Two roadside bombs -- one targeting a US military convoy and the other an Iraqi police patrol -- exploded in Baghdad yesterday, wounding three Iraqis, officials said.
In Mosul, a mostly Sunni city 360km northwest of Baghdad, a roadside bomb seriously wounded an Iraqi policeman, and a drive-by shooting killed a Kurdish civilian, Ahmed Khalil, as he was leaving his home, said police Major General Wathiq Mohammed.
In Haqlaniyah, a village 220km northwest of the Iraqi capital, a roadside bomb exploded near a foot patrol of US and Iraqi soldiers, said Younis al-Azawi, the director of a school near the site of the blast. He said three US soldiers were wounded and evacuated from the scene, but the US military could not immediately confirm that.
Al-Azawi said the explosion occurred about 7:30am as soldiers were finishing an operation during which they had raided homes in the village and detained three Iraqis. Iraqi and US soldiers sealed off the area, witnesses said.
In Baghdad, police also found the bodies of two Iraqi men who apparently had been tortured and killed in captivity.
Death squads
Sunni Arabs say Shiite militias have infiltrated the Interior Ministry -- controlled by the biggest Shiite party -- and used death squads to kill Sunnis. Sectarian violence has flared since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.
The latest deaths brought to more than 70 the number of Iraqis reported killed in insurgency or sectarian-related violence since Jawad al-Maliki was formally tapped on Saturday to head a national unity government. The US believes a unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds is essential to halting the country's slide to chaos.
But the killings have gone both ways.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, has 30 days from last Saturday to present his Cabinet to parliament for majority approval. A top Shiite official, Ridha Jawad Taqi, said he expected the lineup to be finalized within 15 days.
Yesterday, political parties met separately in Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone to discuss proposed Cabinet ministers.
Troop reduction
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday he expected the US will be able to continue to cut its troop levels in Iraq, while saying success in Iraq is critical to containing neighboring Iran.
Rumsfeld called the political developments in Iraq in recent days a "thrilling accomplishment," but said it was reasonable to believe the insurgency will try to prevent the completion of the new permanent Iraqi government.
The US has 133,000 troops in Iraq, the Pentagon said, down from about 160,000 in place in December during parliamentary elections.
Rumsfeld indicated the Pentagon intends to stick with plans to reduce the size of the US military presence, but did not give specific numbers or a timetable. He said any decisions would depend on security conditions on the ground.
"As we're able to pass over more responsibility [to US-trained Iraqi security forces], one would think that we would be able to continue reducing down our forces," Rumsfeld said in an interview with the Pentagon's television channel.
Fairly substantial
Army General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, last year forecast a "fairly substantial" reduction in US troops this spring and summer if Iraq's political process goes well and progress is made in developing Iraqi security forces.
RSS