Yesterday General Petraeus and Ryan Crocker appeared before a joint hearing of the House of Representatives armed services and foreign affairs committees. Today the US's two most senior figures in Iraq will be questioned by senators. The subject matter is likely to be same - the progress (or not) of the surge, the possibility of Iraqi political reconciliation , the future of the US deployment and the wider Middle East.
What will be different, however, is that five presidential candidates are on the two committees - including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, all of whom have become known for their positions on Iraq. Obama has already criticised Gen Petraeus's plan to withdraw 30,000 troops by mid 2008, saying he "can only support a policy that begins an immediate removal of our troops from Iraq's civil war, and initiates a sustained drawdown of our military presence."
Follow it here from 2.30pm BST.
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