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More violence in Iraq despite militants' offer

A trash collector and the head of security for Baghdad University were slain yesterday, targets of the unrelenting violence in Iraq.

And at least six other deaths were reported in the capital, including two merchants, a baker, an electrical worker and a woman sitting in her car with three of her sons, who were wounded. Police also found the body of a man who had been blindfolded, handcuffed and shot in western Baghdad.

The violence came a day after insurgent and government officials said 11 militant groups have offered an immediate halt to all attacks -- including those on US troops -- if the US agrees to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in two years.

Withdrawal is the centerpiece of a set of demands from the groups, which operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces are increasingly violent and attacks there have crippled oil and commerce routes.

The trash collector was gunned down in a drive-by shooting yesterday in western Baghdad, police Captain Jamil Hussein said. Gunmen in a civilian car also intercepted a car carrying Kadhim Challoub, who was in charge of the guards at Baghdad University, ordered his driver and his guard out, then killed the security chief on the eastern side of the capital, according to police Lieutenant Mohammad Khayoun.

A roadside bomb aimed at a police patrol in northern Baghdad missed its target but killed a civilian and wounded another.

Elsewhere, gunmen on a motorcycle killed a policeman and attackers firing from a car shot to death a 34-year-old man working in a construction equipment shop in separate attacks in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, health officials said.

Iraqi police in the northern city of Kirkuk found the body of a 15-year-old girl who had been kidnapped five days ago, Brigadier Sarhat Qadir said.

The insurgent groups who have made contact with the government have largely shunned attacks on Iraqi civilians, focusing instead on US-led coalition forces.

Their offer coincides with al-Maliki's decision to reach out to the Sunni insurgency with a reconciliation plan that includes an amnesty for fighters. The Islamic Army in Iraq, the Mohammmed Army and the Mujahedeen Shura Council -- the umbrella group that covers eight militant groups including al-Qaeda in Iraq -- were not party to any offers to the government.

Naseer al-Ani, a Sunni Arab politician and official with the largest Sunni political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said al-Maliki should seek to encourage the process by guaranteeing security for those making the offer and by not immediately rejecting their demands.

"The government should prove its goodwill and not establish red lines," al-Ani said.

"If the initiative is implemented in a good way, 70 percent of the insurgent groups will respond positively," he said.
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