BAGHDAD, Feb 1 (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed on Wednesday when a suicide bomber strapped with explosives attacked a crowd of labourers in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

Hospital sources said at least 65 people were wounded.

"We were eating breakfast and we heard an explosion. We went to see what happened and we saw people torn apart on the pavement," said Mohammed Daoud, a labourer.

The attack took place in New Baghdad. Police sources said earlier the explosion hit the Baab al-Sharjee area of Baghdad.

Insurgents waging a campaign to topple the government have killed many thousands of security forces and civilians. alertnet.org

Iraq's main Sunni Arab alliance has threatened to start a campaign of civil disobedience if concerns about attacks on its community are not addressed. The Iraqi Accord Front called for Interior Minister Bayan Jabr to resign, the disbanding of militias and the release of all Iraqi detainees.

The demands came as the governing Shia and Kurdish alliances discussed the formation of a coalition government. Negotiations began after the results of December's election were announced. The Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) took 128 of the 275 seats in the new Council of Representatives - 10 short of an outright majority. The Kurdistan Alliance (KA) won 53 seats and the Iraqi Accord Front 44.

Coalition

Wednesday's talks were attended by Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim of the UIA; and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Kurdistan Regional President Massoud Barzani of the KA.

"This invitation was to strengthen the national unity and achieve peace... for all Iraqis," Mr Hakim said.

The two alliances spent much of the day discussing who would control the key ministries in the new government. The Kurds want one of their leaders to be president and, after the meeting, Mr Talabani said the KA had agreed to nominate him once again for the largely-ceremonial post. The Shia parties want the premiership and the interior and defence portfolios, as they will control Iraq's security forces. Mr Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said he wants his deputy, Mr Abdel Mahdi, to be prime minister. Mr Abdel Mahdi narrowly lost out to his UIA-colleague and Islamic Daawa Party leader, Mr Jaafari, after elections for the Transitional Period last January. Mr Jaafari wishes to be re-appointed, but his transitional government has been widely criticised for poor performance and discrimination against Iraq's Sunni Arabs.

Demands

Speaking at a press conference, Tariq al-Hashimi, the secretary-general of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said all political parties would be called upon to declare civil disobedience throughout Iraq if the following demands were not met:

Deployment of the Iraqi army to protect the citizens of Baghdad
Dismissal of the interior minister and his senior aides
Suspension of the tasks of the Interior Ministry security units, "which target innocent people on the pretext of pursuing terrorists"
Disbanding of militias
End of "random" arrest campaigns
Release of all prisoners at prisons run by the Iraqi government
Release of all prisoners in the prisons run by multi-national forces, "especially women"
Publication of the findings of the investigation conducted into the Jadiriya detention facility, where 170 prisoners, some showing signs of apparent torture, were found by US troops in November.

Mr Hashimi said the government and the US-led coalition would have a chance to respond to their demands, but that they should not take a long time. Story from BBC NEWS: BBC

By Marjorie Cohn, TruthOut.org. Posted January 31, 2006.

Appalling new evidence reveals that female soldiers serving in Iraq made fatal decisions in their attempts to avoid rape.

In a startling revelation, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, gave orders to cover up the cause of death for some female American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark.

The latrine for female soldiers at Camp Victory wasn't located near their barracks, so they had to go outside if they needed to use the bathroom. "There were no lights near any of their facilities, so women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night," Karpinski told retired U.S. Army Col. David Hackworth in a September 2004 interview.

It was there that male soldiers assaulted and raped women soldiers. So the women took matters into their own hands. They didn't drink in the late afternoon so they wouldn't have to urinate at night. They didn't get raped. But some died of dehydration in the desert heat, Karpinski said.

Karpinski testified that a surgeon for the coalition's joint task force said in a briefing that "women in fear of getting up in the hours of darkness to go out to the port-a-lets or the latrines were not drinking liquids after 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and in 120 degree heat or warmer, because there was no air-conditioning at most of the facilities, they were dying from dehydration in their sleep."

"And rather than make everybody aware of that -- because that's shocking, and as a leader if that's not shocking to you, then you're not much of a leader -- what they told the surgeon to do is don't brief those details anymore. And don't say specifically that they're women. You can provide that in a written report, but don't brief it in the open anymore."

For example, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Sanchez's top deputy in Iraq, saw "dehydration" listed as the cause of death on the death certificate of a female master sergeant in September 2003. Under orders from Sanchez, he directed that the cause of death no longer be listed, Karpinski stated. The official explanation for this was to protect the women's privacy rights.

Sanchez's attitude was: "The women asked to be here, so now let them take what comes with the territory," Karpinski quoted him as saying. Karpinski told me that Sanchez, who was her boss, was very sensitive to the political ramifications of everything he did. She thinks it likely that when the information about the cause of these women's deaths was passed to the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld ordered that the details not be released. "That's how Rumsfeld works," she said.

"It was out of control," Karpinski told a group of students at Thomas Jefferson School of Law last October. There was an 800 number women could use to report sexual assaults. But no one had a phone, she added. And no one answered that number, which was based in the United States. Any woman who successfully connected to it would get a recording. Even after more than 83 incidents were reported during a six-month period in Iraq and Kuwait, the 24-hour rape hot line was still answered by a machine that told callers to leave a message.

"There were countless such situations all over the theater of operations -- Iraq and Kuwait -- because female soldiers didn't have a voice, individually or collectively," Karpinski told Hackworth. "Even as a general, I didn't have a voice with Sanchez, so I know what the soldiers were facing. Sanchez did not want to hear about female soldier requirements and/or issues."

Karpinski was the highest officer reprimanded for the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, although the details of interrogations were carefully hidden from her. Demoted from brigadier general to colonel, Karpinski feels she was chosen as a scapegoat because she was a female.

Sexual assault in the U.S. military has become a hot topic in the last few years, "not just because of the high number of rapes and other assaults, but also because of the tendency to cover up assaults and to harass or retaliate against women who report assaults," according to Kathy Gilberd, co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild's Military Law Task Force. This problem has become so acute that the Army has set up its own sexual assault web site.

In February 2004, Rumsfeld directed the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness to undertake a 90-day review of sexual assault policies. "Sexual assault will not be tolerated in the Department of Defense," Rumsfeld declared.

The 99-page report was issued in April 2004. It affirmed, "The chain of command is responsible for ensuring that policies and practices regarding crime prevention and security are in place for the safety of service members." The rates of reported alleged sexual assault were 69.1 and 70.0 per 100,000 uniformed service members in 2002 and 2003. Yet those rates were not directly comparable to rates reported by the Department of Justice, due to substantial differences in the definition of sexual assault.

Notably, the report found that low sociocultural power (i.e., age, education, race/ethnicity, marital status) and low organizational power (i.e., pay grade and years of active duty service) were associated with an increased likelihood of both sexual assault and sexual harassment.

The Department of Defense announced a new policy on sexual assault prevention and response on Jan. 3, 2005. It was a reaction to media reports and public outrage about sexual assaults against women in the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ongoing sexual assaults and cover-ups at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, Gilberd said. As a result, Congress demanded that the military review the problem, and the Defense Authorization Act of 2005 required a new policy be put in place by January 1.

The policy is a series of very brief "directive-type memoranda" for the secretaries of the military services from the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness. "Overall, the policy emphasizes that sexual assault harms military readiness, that education about sexual assault policy needs to be increased and repeated, and that improvements in response to sexual assaults are necessary to make victims more willing to report assaults," Gilberd notes. "Unfortunately," she added, "analysis of the issues is shallow, and the plans for addressing them are limited."

Commands can reject the complaints if they decide they aren't credible, and there is limited protection against retaliation against the women who come forward, according to Gilberd. "People who report assaults still face command disbelief, illegal efforts to protect the assaulters, informal harassment from assaulters, their friends or the command itself," she said.

But most shameful is Sanchez's cover-up of the dehydration deaths of women that occurred in Iraq. Sanchez is no stranger to outrageous military orders. He was heavily involved in the torture scandal that surfaced at Abu Ghraib. Sanchez approved the use of unmuzzled dogs and the insertion of prisoners head first into sleeping bags, after which they were tied with an electrical cord, and their mouths were covered. At least one person died as the result of the sleeping bag technique. Karpinski charges that Sanchez attempted to hide the torture after the hideous photographs became public.

Sanchez reportedly plans to retire soon, according to an article in the International Herald Tribune earlier this month. But Rumsfeld recently considered elevating the three-star general to a four-star. The Tribune also reported that Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, the Army's chief spokesman, said in an email message, "The Army leaders do have confidence in LTG Sanchez." alternet.org

By PAUL GARWOOD Feb 16, Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into claims that a police death squad has been operating in Iraq, a top official said Thursday.

