Attacks kill 3 Iraqi soldiers, 3 police

Attacks kill 3 Iraqi soldiers, 3 police

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in a Sunni-dominated neighborhood of Baghdad killed two officers on Sunday, while a third officer in the neighborhood was shot to death on his way to work, police said. North of the capital, another roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol, killing three soldiers, an officer said.

Although roadside bombings, targeted killings and abductions remain daily occurrences, violence in Iraq has dropped to levels not seen since January 2006, just before the bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra unleashed large-scale sectarian bloodshed that left thousands dead.

American officials have warned that without progress toward power-sharing agreements among Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds, the security gains may be unsustainable. Still, attempts to reconcile Iraq's fractious politicians have proven difficult for the Shiite-dominated government.

Long-running disputes boiled over this past week when Iraqi troops surrounded the home of one of Iraq's most powerful Sunni Arab lawmakers after the discovery of a car bomb near his office. U.S. and Iraqi officials said the keys to the vehicle were found on one of Adnan al-Dulaimi's bodyguards.

On Sunday, al-Dulaimi accused the government of trying to silence him with what he described as virtual house arrest.

"They want to keep me silent and not raise my voice to defend the rights of the Iraqi people and detainees," al-Dulaimi, head of parliament's largest Sunni bloc, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his house in western Baghdad.

The Shiite-dominated government has insisted al-Dulaimi is being held for his own protection, since his security detail was arrested after the discovery of the bomb. But his Sunni allies in the Iraqi Accordance Front accuse their Shiite peers of waging a smear campaign against him.

Al-Dulaimi said he was blocked Sunday from leaving to attend a parliament session for the second day running, and accused the Iraqi troops guarding his home of turning away relatives trying to visit.

"It is unprecedented in Iraq to put a lawmaker under house arrest," al-Dulaimi added. "This is illegal and unconstitutional."

Shiite lawmakers suggested that al-Dulaimi's guards played a part in forcing Shiite families out of Baghdad's Adil district, where the Sunni leader's compound is located.

"Adnan al-Dulaimi stands accused," declared one Shiite lawmaker, Bahaa al-Aaraji. "His security guards could be members of al-Qaida, and he's unable to do anything about them."

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, said his forces were not authorized to let al-Dulaimi leave, even under army escort.

"We are protecting him, and we urged him not to go out because most of his guards were arrested and we have intelligence saying that his life in danger," he added.

The violence Sunday included a roadside bomb that exploded about 7:30 a.m. next to a police patrol in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood, killing two policemen and injuring two, an officer said.

About 90 minutes later, gunmen in a speeding car shot a Shiite policeman as he drove through Mansour to work, another officer said. The slain officer, Lt. Col. Aqeel Abdul-Hussein, was not in uniform at the time, the officer said.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a roadside bomb planted beneath a parked car exploded near the heavily fortified Buratha Shiite mosque, the site of one of the war's deadliest suicide attacks and a frequent target of Sunni extremists. One Iraqi civilian was killed, police said. In April 2006, two suicide bombers struck the mosque, killing 85 people.

Outside the capital, a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, killed three soldiers and injured four, an officer said.

The officials who offered accounts of the attacks spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.