in Iraq. November 30 – Australian prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd declares that the country's 550 combat troops will withdraw from Iraq by Summer 2008. December December 6 – In the wake of the Blackwater affair, new rules are issued by the US for private security firms in Iraq. December 9 – Gordon Brown announces that the province of Basra will be handed over to Iraqi Control within the next two weeks. December 16 – British troops hand control of Basra over to Iraqi authorities. A BBC survey finds that 86% of local residents think the presence of British troops since 2003 has had an overall negative effect on the province. Turkey launches air strikes against Kurdish rebel positions inside Iraq for the first time. December 17 – US Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno claims that violence in Iraq has decreased to the lowest level since the first year of the occupation. December 18 – Turkish troops cross overnight into the Iraqi Kurdish province of Dahuk, about north of Kirkuk. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice makes an unscheduled visit to Kirkuk before proceeding to Baghdad, where she calls on Iraqi leaders to urgently implement a national reconciliation roadmap. The United Nations Security Council unanimously approves resolution 1790, extending the mandate of the multinational force in Iraq until December 31, 2008. Full date unknown Al-Sadr Online, the High Board for Media of Al-Sadr's Office official website commences operation. Notable deaths January 15 – Awad Hamed al-Bandar, 61, former chief judge of Iraq, execution by hanging. January 15 – Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, 55, half-brother of Saddam Hussein, former leader of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, execution by hanging. March 14 – Sa'dun Hammadi, 76, Iraqi Prime Minister (1991), leukemia. March 20 – Taha Yassin Ramadan (born 1938), Iraqi vice president of Saddam Hussein, executed by hanging April 7 - Du'a Khalil Aswad, 17, a Yazidi girl stoned in a lynching for converting to Sunni Islam to marry an Iraqi Sunni boy. April 12 – Mohammed Awad, member of Iraqi Parliament, killed by a suicide bomber during the 2007 Iraqi Parliament bombing May 26 – Khalil al-Zahawi, 60/61, Iraqi calligrapher, shot. June 7 – Sahar Hussein al-Haideri, 44, Iraqi journalist, shot. June 17 – Jamal Abdul Karim al-Dabban, 68, Iraqi Sunni religious leader, heart attack. June 20 – Nazik Al-Malaika, 84, Iraqi poet, old age. June 26 – Fasal al Gaood, Iraqi former governor of