The probe was launched as police found the bodies of 10 more men who had been shot dead execution-style and dumped in three different areas of Baghdad's predominantly Shiite suburb of Shula.

Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister in charge of domestic intelligence, said the probe was launched following U.S. military claims that they had detained 22 men wearing police uniforms who were about to kill a Sunni Arab man. "We have been informed about this and the interior minister has formed an investigation committee to learn more about the Sunni person and those 22 men, particularly whether they work for the Interior Ministry or claim to belong to the ministry," Kamal told The Associated Press.

A U.S. general said American forces had found evidence of a death squad operating in Iraq's Interior Ministry, the Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site Wednesday evening. An American military official in Baghdad confirmed the report but declined to provide further details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the report. Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, who commands the civilian police training teams in Iraq, said the 22 men were employed by the Ministry of Interior as highway patrol officers.

The bodies of Sunni Arabs, bound and gagged and shot in the head, have been turning up in Baghdad for months, fueling allegations of sectarian killings, which Sunni Arab leaders say often are carried out by Shiites in army or police uniforms.

Human Rights Minister Nermine Othman said she believed lower-level Interior Ministry officials were assisting criminals involved in killing Iraqis. "I think there are many people inside the Interior Ministry involved with these deaths or giving the uniforms of colleagues to criminals," Othman said. "These officials are helping the criminals by informing them on where targeted people are going or where people are living. They are helping them in different ways."

A Sunni Arab political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, praised the investigation and said it should result in perpetrators being brought to justice. "Since a very long time, we have been talking about such violations and we have been telling the Interior Ministry officials that there are squads that raid houses and arrest people who are found later executed in different parts of the capital," said party member Nasser al-Ani.

Early Thursday, five handcuffed and blindfolded men, each shot in the head, were found in one location near northern Baghdad's Shula neighborhood, police said. Four more men aged between 30 years and 35 were found killed in similar circumstances on near Shula on the highway to the northern city of Taji, police said. The body of a young man who seemed to be shot Thursday morning and damped near al-Khair river in Shula suburb, police Capt. Qassim Hussein said.

Iraq's majority Shiites claimed prominent security services positions when they came to power following the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, the former president whose regime suppressed Shiites. Sunni Arabs, who were once prominent under Saddam, claim Shiites have been killing and kidnapping Sunnis in a campaign of retribution. Sunni Arabs, however, form the backbone of Iraq's raging insurgency. Militant leaders like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have called for Shiites to be targeted in a bid to start a civil war. - AP

BAGHDAD - A civilian was killed and two policemen and a civilian were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a police patrol in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Six civilians were killed and 13 others wounded when a car bomb went off near a crowded market in the Shula district of the capital, police said.

BAGHDAD - Three civilians were wounded when a car bomb went off near a police patrol in northern Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - Four policemen and two civilians were wounded when a bomb attached to a bicycle went off targeting a police patrol in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - Three civilians were wounded when a bomb placed on a wooden cart went off near U.S. forces in Baquba, police said.

BAQUBA - Three civilians were wounded when two roadside bombs went off in two different districts targeted U.S. forces in Baquba, police said.

RAMADI - Gunmen killed Mukhaibir al-Alwani, a tribal leader and brother of the governor of Anbar province, in Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said.

BAGHDAD - The bodies of two people, bound and with gunshot wounds to the head, were found in eastern Baghdad, police aid.

JURF ALSAKHAR - Police found the bodies of two people, bound and blindfolded, in Jurf AlSakhar, about 85 km (53 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK - Gunmen killed an army captain along with his driver in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed an army lieutenant colonel in western Baghdad, police said. - reuters

*BAGHDAD - A policeman was killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their car in Al-Yousifiya, 15 km (9 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen wearing police uniforms abducted an Iraqi bank manager and his son after killing five of their bodyguards in southern Baghdad on Thursday, police said on Friday.

BAGHDAD - Four bodies were found in western Baghdad, blindfolded, hands bound and shot in the head, police said.

BAGHDAD - An oil pipeline was sabotaged by gunmen in the al Taji area to the north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A policeman was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near his car in Baghdad, police said. - reuters

*RAMADI - An Iraqi police major was killed in a drive-by shooting in Ramadi, 110 km (70 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - An Iraqi army soldier was killed and another wounded when gunmen ambushed them in Baquba 65 km (40 miles) east of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed on Saturday when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

BAQUBA - One civilian was killed and four were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their car in Baquba 65 km (40 miles) east of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Three policemen were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in eastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A senior police officer, Abdul Karim Maryosh, escaped death when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle killing one of his bodyguards and wounding another in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two bodies were found, one in eastern Baghdad and the other on the western side of the capital, with their hands tied, blindfolded and shot in the head, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed two Iraqi civilians and injured 10 others in western Baghdad on Friday, the U.S. military said on Saturday. - reuters

KIRKUK - A senior police officer, Brigadier Hatim Khalaf Matrud, and two of his bodyguards, were killed when their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb 40 km (25 miles) southwest of the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police said.

TUZ KHURMATU - The police chief of Tuz Khurmatu escaped death and four of his bodyguards were wounded when a roadside bomb struck his convoy in Tuz Khurmatu 70 km (45 miles) south of Kirkuk, police said.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces killed two insurgents and discovered three roadside bombs on Friday during operations in which they also uncovered two weapons caches , the U.S. military said on Sunday.

*BAGHDAD - Two Iraqis were killed and six wounded when a car bomb exploded near a suspension bridge that leads to the heavily guarded Green Zone, police said. In a separate incident, four Iraqis were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest at the Planning Ministry, police said. - reuters

Herman Grech - 20th Feb 2006 -

The US is "aware" of torture taking place in Iraqi prisons, according to the outgoing Maltese UN human rights chief in Iraq.

"Yes, torture is happening now, mainly in illegal detention places. Such centres are mostly being run by militia that have been absorbed by the police force," says John Pace, who retired last week as human rights chief for the UN assistance mission in Iraq.

In a frank interview with The Times, Dr Pace says photos and forensic records have proved that torture was rife inside detention centres. Though the process of release has been speeded up, there are an estimated 23,000 people in detention, of whom 80 to 90 per cent are innocent.

He says the Baghdad morgue received 1,100 bodies in July alone, about 900 of whom bore evidence of torture or summary execution. That continued throughout the year and last December there were 780 bodies, including 400 having gunshot wounds or wounds as those caused by electric drills.

Dr Pace expresses deep concern over the progress of the Saddam Hussein trial, saying he would have preferred to see the former dictator tried internationally.

After two years serving in Iraq, Dr Pace says that the non-existence of law and order has left society without any protection, clearly reflecting that the US invasion was not properly planned. - Times of Malta

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed 12 Iraqis and wounded nine when he detonated his explosives shortly after boarding a crowded bus in a Shi'ite area of Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said. Witnesses saw several charred bodies at the scene.

MOSUL - Five Iraqis, including a policeman, were killed and 21 wounded when a bomb exploded inside a restaurant in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said.

BAGHDAD - A soldier in the U.S.-led forces was killed when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle while on combat patrol near the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, south of the capital, the U.S. military said.

DUJAIL - Gunmen killed five people and wounded four when they attacked trucks loaded with gravel near the Iraqi town of Dujail on Sunday, police said.

BAGHDAD - At least two Iraqis were killed and 11 wounded when a car bomb exploded in the Diyala Bridge area of Baghdad, police sources said. They said the attack targeted a local government official but most of the casualties were gathered at a nearby outdoor market.

BAGHDAD - At least 19 labourers were wounded when a bomb exploded where they were gathering in central Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said.

BAGHDAD - Eleven people were wounded including two foreign contractors when two roadside bombs exploded in eastern Baghdad, police said.

DHULUIYA - Gunmen assassinated a Sunni Muslim cleric and wounded his brother on Sunday in the Sunni town of Dhuluiya, 40km (25 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BALAD - Gunmen assassinated a man at a petrol station in the Shi'ite Muslim town of Balad on Sunday, police said. The identity of the victim was not immediately clear.

TUZ KHURMATU - Four Iraqi policemen were wounded on Sunday when a roadside bomb went off targeting their patrol in Tuz Khurmatu, 70 km (40 miles) to the south of Kirkuk, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb wounded two policemen when it exploded near their patrol in central Baghdad, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - A roadside bomb wounded a policeman as his patrol passed through the town of Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, local police said. - reuters

BAQUBA - Three policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - A roadside bomb went off near a pick-up truck carrying workers, killing one and wounding two in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK - Iraqi police arrested three al Qaeda members on Monday who they said confessed to recent church bombings in Baghdad and Kirkuk.

KIRKUK - Police colonel Burhan Taha, the head of police headquarters in Kirkuk, escaped an assassination attempt on Monday when gunmen attacked his house in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. His son and daughter were wounded, police added.

