Attacks in Iraq kill at least 41, most of them pilgrims

The relentless violence intensified Wednesday evening, with at least 41 people killed by bomb attacks in the capital, an Interior Ministry official said. Another 174 people were wounded, the official said. The vast majority of the victims were Shiite pilgrims.

In the latest attacks, which occurred despite heightened security, a roadside bomb detonated in western Baghdad Wednesday evening, killing at least six pilgrims and wounding 30 others.

Another bombing, in central Baghdad's Haifa street, wounded nine pilgrims on Wednesday evening.

A suicide bomber struck at pilgrims in northern Baghdad's predominantly Sunni Adhamiya district as they were walking toward neighboring Kadhimiya, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had gathered to mark the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Musa al-Kadhim. Twenty-eight were killed and 81 were wounded, the official said.

Two roadside bombs left at least five pilgrims dead and 36 wounded in eastern Baghdad's mostly Shiite districts of New Baghdad and al-Fudhailiya, the official said.

A roadside bomb targeting pilgrims exploded in al-Bayaa, in southeastern Baghdad, wounding at least six. In central Baghdad, another five pilgrims were wounded in a roadside bomb blast.

Earlier Wednesday, soldiers at an army checkpoint west of Baghdad fired upon a vehicle driven by a suicide attacker when he refused to stop, Interior Ministry officials told CNN. The vehicle exploded, leaving one civilian dead and four Iraqi army soldiers and police wounded. It was unclear whether the attacker detonated the bomb or if shots fired at the vehicle triggered the explosion.

In another incident, a roadside bomb targeting an army patrol exploded in the Al-Jamia neighborhood of western Baghdad, wounding three soldiers.

A bomb attached to a police officer's car went off Wednesday as he was driving in the Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad. The officer was killed, officials said.

The attacks came a day after bombings left at least nine dead and 43 wounded. Pilgrims have been targeted since Friday.

The capital is under tight security for the pilgrimage, with many roads blocked and a ban on motorcycles and bicycles in place.

Security measures include: Vehicles to transport pilgrims; thousands of deployed troops; security cameras in and around the shrine; aerial surveillance; and 500 personnel to combat the threat of female suicide bombers.

The Kadhimiya shrine is one of the holiest to Shiite Muslims around the world. The imam died more than 1,200 years ago.

At least 7 killed in Baghdad on last day of Shiite holiday

At least seven people were killed by bombs across the Iraqi capital Thursday, the last day of a Shiite religious pilgrimage. In addition, four pilgrims walking back from the ceremony were sprayed with gunfire outside the northern city of Kirkuk. One died; three were injured.


The bloody morning follows a series of blasts on Wednesday that killed more than 50 people and wounded more than 250 in the city and surrounding areas. The most deadly was a suicide bombing in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah that killed more than 28 and wounded at least 136 people. Casualties in the attacks rose overnight, police said.

No one has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks in the past few days.

On Thursday, more than 4 million people had gathered in the city to commemorate the death of the revered Shiite figure Imam Moussa al-Kadhim. Pilgrims had walked from all across the country to reach the Shiite shrine, despite attacks in the previous days. The attackers hit as tens of thousands of security forces patrolled the streets and most roads were blocked to allow pedestrians.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who was visitingLebanon on Thursday, condemned the blasts in Baghdad of the past two days, the Associated Press reported.

"Those who benefit from such acts are the enemies of humanity, the enemies of democracy," he said.

Militants have struck a heavy blow against the Shiite community in a bid to destabilize the nation in the midst of political uncertainty. The attacks come as Iraqi politicians remain deadlocked on the formation of a new government, four months after national elections.

Violence has dropped significantly since the height of the sectarian fighting that erupted in 2006, but some worry it will increase as the U.S. military draws down to 50,000 troops in the country by Sept. 1.

Also Thursday, four people were killed and five were injured in bomb attacks on officers' homes in western Ramadi; the dead included a woman and child. A farmer also was killed in a bomb attack in Kirkuk, police said.

Shiite pilgrims stream into Baghdad

Tens of thousands of Shiite worshippers streamed into the Iraqi capital on Wednesday amid heightened security for a major pilgrimage, a day after six people were killed in a string of attacks.

