Assassination, attacks overshadow Iraq political talks

Insurgents have assassinated a senior Iraqi army commander and staged two suicide car bombings, killing 15 people, in violence that politicians fear may deepen if a new government is not formed soon.

Almost two months after an election, politicians from Iraq's main parties, the Shi'ite alliance and the Kurds, pursued talks to form a government but were struggling over top cabinet posts.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a main Kurdish negotiator, said all sides were concerned about the relentless violence and that only a unity government including all Iraq's ethnic and religious groups could tackle terrorism.

Gunmen shot dead Major-General Suleiman Mohammad, who commanded a National Guard division in southern Iraq, in the New Baghdad district of the capital, wounding two of his sons, police said. Some said he was attacked leaving a wake, but it was not clear why the Basra-based general was in Baghdad.

Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq said it killed Mohammad, according to an internet statement. Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq said five of the officer's bodyguards and entourage were also killed or wounded in the attack.

American and Iraqi officers said two suicide car bomb attacks killed at least 15 people and wounded 23.

In an attack in Iskandariya, in a lawless area just south of Baghdad, a bomber blew up his car beside an Iraqi army convoy, killing four soldiers and wounding nine troops and civilians, two seriously, local police said.

A suicide bomber blew up his car at a checkpoint in the western city of Ramadi on Thursday, killing 11 Iraqi commandos and wounding nine police, two US soldiers and three civilians, the US military said.

And in another violent assault, five women, four of whom worked at a US military base, were found dead in a car in Baghdad. Those working for US forces, including cooks, laundry staff and translators, are frequently targeted by insurgents.

The Islamic Army in Iraq said it was behind the Ramadi suicide bomb attack, according to an internet statement.

"A martyrdom-seeker of the Army broke through the first barrier set up by the American enemy and the pagan (National) Guard ... and the car exploded as it neared the second barrier," the insurgent group said in the statement.

Iraqi officials said talks on forming the new government, whose overwhelming priority will be tackling the country's relentless insurgency, were moving forward, albeit slowly.

Politicians were focused on trying to resolve differences over who would take the main government portfolios.

"There is a justified point of view that says the political process is taking a long time but at the same time we don't want to be in a hurry at the expense of this country's future," Salih told Reuters.

"We have big security and economy problems and we are looking for total national unity.

"The main challenge for us is to build a country that can face terrorism and also the economic challenges," he said.

He said parliament, which many officials had hoped would meet on Saturday, would not assemble before Monday when it would only be able to name the speaker and his deputies.

Earlier the talks faltered over Kurdish demands to expand their territory in northern Iraq and over their peshmerga militia, which other parties want to see folded into the Iraqi army. The Kurds want them to remain separate.

Officials say those issues are no longer problems but what exactly has been agreed is not yet clear.

On Thursday, the peshmerga and local police engaged in a gunbattle in northern Iraq, highlighting the deep division and suspicion between the two sides.

At least five policemen and two security guards were killed in the fight near the town of Rabia after peshmerga fighters stormed a grain silo building believing the guards there were behind a roadside bomb attack that hit their convoy.

Lieutenant-Colonel Yahia Hamid said the peshmerga had shot guards at the silo and then detained all inside. He arrived with other police to end the incident, but the peshmerga had attacked the new arrivals.

"I identified myself but the peshmerga wouldn't listen and started screaming at us and then gunfire broke out," he said.

- REUTERS