AL RIYADH - Four Iraqi soldiers were seriously wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a joint Iraqi-U.S patrol near the town of al Riyadh, 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

BAGHDAD - Six civilians were wounded when a mortar round landed in a Shi'ite district of the capital, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two police commandos were killed and four people wounded, including a civilian, when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in southern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - Two civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near a U.S. patrol in central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A policeman was killed when a roadside bomb went off near his patrol in western Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The body of a man was found, bound and with shotgun wounds to the head and chest, police said.

BAQUBA - One civilian was killed and two were wounded when gunmen attacked a judge while he was heading to his work in Baquba, police said. The judge was wounded. - alertnet.org

By Gareth Smyth in Tehran Published: February 22 2006

An explosion in Iraq has destroyed the golden dome of one of the most revered shrines in Shia Islam sparking nationwide protests and sectarian reprisals against Sunni mosques despite appeals for calm from government and religious leaders.

Wednesday's early morning blast at the Askariya shrine in Samarra, 150km north of Baghdad, devastated the tombs of the tenth and eleventh of the 12 Imams believed by Shia to have been infallible successors to the prophet Mohammad.

Early reports suggested armed insurgents, possibly in Iraqi police uniforms, entered the shrine and left explosives. US troops and Iraqi police cordoned off the area and began house-to-house searches.

No one was killed in the attack on the mosque in Samarra. However a Sunni cleric was killed, police said, at one of 17 Sunni mosques in Baghdad fired on by militants.

The Samarra attack appears to be a deliberate provocation of Iraq's Shia community, who make up around 55 per cent of the population and comes after two deadly explosions targeting Shia civilians in Baghdad on Monday and Tuesday.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shia, declared three days of mourning and called for Muslim unity. He said the interim government had sent officials to Samarra.

Mouwafak al-Rubaie, national security advisor, blamed Sunni militants of Ansar al-Sunnah, a group linked to al-Qaeda that has been responsible for a trail of violence in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion. Mr Rubaie told Al Arabiya satellite television such militants intended to "to pull Iraq toward civil war".

There has been growing concern among Shia Muslims, in Lebanon and Iran as well as Iraq, at attacks by mainly Sunni insurgents on Shia civilians and religious figures in Iraq.

Ayatollah Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, asked people to protest peacefully in their home cities rather than travel to Samarra, which has a majority Sunni population. Ayatollah Sistani has consistently urged his followers to show restraint and not be goaded by attempt to incite sectarian war.

Jack Straw, Britain's foreign secretary, echoed the call for restraint, calling the attack "a criminal and sacrilegious act" that was "a blatant attempt to ingnite civil strife and disrupt the process of forming a new government in Iraq". "This is a most shocking outrage against a holy shrine of the Shia community, so all of us have to understand the anger people feel when such defilement of their shrine takes place."

He was confident, however, that Iraqis would continue to demonstrate the "remarkable resiliance and determinination" that they had shown in the past to secure a peaceful and democratic future, as illustrated by high turn-out in the December elections.

The Sunni Endowment, a government body that maintains Sunni shrines, condemned the blast and said it would send a delegation to Samarra to investigate.

The Askariya shrine in Samarra is the tomb of both Imam Ali bin Mohammad, who died in 868AD, and Imam Hassan bin Ali, who died in 872AD and was the father of Imam Mohammad bin Hassan, whom Shia believe went into hiding in 941 and will return one day as 'the Mahdi' to inaugurate a period of just rule on earth before the Day of Judgement. - FT.com

Posted: 22-02-2006 , 14:53 GMT

An explosion on Wednesday in the Iraqi town of Samarra caused the golden dome of the Askari Mosque, considered one of the four most holy sites of Shiite muslims in Iraq, to collapse. Also known as the Golden Mosque, it is extremely important to Shiites across the globe and is regularly visited by pilgrims. Tradition says the shrine is near the site where the last of the 12 Shiite imams, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared.

Samarra, which lies north of the capital, has been the scene of numerous deadly attacks against the country's Shiite community in the past.

Iraqi officials reported that the collapse ocurred after gunmen entered the mosque and set off explosives within it, according to Reuters. One spokesman for the US military said that the attack was "catastrophic". There were no worshippers inside the mosque at the time of the explosion.

The incident sparked reprisal attacks against Sunni sites in several other Iraqi cities, with at least 17 Sunni mosques torched and targeted by small-arms fire, rocket propelled grenades. One Sunni mosque was reportedly completely destroyed, according to Reuters. In the Bab Al Sham area, Shiite gunmen shot and killed a Sunni cleric of the Al Rashidi mosque, while followers of Moqtada Al Sadr attacked the houses of Sunnis in the town of Diwaniya, south of Baghdad.

One Sadr follower was killed in the clashes that ensued.

Iraqi PM annouces three days of mourning, Al Sistani calls for full week ...Iraqi Prime Minster Ibrahim Jaafari called for a three-day mourning period in light of the tragedy, which he called an attack on all Muslims, saying, "I hope our heroic people will take more care on this occasion to bolster Islamic unity and protect Islamic brotherhood and Iraqi national brotherhood."

Thousands of Shiites demonstrated following the attack, while Iraq's top Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani called for a full week of national mourning, according to the AFP.

National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie blamed extremists represented by the al-Qaeda network and Sunni group Ansar al-Sunnah for the blast, which he told the Al Arabiya television aimed "to pull Iraq toward civil war."

Meanwhile, two Iraqi soldiers were killed in the town of Kirkuk when their patrol was ambushed by gunmen, while two police officers were killed by gunmen in a separate attack in the town of Baquba.

Outside Baquba in the town of Al Ahmer, four bodyguards of the head of the Criminal Court of Diyala province were killed during an attempted assassination on the court head's life.

Additionally, three Iraqi contractors who were employed by the US Army were kidnapped in Falluja by gunmen.

Also in Wednesday, two Iraqi children and one woman were killed and four others wounded when a roadside bomb exploded outside their elementary school.

The attack, according to Iraqi police forces, occurred in the morning hours in the town of Al-Kut, southeast of Baghdad, said the AP. - albawaba.com

**BASRA - Storage depots belonging to the main Sunni religious body in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, were reported by local police to be on fire after three grenades were thrown from moving cars while residents were at prayers.

SAMARRA - A bomb attack shattered a sacred Shi'ite shrine in the town of Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad. The blast ignited protests in several cities.

BAGHDAD - At least 27 Sunni mosques and an office for the Iraqi Islamic Party in Baghdad were attacked by gunmen after the bomb blast in Samarra. Police said one mosque was completely burnt while others were attacked with small-arms fire and rocket propelled grenades. Three clerics and three bodyguards were killed, and another cleric was kidnapped, according to interior ministry sources.

DIWANIYA - Clashes erupted in Diwaniya after militiamen loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr attacked the houses of Arab Sunnis in Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad. One of Sadr's men was killed, said a member of the Diwaniya provincial council.

BASRA - Gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque with rocket propelled grenades in Basra, local police said. There were no casualties.

BASRA - Local police said shootouts erupted between Sadr's militiamen and members of the Iraqi Islamic Party in Basra.

KIRKUK - Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi army patrol on Tuesday, killing two soldiers and wounding two in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, said police colonel Sarhat Qadir.

HASSWA - Four policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb while travelling on a road in the town of Hasswa, 50 km (32 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

FALLUJA - Three Iraqi contractors working for the U.S. army were abducted by gunmen in the town of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, said police major Omar Mohammed.

AL-MASHRUGIYA - Two children and a woman were killed and four people wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a primary school in al-Mashrugiya, 175 km (110 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - Two police officers were killed by gunmen in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - The head of the Criminal Court of Diyala province survived an assassination attempt by gunmen in al-Ahmer village, 40 km (25 miles) east of Baquba, but four of his bodyguards were killed, police said. - alertnet.org

22/02/2006 - US President George Bush urged restraint among rival religious factions in Iraq after the bombing today of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, and pledged American help to restore the revered Shiite shrine.

"The terrorists in Iraq have again proven that they are enemies of all faiths and of all humanity," the president said in a written statement. "The world must stand united against them, and steadfast behind the people of Iraq. This senseless crime is an affront to people of faith throughout the world. The US condemns this cowardly act in the strongest possible terms."

Assailants wearing uniforms detonated two bombs inside the shrine, blowing the top off its landmark golden dome and spawning mass protests and reprisal attacks against dozens of Sunni mosques.

"I ask all Iraqis to exercise restraint in the wake of this tragedy, and to pursue justice in accordance with the laws and constitution of Iraq. Violence will only contribute to what the terrorists sought to achieve by this act," Bush said. "The US stands ready to do all in its power to assist the Government of Iraq to identify and bring to justice those responsible for this terrible act," he said. "And the American people pledge to work with the people of Iraq to rebuild and restore the Golden Mosque of Samarra to its former glory." - IOL

[Hands up if you think Sunnis did this? nope? me neither]

By Reuters

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Western powers like the United States and Israel that they would face the wrath of Muslims following the devastating bombing of a Shi'ite Muslim shrine in Iraq.

