Devastating bomb attacks in Baghdad on October 25, 2009,  were an assault on the fundamental principle of respect for life, and Iraqi authorities have a duty to ensure that anyone found to have contributed to their execution is apprehended and brought to justice.

As U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill testifies before Congress today, Iraqi's security is far from assured. Militias now targetting the socially marginalized could soon take their killing spree mainstream.

On August 10, 2009, two truck bombings in Northern Iraq and a series of bomb attacks in Baghdad killed at least 48 civilians and wounded around 250 others.

All parties in Iraq and elsewhere in conflicts in the Middle East should put an end to attacks that target or indiscriminately harm civilians.

British forces did of course invade, occupy and govern part of Iraq and Saddam's torture chambers were shut down. But the evidence has grown that they were replaced with new forms of abuse of detainees, not only by the US but also by the British.

Who rules Iraq? If you ask Baghdad officials or the Obama administration's proconsuls, they will tell you: a democratically elected Iraqi government, a triumphant product of the "purple revolution" that reflects the will of Iraq's people. If you ask Mashal, a shopkeeper from Baghdad's al-Sha'ab neighbourhood, he has a different answer.

Iraqi militias are carrying out a spreading campaign of torture and murder against men suspected of homosexual conduct, or of not being “manly” enough, and Iraq authorities have done nothing to stop the killing, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch called on Iraq’s government to act urgently to rein in militia abuses, punish the perpetrators, and stop a new resurgence of violence that threatens all Iraqis’ safety.

The upcoming inquiry into the Iraq war, announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown on June 15, provides a crucial forum to investigate the actions of the United Kingdom in Iraq over the last eight years.