Around 25 people were also wounded in Tuesday's mortar and bomb attacks as they travelled to the mausoleum of Musa Kadhim, the seventh of the 12 revered imams in Shiite Islam, in Kadhimiyah, a district named in his honour.

Hundreds of tents have been erected to feed people as they pour into the city for the event, which reaches a climax on Wednesday night and early Thursday. The mausoleum has previously been targeted by bombers.

Traffic was banned on Tuesday on several bridges spanning the Tigris River, increasing already bad congestion in the capital, where traffic control is already complicated by hundreds of security checkpoints.

"Everything is going very well today," Major General Qassim Atta, a Baghdad security forces spokesman, told AFP, referring to special safety measures such as road closures put in place to protect worshippers.

"We continue to organise transport for pilgrims and air surveillance for their benefit," he said.

"The movement of motorcycles, bicycles and carts is banned throughout the city until further notice," Atta added, to reduce the risk of small vehicle-borne attacks.

The Shiite majority in Iraq have been a main target of Sunni armed groups in the wake of the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

The shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim has not been spared. In April 2009, two female suicide bombers detonated their payloads near the shrine, killing 65 people, including 20 Iranian pilgrims, and wounding 120 others.

The threat of violence did not dent the enthusiasm of worshippers who spoke to AFP, some of whom were planning to pray for a breakthrough to the political hiatus that has blocked a new government taking office after elections.

"I will pray at the mausoleum for (Prime Minister Nuri) al-Maliki and (Iyad) Allawi to find an agreement so that our situation gets better," said Umm Amir, 40, who was wearing a black abaya and had travelled from Mahmudiyah, 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Baghdad.

"Because our lives are very difficult," she said, accompanied by her neighbour Umm Sajjad on the journey and carrying a plastic bad filled with water and an orange for sustenance.

Hamid Taleb, 47, an unemployed man travelling with friends and relatives from Babil, a majority Shiite city south of Baghdad, said nothing would stop him from making the annual journey.

"Even in the time of Saddam I came across the fields despite it being forbidden to travel to attend," he said.

"I would make the pilgrimage whatever the situation is."

Iraq bombings raise specter of Shiite militia

In offering to help Iraqi security forces to fight insurgents after a wave of deadly bombings in the capital, an anti-American Shiite cleric is sending a clear signal to the government: If you don't protect us, we'll protect ourselves.

Muqtada al-Sadr's statement raised the fearful specter that he might be considering reactivating his once-powerful militia known as the Mahdi Army, a move that would play into al-Qaida in Iraq's efforts to spark sectarian war.

Al-Sadr's aides, however, insisted on Saturday that the cleric wasn't threatening to send armed men onto the streets but was offering to help the government forces, who have been widely criticized for failing to protect the people as U.S. troops pull back.

The move comes as al-Sadr seeks to consolidate political power among Iraq's Shiites after a strong showing by his followers in March 7 parliamentary elections. The cleric, a staunch opponent of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has emerged as a power broker who could play a key role in deciding the country's next leader.

Hours after bombs targeting Shiite mosques around Baghdad killed dozens of worshippers on Friday, al-Sadr urged his followers to remain calm and to do nothing to prompt U.S. forces to remain in Iraq any longer than their planned withdrawal deadline at the end of 2011.

But he added that he was prepared to provide "hundreds of believers" to join the Iraqi army and police to defend "their shrines, mosques, prayers, markets, houses and their towns."

He did not directly mention the Mahdi Army, which fought pitched battles with American forces and was blamed in some of the country's worst sectarian bloodshed before it was routed by U.S.-Iraqi offensives in 2008.

Senior al-Sadr aide Hazim al-Araji said Saturday that the cleric wants to "integrate the believers, and here I mean Mahdi Army people, in the security forces through official ways."

Sadrist lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili also emphasized that al-Sadr's statement was not meant to supplant the Iraqi military.

"This cooperation does not mean that Mahdi army would go back with arms to the streets or participating in any violent act. It is only a call for cooperation with the army and police," he said.