Echoing Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ahmadinejad pinned the blame for Wednesday's Samarra shrine bombing on "Zionists" and foreign forces in Iraq.

"These heinous acts are committed by a group of Zionists and occupiers that have failed. They have failed in the face of Islam's logic and justice," Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state television. "But be sure, you will not be saved from the wrath and power of the justice-seeking nations by resorting to such acts," he said to cries of "Death to America" "Death to Israel" from a crowd of thousands of supporters in central Iran.

Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters in Shi'ite Muslim Iran, on Wednesday urged Shi'ites not to take revenge on Sunni Muslims for the attack on the Samarra shrine. "There are definitely some plots to force Shi'ites to attack the mosques and other properties respected by the Sunnis," he said. "Any measure to contribute to that direction is helping the enemies of Islam and is forbidden by Sharia," he added.

Khamenei ordered a week of national mourning in Iran over the bombing.

In Beirut, Lebanon's Hezbollah group called for Muslim unity in the wake of the mosque bombing. "I tell the Americans, the Zionists and the criminals who committed yesterday's crime in Samarra that all your aims will fail," Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told a rally attended by thousands of Lebanese Shi'ites in the southern suburb of Beirut. "I tell them that this (Muslim) nation will not be torn apart ... It will not fall for the tricks of the occupier."

Hezbollah, a Shi'ite guerrilla group backed by Iran and Syria, has opposed Washington's role in Iraq. The United States lists Hezbollah as a terrorist group and has called for it to be disarmed in line with a 2004 UN Security Council resolution. - haaretz.com

Iraq's President Jalal Talabani has warned of the danger of civil war after a bomb attack caused extensive damage to one of the country's holiest Shiite sites.

The blast which destroyed the golden dome of the al-Askari shrine in the city of Samarra was followed by a series of reprisal attacks on as many as 29 Sunni mosques across the country as thousands of Shias took to the streets in protest.

In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned the al-Askari explosion as "criminal and sacrilegious".

He called for restraint from all of Iraq's communities, but insisted the blast - the third serious attack on Shiite targets in as many days - did not indicate the country was descending into civil war.

President Jalal Talabani warned that extremists were trying to stir up open conflict between the majority Shiites and the Sunnis, who dominated the country under Saddam Hussein and supply the bulk of fighters in the insurgency. "We are facing a major conspiracy that is targeting Iraq's unity," said Mr Talabani, head of the influential Kurdish Coalition. "We should all stand hand-in-hand to prevent the danger of a civil war."

Samarra is mainly a Sunni stronghold and has been a focus of the insurgency against coalition troops and the Shia-dominated Iraqi administration.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack on the al-Askari shrine, but the finger of suspicion was being pointed at extremist Sunni groups such as al Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Iraq's Interior Ministry said four men entered the shrine - which contains the tombs of two revered Shia imams - and detonated two bombs. It was initially feared that people may have been trapped in the rubble, but no bodies had been found. - scotsman

By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) Feb 23, -- Gunmen shot dead 47 civilians and left their bodies in a ditch near Baghdad Thursday as militia battles and sectarian reprisals followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine. Sunni Arabs suspended their participation in talks on a new government.

At least 111 people were believed killed in two days of rage unleashed by Wednesday's attack on the Askariya shrine in Samarra, a mostly Sunni Arab city 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The hardline Sunni Clerical Association of Muslim Scholars said 168 Sunni mosques had been attacked around the country, 10 imams killed and 15 abducted since the shrine attack. The Interior Ministry said it could only confirm figures for Baghdad, where it had reports of 19 mosques attacked, one cleric killed and one abducted.

The bullet-ridden bodies of a prominent female correspondent and two other journalists who had been covering Wednesday's explosion in Samarra were found on the outskirts of the city.

The sectarian violence threatened to derail U.S. plans to form a new national unity government representing all factions, including Sunni Arabs, who form the backbone of the insurgency.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, summoned political leaders to a meeting Thursday. But the biggest Sunni faction in the new parliament, the Iraqi Accordance Front, refused to attend, citing the attacks on Sunni mosques.

"It is illogical to negotiate with parties that are trying to damage the political process," said Tariq al-Hashimi, a leader of the Accordance Front.

President Bush said the bombing was intended to divide the Iraqi people.

Major Tim Keefe, press desk director, in statement: Keefe says the deadly attack is being investigated.

"The act was an evil act," Bush said. "The destruction of a holy site is a political act intending to create strife. So I am pleased with the voices of reason that have spoken out."

Bush said the U.S. was committed to helping rebuild the mosque.

As the country veered toward sectarian war, the government extended a curfew in Baghdad and Salaheddin province for two days. All leaves for Iraqi soldiers and police were canceled and personnel ordered to report to their units.

The U.S. military said four soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, were killed Wednesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near Hawijah. Three others from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division died when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb Wednesday near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the Iraqi government and U.S. forces of failing to protect the Samarra shrine, also known as the Golden Mosque, and ordered his militia to defend Shiite holy sites across Iraq. "If the government had real sovereignty, then nothing like this would have happened," al-Sadr said in a statement. "Brothers in the Mahdi Army must protect all Shiite shrines and mosques, especially in Samarra."

The destruction of the gleaming dome of the 1,200-year-old Askariya shrine sent crowds of angry Shiites into the streets across Iraq. The crowds included members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and other Shiite militias that the United States wants abolished.

A spokesman for the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars blamed the violence on the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and other Shiite religious leaders who called for demonstrations against the shrine attack.

Abdul-Salam Al-Kubaisi also said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad may also have enflamed the situation when he warned Monday that the United States would not continue to support institutions run by sectarian groups with links to armed militias. Sunnis accuse Shiite militiamen operating in the ranks of the Interior Ministry, which controls the police, of widespread abuses.

"Without doubt, these statements mobilized all the Shiites," al-Kubaisi said. "It made them ready to go down to the street at any moment."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Thursday that he suspects Al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was responsible for the mosque attack. "It has the hallmarks of their nihilism," Straw told a news conference in London. He called on leaders of Iraq's religious communities to defuse tensions caused by the attack.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the attack was "an act of desperation as well as desecration."

In Diyala, a religiously mixed province northeast of Baghdad, 47 bodies were found in a ditch. Officials said the victims appeared to have been stopped by gunmen, forced out of their cars and shot in an industrial area near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Most were aged between 20 and 50 and appeared to include both Sunnis and Shiites, police said.

Dozens more bodies were found dumped at sites in Baghdad and the Shiite heartland in southern Iraq, many of them with their hands bound and shot execution-style.

Fighting broke out Thursday afternoon in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, between al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and Sunni militiamen. Two civilians were killed and five militiamen were injured, police Capt. Rashid al-Samaraie said.

Gunmen fired automatic weapons and grenades at a Sunni mosque in Baqouba, killing one mosque employee and injuring two others, police said. Assailants also set fire to two Sunni mosques in eastern Baghdad, police said.

Thousands of demonstrators carrying Shiite flags and banners marched through parts of Baghdad, Karbala, Kut, Tal Afar and the Shiite holy city of Najaf in protest against the shrine attack.

U.S. military units in the Baghdad area were told Thursday morning to halt all but essential travel. Commanders feared that convoys might be caught up in demonstrations or road blocks.

Nineteen people, 11 of them civilians, died in two bombings north of Baghdad that appeared unrelated to the sectarian fighting. - Associated Press

By Mussab Al-Khairalla BAGHDAD, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Iraq's main Sunni Muslim bloc pulled out of talks on Thursday on the formation of a new government, blaming the ruling Shi'ite alliance for sectarian violence that has killed dozens of Sunnis in the past 24 hours.

The sectarian tensions sparked by an attack on a Shi'ite shrine on Wednesday occurred at a critical time for Iraq, as fractious politicians struggle to form a new government two months after elections for the first full-term parliament.

"We are suspending our participation in negotiations on the government with the Shi'ite Alliance," Tareq al-Hashemi, a senior official of the Iraqi Accordance Front, told reporters.

The negotiations have been mired in sectarian differences, prompting the U.S. ambassador to warn that Washington had spent too much tax-payers' money in Iraq to tolerate sectarianism and militias in government.

It was not clear if broader talks would now go ahead without the presence of the Accordance Front, which includes the Iraqi Islamic Party. The Front won 44 of 275 seats when the once dominant Sunni minority ended its boycott of the U.S.-sponsored political process and took part in the December elections.

