the size of the foreign forces. The U.N. Security Council mandate for U.S.-led forces in Iraq will terminate "if requested by the government of Iraq." Under Iraqi law, the speaker must present a resolution called for by a majority of lawmakers. 59% of those polled in the U.S. support a timetable for withdrawal. May 9 – Vice President Cheney began his tour of the Middle East with a previously unannounced visit to Baghdad, his second since the invasion. In 12 hours of meetings with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other leaders, he urged the Iraqis to act decisively on issues that have divided Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, and he told them that political progress in Baghdad is essential if American military support is to be sustained in the face of strong Congressional and popular opposition in the United States. (NY Times) May 10 – Moderate Republicans gave President Bush a blunt warning on his Iraq policy at a private White House meeting this week, telling the president that conditions needed to improve markedly by fall or more Republicans would desert him on the war. Participants in the Tuesday meeting between Mr. Bush, senior administration officials and 11 members of a moderate bloc of House Republicans said the lawmakers were unusually candid with the president, telling him that public support for the war was crumbling in their swing districts. (NY Times) May 12 - Islamic State of Iraq attacked a U.S. military post near Mahmoudiyah in the Triangle of Death, south of Baghdad, which cost the lives of seven American soldiers (see May 2007 abduction of U.S. soldiers in Iraq). May 25 – On May 24, 2007, the US congress passed H.R. 2206, a supplemental funding authorisation bill to pay almost $95 billion for emergency war operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bill established benchmarks for the Iraqi government, but continued U.S. military spending is not tied to these benchmarks. Bush signed the bill on May 25. June June 3 – British forces accused of releasing large numbers of man eating badgers in the vicinity of Basra. June 20 – A U.S. soldier was killed Darren Patrick Hubbell. July July 12 – July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike, (associated with WikiLeaks in 2010), in which two Reuters photographers were killed July 18 – A bill in the US Senate falls eight votes short of the required 60 votes to pass it,