America’s No. 2 diplomat in Iraq predicted progress by fall on bringing together Iraq’s feuding factions as violence claimed more lives Wednesday, including 14 people killed in a late night car bombing near a Shiite shrine in the capital.

Tony Blair was Wednesday named special envoy of the Middle East peace Quartet shortly after stepping down as British prime minister and tasked with spearheading efforts to create a Palestinian state.

Israeli army incursions into the Gaza Strip killed at least 12 Palestinians on Wednesday, including eight fighters and a 12-year-old boy, in the bloodiest fighting Gaza has seen since Hamas took control there two weeks ago.