STAY AWAY

The Accordance Front stayed away from a meeting at President Jalal Talabani's house on Thursday designed to calm tensions, blaming the Shi'ite-led government for failing to protect Sunnis and their places of worship.

"If the price of participating in the political process is the blood of our people, then we are willing to go back on this. This atmosphere does not help the resumption of negotiations," said Accordance Front spokesman Thafer al-Aani.

Dozens of people, mostly Sunnis, were killed in Baghdad and elsewhere after the bombing of the Shi'ite shrine in Samarra, police said. Dozens of Sunni mosques were also attacked and Shi'ite militias took to the streets.

Aani said the bloc would resume talks only if those who incited and participated in the violence officially apologised, compensation was paid for damaged mosques, perpetrators were brought to justice and the militias behind them held to account.

The Accordance Front also demanded a pledge there would be no repeat of the violence.

The Arab League, meeting in Cairo at ambassador level, condemned attacks on mosques and the killing of innocent people and called for restraint by all political and religious leaders in Iraq.

"The council calls on them to ... thwart all attempts and criminal plans against the unity, security and stability of Iraq, and to stand in the way of all those who try to plant the seeds of strife among the Iraqi people," it said in a statement. - alertnet.org

BAGHDAD - At least 47 people have been killed in Baghdad in the last 24 hours, police said.

SAMARRA - Three Al Arabiya journalists were killed in the Iraqi city of Samarra while filming.

BAQUBA - Gunmen in two cars opened fire on a Sunni Muslim mosque in the Iraqi town of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, on Thursday, killing one person, police said. - alertnet.org

By Haider Salahaddin and Alastair Macdonald BAGHDAD, Feb 24 (Reuters) - A daytime curfew in Baghdad and concerted calls for Muslim unity from mosques across the country on Friday seemed to check sectarian violence that has left 200 dead in the capital alone over the past three days.

Though tens of thousands of Shi'ite supporters of militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr defied the ban to march to weekly prayers in Baghdad's Sadr City stronghold and his Mehdi Army militia was involved in clashes, there was little bloodshed and appeals from pulpits may have nudged Iraq back from the brink of civil war.

"We are not enemies but brothers," Sadr told his followers.

A senior Shi'ite politician said: "Sunni and Shi'ite clerics and political leaders have made great efforts and the situation is better. But to be honest, Iraq is still in the danger zone."

Dozens of reprisal attacks on minority Sunni mosques since a suspected al Qaeda bomb destroyed a major Shi'ite shrine on Wednesday have stalled talks on a national unity government that U.S. President George W. Bush says is the key to the stability that would let him bring home 130,000 American troops.

Thousands of untested, U.S.-trained Iraqi police and troops blocked roads across Baghdad and surrounding regions as U.S. patrols, widely resented by both sides, kept a low profile.

Drawn heavily from rival militias, the new Iraqi forces' loyalties will be sorely tested if they do have to intervene.

"Even were we only a quarter as many, we would fight and defend our country," General Mubdir al-Dulaimi, commander of Iraqi forces in Baghdad, told a news conference.

Elsewhere, including the second city of Basra which has also seen violence, there was neither curfew nor much trouble.

Police sources said 20 people had been killed around Baghdad overnight and in the morning, compared to nearly 180 over the preceding two days when Iraqis confronted mayhem and fear unseen since the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Mehdi Army fighters and suspected Sunni gunmen clashed in southern Baghdad during the night and morning, police said. Gunmen killed three Shi'ites in a house south of the capital.

BAGHDAD CALM

City centre streets -- and mosques -- were largely deserted but in neighbourhoods where people felt confident they were among fellow Sunnis or Shi'ites crowds walked to prayers to hear sermons calling for Muslim unity and warning against division.

"Anyone who attacks a Muslim is not a Muslim and he who assaults sacraments and mosques shall get his just punishment," said a statement from Sadr, whose Mehdi Army is one of a number of rival Shi'ite militias to have been on the streets this week.

State television read out a lengthy statement in a similar vein from Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the pro-Iranian SCIRI party which also runs the heavily armed Shi'ite Badr movement.

"What happened at the (Shi'ite) shrine was an attempt to divide Muslims," a Sunni preacher in Baghdad told worshippers. "Each side is trying to calm its people down," one senior government official told Reuters. "Things are better than yesterday. But it's still tough."

The U.S. ambassador, who has earned Shi'ite anger this week by publicly pressuring the Islamists to make room in government for Sunnis, said: "The events of the last few days reinforces the need for Iraq to have a government of national unity." "It is a moment of danger but also a moment of opportunity," Zalmay Khalilzad, a key player in the talks, told reporters.

The main Sunni bloc pulled out of coalition negotiations that have followed its participation in a December election; it accused Shi'ite leaders of fomenting the revenge attacks after the destruction of the Shi'ite Golden Mosque in Samarra.

Iraqi and U.S. officials blamed the bloodless but symbolic attack on al Qaeda; it in turn accused Shi'ites of carrying out the bombing to provide an excuse for attacks on Sunnis.

"If the situation continues there will be a civil war," said Mohammed, a rare Baghdadi venturing out in the city centre. "It will get to the point where you have to sleep with a weapon."

REGIONAL TENSION

Bush has called for calm and the U.N. envoy has invited all parties to emergency talks to resolve a crisis that could inflame the entire Middle East if it gets out of hand.

In Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, leading cleric Salah al-Qaaid told worshippers at the Grand Mosque in Mecca: "It is not in Iraq's interest to rush to blame people, or take revenge."

Shi'ite Iran maintained its fiery rhetoric against the U.S. occupation; some suspect Tehran may try to divert U.S. pressure on it by fuelling trouble in Iraq, where Washington hopes a friendly democracy would transform the oil-rich region.

Senior Iraqi officials said leading clerics, including the revered Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, were straining to rein in Shi'ite militants -- but might not be able to do so forever.

"For the first time, this government took the right step in imposing a curfew, but it is a temporary solution," said Mustafa al-Ani, an Iraqi analyst at the Gulf Research Center. "If these incidents happen again and again, people will stop heeding the curfew and it will lose control."

(Additional reporting by Lin Noueihed, Michael Georgy, Salem al-Oreibi and Nick Olivari in Baghdad, Sami al-Jumaili in Kerbala, Abdelrazzak Hameed in Basra, Andrew Hammond in Riyadh and Mariam Karouny and Ibon Villelabeitia) - alertnet.org

Published: 2/24/2006 BAGHDAD - The bombing of a revered Shiite shrine which sparked a wave of violence in Iraq was the work of specialists, Construction Minister Jassem Mohammed Jaafar said Friday, adding that the placing of the explosives must have taken at least 12 hours.

"According to initial reports, the bombing was technically well conceived and could only have been carried out by specialists," the minister told Iraqia state television.

Jaafar, who toured the devastated thousand-year-old shrine on Thursday a day after the bombing which brought down its golden dome, said "holes were dug into the mausoleum's four main pillars and packed with explosives."

"Then the charges were connected together and linked to another charge placed just under the dome. The wires were then linked to a detonator which was triggered at a distance," the minister added.

To drill into the pillars would have taken at least four hours per pillar, he also estimated.

Damage to the mausoleum, holding the tombs of the 10th and 11th Shiite Imams, was extensive.

"The dome was completely wrecked and collapsed on the tombs which were covered over by debris. The shrine's foundations were also affected as 40 percent of the power of the blast was directed inwards," he added.

"It's a historic site, a symbol of Iraqi culture and must be treated as such," he said, adding that he would call on Iraqi officials and on UNESCO to help rebuilt the golden mosque.

Jaafar said he survived a double bomb attack while returning from Samarra when blasts went off in front of his convoy and behind it. turkishpress.com

SECURITY DEVELOPMENTS

** BAGHDAD - Gunmen attacked Sunni mosques in two city districts after dark, including the Sunnis' revered Abu Hanifa shrine, police said, adding that police and Iraqi troops repelled assailants who wore the black of Shi'ite militias.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. military has positioned troops as a quick-reaction force amid a spike in violence in Iraq that has heightened concern about a civil war, but Iraqi security forces are taking the lead role in providing security, U.S. Army Col. Jeffrey Snow, who commands a 3,500-strong brigade of the 10th Mountain Division operating in the Baghdad area, told reporters at the Pentagon via teleconference. He added so far they have not been sent in to help Iraqi security forces.

BAGHDAD - Shi'ite Muslim militiamen clashed with insurgents in southern Baghdad, leaving Iraqi security forces trying to enforce a curfew helpless to stop them, police sources said. They said the clashes were between unidentified gunmen and members of the Mehdi Army militia loyal to firebrand Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. It was not immediately clear if anyone was hurt.

** BAGHDAD - A bomb tore open an oil products and fuel pipeline near the refinery town of Baiji and was likely to disrupt supplies for about three days.

