new majority.

The Center for Democracy in the Middle East (formerly the Kurdish American Committee for Democracy in Syria) has had early success in its efforts to create alliances between political parties in order to advocate for democratic governance in Syria.

A car bomb ripped through a bustling shopping district in a religiously mixed neighborhood of western Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and wounding about 20 as the U.S.-Iraqi security operation entered its third week.