Deadly day in Iraq as political talks continue

Negotiations seek role for Sunnis in government

By Mariam Fam, Associated Press | March 26, 2005

BAGHDAD -- Insurgents reasserted themselves in a spasm of deadly attacks after days of reported setbacks, killing 17 Iraqi security officers in four separate car bombings, gunning down five Iraqi women working for American troops, and assassinating a senior Iraqi military official, authorities said yesterday.

In an effort to counter support for the insurgency among minority Sunni Arabs, the interim government's deputy prime minister, Barham Saleh, said negotiators had intensified efforts to include the Sunnis in the still-to-be-formed government. But the effort has caused delays in agreeing on a new leadership, prompting public frustration.

''It is not acceptable that two months on from the elections, that Iraq does not have a transitional government yet," Saleh said. ''We are under pressure, and we have to respond to public sentiment and have a government established as soon as possible."

As negotiations dragged on, insurgents bent on stopping the creation of a new leadership intensified attacks on Iraqi security forces, whose success is seen as key to an eventual US withdrawal.

There were several new reports of violence:

Twin suicide car bombings yesterday in Iskandriyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, targeted an Iraqi army convoy and police barracks, killing four police officers, two civilians, and an Iraqi soldier, police said. Eight other members of the security forces and 15 civilians were injured.

Another suicide car bombing yesterday targeted an Iraqi convoy south of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi soldier and wounding four others, police said.

Late Thursday at a checkpoint in the central city of Ramadi, a white sedan was blown up, killing 11 Iraqi soldiers and wounding 14 people -- including two US Army soldiers, nine Iraqi security officers, and three civilians -- the US military said. In an Internet posting, the Islamic Army in Iraq claimed responsibility.

In Baghdad yesterday, unknown gunmen assassinated Colonel Salman Muhammad Hassan -- who helped lead an Iraqi Army division based in the southern city of Basra -- and wounded two of his sons as they left a relative's funeral in Baghdad, security officials said.

In Baghdad on Thursday, five women who worked as translators for the US military were gunned down by insurgents as they returned home from work, police Captain Ahmed Aboud said.

On the political front, after repeated delays, the next session of Iraq's National Assembly is tentatively set for Tuesday, said Jawad al-Maliki, a negotiator from the Shi'ite-led United Iraqi Alliance.

Saleh said the meeting probably would focus on electing a speaker, although it had not been decided whether the president -- expected to be Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader -- would be announced.

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