KIRKUK - Gunmen killed a member of the Badr movement, Khalil Ibrahim, in his house in the city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, on Thursday, police said.

TUZ KHORMATU - Gunmen killed Shi'ite cleric Abdel Khalek Hussein in Tuz Khormatu, north of Baghdad, on Thursday, police said.

BAGHDAD - Abu Asma, the al Qaeda military emir of northern Baghdad, was killed in a raid by the U.S. military and Iraqi police, the U.S. military said. Abu Asma was an explosives expert with close ties to senior car bomb makers in Baghdad, they said.

LATIFIYA - Gunmen stormed a house and killed two Shi'ite men and a woman in Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad, despite a curfew. Two children, aged around 11 and 13, were wounded.

BAGHDAD - One Iraqi soldier was killed at a check point in Baghdad on Thursday, the Iraqi military said.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

BAGHDAD - An emergency curfew for Friday's Muslim day of prayer helped quell sectarian violence, keeping much of the capital deserted as leaders work to avert civil war.

The government extended an overnight curfew until 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Baghdad and three surrounding provinces and police said they would arrest those who take to the streets.

The Iraqi military said the extended overnight curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. would continue but the daytime curfew would end on Friday.

BAGHDAD - President George W. Bush said: "This is a moment of choosing for the Iraqi people ... We can expect the coming days will be intense. Iraq remains a serious situation, but I'm optimistic, because the Iraqi people have spoken" their desire for democracy through elections.

BAGHDAD - U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said sectarian violence after the bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine only reinforced the need for a government of national unity.

BAGHDAD - Thousands defy government curfew in sprawling Shi'ite slum of Sadr City after Moqtada al-Sadr called on his militia to attend prayers but banned attacks on Sunni Muslims.

KUFA - About 5,000 people show up for prayer at the southern Shi'ite city of Kufa.

BASRA - About 8,000 people gathered for Friday prayers in the southern city of Basra.

IRAN - A few thousand people crammed the streets of central Tehran after prayers chanting slogans such as "We protect the holy shrines with our blood" and the traditional cry of "Death to America, death to Israel, death to Britain".

IRAN - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, quoted by the official IRNA news agency, told supporters in central Iran: "You the endeared people of Iraq, you are at the beginning of the road to freedom and you should know that all your problems originate from the occupiers. The occupiers ... should be held responsible for the insecurities in that country." - alertnet.org

24 February 2006 BERLIN - German intelligence officials provided the United States with information about developments in Iraq during the US-led invasion to which the Berlin government was officially opposed, according to a government dossier.

But the report on the activities of BND foreign intelligence agents in Iraq dismisses claims they assisted the US in its "strategic aerial offensive" against the forces of then-president Saddam Hussein.

Media reports in Germany and the United States had claimed two BND agents who remained in Baghdad after the March 2003 invasion had provided information that helped US forces target their bombs.

The report said the agents relayed information to

BND headquarters in Pullach near Munich where it was evaluated and in some cases passed on to the US.

Some of the data concerned military and troop activities and the location of Iraqi special forces, often ascertained with the help of GPS equipment.

None of this served to support the "strategic aerial war offensive" because no information concerning immediate air or ground operations was passed on, the report said.

The original dossier was 300 pages, but the version made public late Thursday was only 90 pages because of cuts made for security reasons and data protection requirements.

Norbert Roettgen, the Christian Democrat head of a parliamentary intelligence review panel who saw the original report, said earlier this week he was satisfied that the BND agents did not assist in the preparation of military actions by the US.

The then government of chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was officially opposed to the war in Iraq. Schroeder's coordinator with the secret service at the time was Frank-Walter Steinmeier, current foreign minister.

The three opposition parties, the Free Democrats (FDP), Greens and Left Party, have all suggested a parliamentary inquiry into the allegations, but the FDP said they would not make a formal decision on the matter until next month. - expatica.com/

SECURITY DEVELOPMENTS

BAGHDAD - At least three members of Iraq's security forces were killed in attacks on the funeral procession of an Al Arabiya journalist killed earlier this week, the Arab television station and police said.

BAGHDAD - Eleven bodies were found in five areas of Baghdad, police said. All were male and all had been shot.

BAGHDAD - Police and a spokesman for the Shi'ite movement led by fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said three people were killed and six wounded by mortar and rocket fire in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad.

TIKRIT - The body of a police officer with gunshot wounds was found near his home east of Tikrit, police said.

KERBALA - A car bomb exploded in a street market in the southern city of Kerbala, killing at least eight people and wounding 31, police said.

BAQUBA - Gunmen killed 12 members of a Shi'ite family near Baquba, north of Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said.

BAGHDAD - Gunmen opened fire on the house of the head of Iraq's leading Sunni Muslim religious organisation, Harith al- Dari, in an attack he blamed on government forces. Dari's security personnel opened fire and there appeared to be injuries on both sides, police said.

BAGHDAD - Fourteen bodies of police commandos were found near one of the mosques attacked in southern Baghdad where clashes occurred overnight, police said. Gunmen attacked the Qubaisy mosque and the Sunnis' revered Abu Hanifa shrine.

BAQUBA - Clashes erupted overnight between Iraqi troops and Sunni militants in a village near Baquba, north of Baghdad. Army sources said four militants were killed and 17 arrested.

**More than 200 people have died since sectarian violence broke out on Wednesday, according to police. Defence Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi put the number at half that. Some 40 died around the country on Saturday alone, according to police and military.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

**BAGHDAD - Iraq's top political leaders held talks on Saturday to discuss the formation of a new government as they tried to ease sectarian tensions that have raised fears of civil war. Sunni politicians who had suspended their participation in negotiations on the formation of a new government attended the meeting, as did U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad.

**WASHINGTON D.C. -- U.S. President George W. Bush made a round of phone calls on Saturday to Iraqi leaders of all sects, urging them to work together to calm violence that has raised fears of an all-out civil war.

**BAGHDAD - U.N. envoy to Iraq Ashraf Qazi called on all Iraqis to come together to avert a civil war while offering help in rebuilding and repairing mosques damaged in recent sectarian violence.

BAGHDAD - Sunni and Shi'ite clerics met at the Sunni Abu Hanifah Mosque in Baghdad to discuss the security situation and the reciprocal attacks on Sunni and Shi'ite mosques.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's defence minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi warned that a civil war would never end if it erupts. He said Iraq was ready to put armoured vehicles on the streets to end violence and impose security. He also said the number of attacks on Sunni mosques had been exaggerated.

BAGHDAD - Iraq will extend a security clampdown and ban on cars travelling in the streets of Baghdad until 6 a.m. on Monday morning, Interior Minister Bayan Jabur said. - alertnet.org

SECURITY DEVELOPMENTS

HILLA - A bomb destroyed a minibus in a large bus station in Hilla 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad on Sunday, killing five people and wounding three, police said. A policeman at the scene said the blast was caused either by a roadside bomb or a device attached to the outside of the minibus which was leaving the station when the bomb exploded.

BAGHDAD - Two U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in western Baghdad on Sunday, bringing the number of U.S. personnel killed since the invasion in March 2003 to at least 2,290. One soldier was killed immediately by the bomb, the U.S. military said, while the second died from wounds after being evacuated to a military hospital.

MADAEN - One police officer was killed and two wounded by a roadside bomb in Madaen, the interior ministry said.

BASRA - A bomb exploded in a toilet block on Sunday near a Shi'ite shrine in the southern Iraqi city of Basra 550 km (340 miles), witnesses said. The explosion came after firebrand Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr held a rally in Basra calling on Sunnis and Shi'ites to hold joint prayers on Friday.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

BAGHDAD- Shi'ite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, flanked by Sunni and Kurdish politicians, made a midnight televised appeal for Iraqis not to turn on each other after Wednesday's suspected al Qaeda bomb at a Shi'ite shrine. The appeal came after a round of phone calls from U.S. President George W. Bush, though Sunni leader Tareq al-Hashemi said he was not yet ready to end a boycott of the U.S.-sponsored talks. - alertnet.org

By Steve Negus, Iraq correspondent Published: February 26 2006

Iraq lifted an extraordinary daylight curfew in three governorates on Sunday as the wave of violence that followed Wednesday's destruction of a Shia shrine appeared to ebb outside the capital.

But the ban on traffic in Baghdad - which on Sunday night suffered a mortar attack that killed 15 and wounded at least another 30 people - remained in place. In other sporadic violence on Sunday another seven people died, including two US soldiers.

The apparent absence of organised reprisals at the weekend, however, suggests that while the destruction of the dome of the al-Askariya shrine and the ensuing wave of Shia attacks on Sunnis has brought the country the closest it has come to sectarian civil war, key religious and political leaders on both sides have this time been both willing and able to de-escalate the crisis.

