US, Iraqi troops foil attacks; Sunnis spurn Kurd demands
BAGHDAD -- US and Iraqi troops killed six insurgents and captured 12 as they repelled a series of coordinated attacks, including suicide car bombs, in southern Baghdad, the military said yesterday.
In political developments, Sunni Arabs on the committee drafting a new constitution rejected Kurdish demands for federalism as long as foreign forces remain in Iraq. The statement was issued on the eve of a meeting to try to overcome differences on the charter.
The fighting erupted about 8 p.m. Friday when guerrillas opened fire on an Iraqi Army position, the American military said. US attack helicopters responded with rockets and gunfire.
At nearly the same time, a suicide attacker drove a truck loaded with explosives into a an Iraqi Army checkpoint, killing an Iraqi soldier. A second suicide driver tried to attack another Iraq position in the area, but a US tank opened fire and the car detonated prematurely.
Minutes later, insurgents at a fourth location fired two rocket-propelled grenades and a mortar round at another Iraqi Army post in southern Baghdad. None of the rounds caused any damage, the US statement said.
Over the next two hours, insurgents tried to launch further attacks on the two Iraqi Army posts, but were driven off by US and Iraqi fire, the statement added.
US troops suffered no casualties, but six insurgents were killed and 12 were captured in the fighting, according to the military.
In recent weeks, US officials have said the insurgents had started using so-called swarm tactics -- coordinating multiple attacks and firing from several locations -- against coalition forces.
Separately, the US command said an American soldier assigned to a unit in the northern city of Mosul was killed in action Thursday ''during a terrorist attack" there. There were no more details.
The top American commander in the Middle East has outlined a plan to gradually cut US forces in Iraq by perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 troops by next spring, The New York Times reports today, citing senior military and Defense Department officials. The assessment by General John P. Abizaid, the head of Central Command, was given in a classified briefing to senior Pentagon officials last month, according to the report. The United States currently has about 138,000 troops in Iraq.
The Bush administration is hoping that progress on the political front will help curb the insurgency by drawing Sunni Arabs away from rebel ranks. Key to maintaining the momentum is a new constitution, which must be approved by parliament by Aug. 15 and by voters in a referendum two months later.
Sunni, Shi'ite, and Kurdish political leaders planned to meet behind closed doors today to try to overcome differences that have deadlocked the work of a 71-member committee charged with writing the constitution. Those differences include federalism, the role of Islam, a description of Iraq's national identity, and the distribution of national wealth.
Yesterday Sunni Arab members of the drafting committee rejected Kurdish demands to transform Iraq into a federal state, saying such a step should not be taken during foreign military occupation and an unstable security situation.
The Sunni delegates contend federalism should be discussed in the future when there is a parliament that represents all Iraqis, member Kamal Hamdan said. The interim 275-member National Assembly has only 17 Sunni Arab legislators -- in large part because the disaffected minority largely boycotted the Jan. 30 election.
''The proposal rejects federalism at the present time because it is difficult to implement it when the country is occupied and the security situation is unstable," Hamdan said.