Bans on vehicle traffic were lifted in the province of Salaheddin, where the al-Askariya shrine is located, as well as in Diala and Babel, both homes to mixed Sunni-Shia populations which have witnessed sectarian violence in the past.

Reports of the violence which followed the demolition of al-Askariya have often been confused, but most estimates suggest a death toll of at least 170 since Wednesday's bombing.

Sunni Arab political leaders have yet to end their boycott of talks to form a national unity government, but said in a statement that they noted "positive signs" that the current Shia-led government would address their concerns over security.

They appear to have been soothed somewhat by a round of phone calls made by US President George W. Bush to Iraqi leaders on Saturday night. Some Sunni politicians are relying on American pressure to strengthen their hand in upcoming negotiations, following a US threat that it would reduce aid to Iraq's security forces if hardline Shia leaders remained in key security posts.

The Bush administration on Sunday maintained that Iraq had pulled back from the brink of civil war. It also said its plans to withdraw troops remained on course as the training of Iraqis went ahead despite concerns that militia death squads had infiltrated the US-backed interior ministry. "They've stared into the abyss a bit and I think they've all concluded that further violence, further tension between the communities is not in their interest," said Stephen Hadley, US national security adviser, referring to the Iraqi leadership.

Sunni and Shia religious leaders also met on Saturday and condemned attacks on each other's mosques. Representatives of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the Sunni Muslim Scholars Association blamed the US-led "occupiers" for stirring up sectarian tensions, but also condemned "those who excommunicate" - a phrase used to denote Sunni ultra-puritans who declare Shia to be heretics.

Mr Sadr appeared at a rally in the southern city of Basra on Sunday to call for Muslim unity against US forces and told his followers to hold joint prayers next Friday at Sunni mosques that had been the focus of reprisal attacks. -- ft.com

* NAHRAWAN - Interior Ministry police commandos killed five suspected Sunni insurgents and captured 25 in an evening battle near Nakhrawan just southeast of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. Eight police were also killed and six wounded.

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Interior Ministry forces have captured a senior aide to al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, state television said on Monday. Iraqiya television named the man as Abu Farouq and said he was captured with five others in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of the capital.

ISKANDARIYA - Two insurgents were killed and another wounded while they were trying to plant a bomb which exploded prematurely in the main road between Iskandariya and Latifiya, south of Baghdad, police said.

RIYADH - Three civilians were killed when a roadside bomb exploded in Riyadh town, 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

BAGHDAD - A mortar attack killed four people and wounded 17 in Shola, a Shi'ite district in Sunni-dominated western Baghdad on Monday, police said.

BAQUBA - Gunmen shot dead the owner of a glaziers and an employee and wounded five others in Baquba, 60 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

KERBALA - Iraqi police arrested three suspects while they were planting bombs near a Shiite Shrine of al-Hur al-Riyahi near Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

FALLUJA - A civilian was killed by Iraqi soldiers while he was heading to work in Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

TUZ KHUMATO - Iraqi police arrested 16 suspects on Saturday and Sunday in Tuz Khurmato, 70 km south of Kirkuk, and Dibis, 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Kirkuk, police said. Two of them were arrested while they were trying to plant bombs near a Shi'ite mosque, police added.

TUZ KHURMATO - The head of the education directorate escaped an assassination attempt when gunmen threw a hand grenade at his office in Tuz Khurmato, police said.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed by small-arms fire on Sunday in central Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

BAGHDAD - Jawad al-Samara'i, a member of Iraq's student union who was abducted on Saturday by gunmen in the northeastern Hurriya district of the capital, was found dead with several marks of torture, the union said.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

BAGHDAD - Traffic movement in Baghdad returned to relative normality after three days of curfew.

BAGHDAD - American journalist Jill Carroll is alive and Iraqi authorities are optimistic about her release, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said. - alertnet.org

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Feb 27, - Interior Ministry forces captured a top aide to al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi during a raid in western Iraq, a security official said Monday.

The official, a member of the ministry's counterinsurgency Wolf Brigade, identified the key al-Qaida figure as Abu al-Farouq, who was previously unknown. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The officer said al-Farouq and five other al-Qaida operatives were captured based on a tip from residents near al-Bakr, about 30 miles west of the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi.

"Abou al-Farouq, a Syrian, was in charge of planning and financing militant groups operating in Ramadi while the other five are responsible of attacking Iraqi and coalition forces," the officer told The Associated Press.

Forces of the Interior Ministry, under the control of the country's majority Shiite Muslims, are routinely accused by minority Sunnis of targeting civilians within their community.

Also Monday, the Defense Ministry reported Iraqi security forces had killed 35 insurgents and arrested 487 in nationwide raids since Wednesday, when bombers blew up a major Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

"All of them are Iraqis and affiliated to different terrorist groups and especially al-Qaida in Iraq," Maj. Gen. Jassim Mohamed told The Associated Press. "But we don't have confirmed reports that they were behind Samara bombings." - Associated Press

By QASSIM ABDUL-HZAHRA BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The Iraqi Interior Minister believes that kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll remains alive, his office said on Monday, one day after the deadline set by her captors for killing her.

In an interview with ABC, the interior minister, Bayan Jabr said he knew who abducted the 28-year-old freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor on Jan. 7. "We know his name and address, and we are following up on him as well as the Americans," Jabr told ABC. "I think she is still alive."

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told Fox television he had heard the same news from Jabr. "He said that based on the information that he has, that she is alive," Khalilzad said. "We are doing all that we can to help bring about a release and will persist with that. But the minister announced today that he's optimistic about her release."

Carroll was last seen in a videotape broadcast Feb. 9 by the private Kuwaiti television station Al-Rai.

Station owner Jassem Boudai said then that the kidnappers had set Feb. 26 as the deadline for U.S. and Iraqi authorities to meet their demands or they would kill her.

The kidnappers, a formerly unknown group calling themselves the Revenge Brigades, have publicly demanded the release of all women detainees in Iraq, but Boudai indicated the group provided more specific conditions that he refused to reveal.

On Sunday, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said an extensive search was under way for Carroll. "Our forces raided some suspected places, but she was not there," Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said. "We are watching the situation closely."

Iraqi television has aired three videos of Carroll since her kidnapping. In the first, shown on Al-Jazeera on Jan. 17, her abductors threatened to kill her unless the United States freed female prisoners in Iraq.

The first and second videos were broadcast without sound. In the second, aired on Al-Jazeera, the broadcaster said Carroll asked for the release of the female prisoners. Also Monday, the U.S. military announced in a statement it had released about 390 male detainees.

A review committee consisting of U.S. and Iraqi officials from the ministries of human rights, justice and interior, recommended the prisoners be released after finding no reason for their continued imprisonment.

The Combined Review and Release Board has reviewed the cases of more than 29,500 detainees at coalition facilities, including Abu Ghraib in Baghdad, Camp Bucca near the southern port of Umm Qasr and Fort Suse in the northern Sulaimaniyah area. More than 15,300 have been recommended for release, the statement said. - associted Press

Mon Feb 27, BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi tanks deployed in Baghdad to pacify the city after an eruption of sectarian violence, but the bombing of a Sunni mosque and a mortar attack shattered the relative calm.

Four people were killed and 15 wounded in the bomb attack outside a Sunni mosque in eastern Baghdad as the faithful were leaving evening prayers, security officials said.

The attack was the latest strike against Iraq's ousted Sunni elite since Shiite mobs unleashed a wave of vengeance against the embittered minority after a revered Shiite shrine was blown up north of Baghdad last Wednesday.

Also Monday, a mortar shelling killed four people and wounded 14 others in a Shiite neighborhood, while two people were killed by gunmen who opened fire on a garage in Baquba, east of the capital, officials said.

Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, called upon all Iraqis to unite and praised the role played by top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani in trying to curb the sectarian violence. On the eve of the resumption of his trial for crimes against humanity, Saddam called "for unity at all levels to stop those who want to trigger sedition and division", his lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said in a statement.

The latest bloodshed came as Iraqi authorities lifted a daytime curfew and positioned tanks in certain regions of Baghdad as they sought to defuse the crisis that had pushed Iraq to the precipice of civil war. It was unclear whether the latest violence would strain efforts to lure Sunni parties back into talks on forming the country's next government after they bolted negotiations last Thursday in anger over the attacks on their community.

Sunni participation in government is seen as crucial to ending the community's insurgency, which has plunged Iraq into chaos since US forces toppled Saddam's regime in 2003. Before Monday's mosque bombing, the main Sunni political bloc, the National Concord Front, indicated it would return to talks if Sunni religious sanctuaries that it claimed were seized by Shiite militias were returned to them.

"I have given a complete list to Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari of the Sunni mosques that are under Shiite control. If this is done, we will return to the negotiating table," said Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni alliance.

In Baghdad, there were signs of normality as both cars and pedestrians again clogged the streets after the lifting of a curfew and a 24-hour vehicle ban imposed in the wake of the violence that killed more than 120 people.

However, a three-hour extension to the usual seven-hour night curfew remained in place in the capital and the three central provinces of Salaheddin, Babil and Diyala, officials said.

General Abdel Aziz Mohammed, the defence ministry's chief of operations, announced tank deployments in parts of Baghdad, and warned that soldiers were now ordered to arrest anyone carrying weapons illegally.

The move appeared to be aimed at cracking down on Shiite mobs suspected of targeting Sunnis in retribution for Wednesday's bombing of the revered shrine in Samarra, north of the capital. But the lurking fear of last week's sectarian killings continued to be felt as people hesitated to send their children to schools.

"Fear is still the master of the situation," said Ali Adnan, a 27-year-old Sunni engineer whose father was briefly kidnapped amid Shiite reprisals against Sunnis.

Iraq's national security adviser Muwaffak al-Rubaie announced that 10 people, including four security guards, had been arrested in connection with the bombing of Samarra's golden domed shrine. Rebuilding the shrine will take at least five years, Iraq's Housing and Construction Minister Jassem Mohammed Jaafar said Monday, while the United Nations volunteered to help in the effort.

Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia was accused of attacking Sunnis, told reporters in his home town of Najaf he had returned early from a trip to Iran to assert control over the militia, while denying it was responsible for the violence.

Meanwhile, Saddam, whose trial was set to resume Tuesday, has ended a hunger strike after fasting for 11 days, his lead lawyer Dulaimi told AFP. "I met with my client for seven hours on Sunday. At our request he had earlier ended the hunger strike he had been on for 11 days ... ," Dulaimi said, adding that the defence team may return to the court proceedings Tuesday after boycotting it for a month.

Saddam and seven co-accused face the death penalty if found guilty.

US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said Iraq's interior ministry had information on the whereabouts of American journalist Jill Carroll, abducted on January 7 by armed men. A deadline set by her kidnappers to kill Carroll if their demands were not met passed Sunday with no news.

Khalilzad said that he was told that Carroll was still alive. - news.yahoo.com

TIKRIT - The mosque over the grace of Saddam Hussein'a father was badly damaged by a bomb, police and officials said.

The trial of deposed president Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendents resumes on Tuesday.

BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed by small-arms fire west of Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. military said.

BAQUBA - Nine bodies of shooting victims were found just south of the city of Baquba on Tuesday, the army said. The corpses were found in wastelands in the hamlet of Tarfaya, the officials said.

BAGHDAD - Interior Ministry sources said that a Sunni Arab mosque was damaged by a bomb early Tuesday morning. - alertnet.org

A series of suicide attacks, car bombs and mortar barrages rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 59 people and wounding scores as Iraq teetered on the brink of sectarian civil war. President Bush decried the violence and said Iraqis must choose "chaos or unity."

Iraqis have suffered through days of reprisal killings and attacks on Sunni mosques since bombers blew apart the gold dome of the revered Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra on Wednesday. The Iraqi Cabinet said at least 379 people had been killed and 458 wounded in reprisal attacks.

In the latest attacks, two explosions hit Shiite targets in northern Baghdad after sundown, killing at least 15 people and wounding 72.

Police officials said either a car bomb or a mortar hit the Abdel Hadi Chalabi mosque in the Hurriyah neighborhood, killing 16 people and wounding 62.

Mortar fire at the Shiite Imam Kadhim shrine in the Kazimiyah neighborhood on the opposite side of the Tigris River killed one and wounded 10.

A Sunni mosque in the Hurriyah neighborhood had been bombed before dawn Tuesday.

The Tuesday night attacks were clearly a continuation of sectarian violence that erupted in the country after a Shiite shrine was bombed in the predominantly Sunni city of Samarra on Wednesday.

Earlier, five bomb attacks rattled the capital, killing at least 41 and wounding scores.

In Washington, Bush sidestepped a question about whether the surge in sectarian violence would affect his administration's hopes to begin withdrawing U.S. troops. "Obviously there are some who are trying to sow the seeds of sectarian violence," Bush said. "And now, the people of Iraq and their leaders must make a choice. The choice is chaos or unity, the choice is a free society, or a society dictated by evil people who would kill innocents."

Separately, Vice President Dick Cheney challenged administration critics during a speech at an American Legion convention. "Here in Washington, if any believe Americans should suddenly withdraw from Iraq and stop fighting al-Qaida in the very place they have gathered, let them say so clearly," Cheney said. "If any believe that Americans should break our word and abandon our Iraqi allies, let them make it known."

In Washington, Defense Intelligence Agency chief Lt. Gen. Michael Maples said the sectarian violence stems from a core of Sunni Arab insurgents who can exploit "social, economic, historical and religious grievances." "Networks based on these relationships remain the greatest threat to long-term stability in Iraq," Maples said.

Fears of civil war have been complicated by the continuing struggle to form a new Iraqi government. National security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie traveled to the Shiite holy city of Najaf to meet with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the Shiite community's most revered leader.

North of Baghdad, a blast badly damaged a Sunni mosque where the father of Saddam Hussein was buried in the family's ancestral hometown, Tikrit.

The deposed leader's trial resumed in Baghdad with prosecutors presenting a document they said was signed by Saddam approving the executions of more than 140 Shiites in southern Iraq after an assassination attempt in the 1980s.

The Iraqi Islamic Party said the Sunni Thou Nitaqain mosque in Baghdad's northern al-Hurriyah neighborhood was destroyed Tuesday morning. Police said three people were killed and 11 wounded in the blast.

The Sunni organization blamed the Shiite-dominated government that, it said, "cooperates with the criminal hands that sabotaged God's houses and lighted the fires of sedition."

At a gas station in the mostly Shiite New Baghdad neighborhood, a suicide attacker joined a line of people waiting to buy kerosene before detonating the explosives strapped to his body, police and witnesses said. The blast killed 23 people and injured 51, Interior Ministry official Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.

In the same region, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed five people and wounded 15 -- many of them construction workers gathering to look for work, authorities said.

Another car bomb hit a small market opposite the Shiite Timimi mosque in the mostly Shiite Karradah neighborhood, killing six people and wounding 16, al-Mohammedawi said.

A roadside bomb targeting the convoy of a defense ministry adviser killed five soldiers and wounded seven in the eastern Zaiyona neighborhood, ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said. The adviser, Lt. Gen. Daham Radhi al-Assal, was not injured.

The U.S. military reported a U.S. soldier was killed by small-arms fire west of Baghdad on Monday. At least 2,292 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began, according to an Associated Press count.

In the south Tuesday, two British soldiers were killed in Amarah, 180 miles from Baghdad, the Defense Ministry reported in London. A witness said a car bomb targeted a British patrol and helicopters were seen taking away casualties.

The deaths raised the British toll in the Iraq conflict to 103.

The Iraqi army found nine bullet-riddled bodies, including that of a Sunni Muslim tribal sheik and his two nephews, off a road southeast of Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. The bodies were near two burned minibuses on the road from Baghdad to strife-prone Diyala province.

Al-Rubaie emerged from his meeting to say "the way to forming the government is difficult and planted with political bombs. We ask the Iraqi people to be patient, and we expect forming the government will take a few months."

He also said the United Iraqi Alliance will not retreat from its choice of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister. "We expect that our partners in this country will respect this choice ... taking into consideration the election results," he said.

That balloting gave the Shiite bloc a majority of parliamentary seats but not enough to rule alone.

Al-Jaafari, the interim prime minister, has been criticized by opponents for weak leadership that has allowed militias to carry out reprisals on Sunnis and to infiltrate the police. Al-Jaafari's links to Muqtada al-Sadr, who helped secure his nomination for another term, has alarmed some Shiites and others who fear the rise of the radical young cleric.

He said Tuesday during a visit to Turkey that the violence will not derail efforts to form a unity government. "The incidents in Iraq and terrorist activities will never negatively affect the government's work or prevent the political process from being successful," he said.

On Tuesday, wailing relatives collected the bodies of loved ones killed in last week's sectarian violence.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that more than 1,300 Iraqis had been killed since then, but Tuesday's Cabinet statement described that account as "inaccurate and exaggerated."

The Post cited figures from the Baghdad central morgue, but an official there told The Associated Press that as of Sunday night they had received only 249 bodies tied to the violence. The Post figure appeared high based on police and hospital reports from the major population centers at the time of the attacks.

More than 60 relatives of the dead - many of them women dressed in black, beating their chests while wailing in grief - assembled there with empty coffins to take away their dead.

Associated Press reporters Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad and Tom Raum and Katherine Shrader in Washington contributed to this report. By Alexandra Zavis, Associated Press Writer