An Iraqi government spokesman did not return calls seeking comment Saturday. But al-Maliki's senior aide Ali al-Adeeb expressed doubt that the government would accept al-Sadr's offer.

"The government might ask the help of individual citizens, not from armed groups," al-Adeeb said. "Such integration might aggravate the situation and provoke the other sect that would demand to do the same."

Violence continued Saturday, as bombs hidden in three plastic bags exploded simultaneously in a billiard hall in a religiously mixed neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding 25, according to police and hospital officials.

Al-Sadr, who is widely believed to be based in Iran, has re-emerged as a prominent politician after announcing in 2008 that he was transforming his militia into a social welfare body with a few guerrilla cells to attack U.S. troops if the Pentagon refused to leave Iraq.

His bloc, which was part of a hard-line Shiite religious coalition, won 39 seats in the 325-member parliament, making him a sought-after ally as al-Maliki and secular rival Ayad Allawi jockey for the necessary majority support to govern.

The protracted wrangling has raised fears the political vacuum may allow sectarian violence that peaked after the 2006 bombing of a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra to rekindle. U.S. and Iraqi officials have credited Shiites so far for resisting retaliation.

Al-Sadr's offer may well be a political feint. His relationship with al-Maliki has been bitter at best since 2008 and his followers have frequently criticized the prime minister for failing to prevent bombings.

In offering his help — and expecting it to be rebuffed — al-Sadr can describe the militia as needed protection the next time his followers are attacked, according to Brett McGurk, an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and former U.S. National Security Council official.

That, in turn, is exactly what the Sunni-dominated al-Qaida in Iraq wants: a loose-trigger Shiite adversary who might be easily goaded into sectarian fighting.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the Friday attacks that killed 72, most near Shiite mosques or places of worship, but al-Maliki and other officials blamed al-Qaida in Iraq. The bombings were widely seen as payback for the killings last weekend of two top al-Qaida in Iraq leaders — and the smug cries of victory by Iraqi and U.S. officials.

"Government officials should direct their full attention to combating terrorism rather than showing up on television all the time to boast about their achievements," said Baghdad political analyst Hadi Jalo. He called the killings of the terror leaders "of little significance because al-Qaida is always able to produce figures to lead and continue."

For his part, al-Maliki has been put in the uncomfortable position of having to woo al-Sadr and the support of his followers. But al-Maliki also can't afford to give al-Sadr carte blanche, and unleashing the Mahdi Army would be seen as a hostile step against Sunnis.

"We know from the bitter experiences of the past that any further integration of militiamen in the official security forces will definitely have a negative impact," said Mohammed Aqbal, a lawmaker with the Sunni Accordance Front.

On the streets of Baghdad's main Shiite enclave, Sadr City, where weeping crowds marched in funeral processions for victims of Friday's bombings, the idea of remobilizing the Mahdi Army for protection had some support.

"They can provide security. The government cannot," said Najim Abdul Hussein, who works near one of the explosion sites. "There is no stability."

Blast Strikes Shiite Pilgrims in Iraq

At least two explosions tore through crowds marching to the burial place of Shiite Islam’s most revered martyr Friday in the culmination of ritual mourning that has drawn millions to the holy city of Karbala in one of the world’s largest pilgrimages. At least 27 people were killed and dozens more were wounded.

There was a sense of fatalism to the attacks, one of dozens this week on pilgrims that the Shiite-led government grimly predicted but was powerless to stop. The killings have underlined the meaning of the pilgrimage: a religious ceremony to commemorate Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad whose death in the battlefield in Karbala in 680 gave Shiite Muslims an ethos of suffering, martyrdom and resistance.

“They think these explosions can stop us from marching,” said Muhaned Shaker, a 27-year-old pilgrim, “but if I die today in an explosion that will be a gift from God.”

Interior Ministry officials said a suicide car bomb had detonated at the Peace Bridge a few miles east of the city, tearing through a crowd so tight that people were standing shoulder to shoulder. Moments later, a mortar shell exploded nearby, killing and wounding more pilgrims as they frantically fled the scene. In the chaotic aftermath, officials said the crowds rendered rescuers almost helpless to treat the wounded.

The attacks came amid a stubborn crisis over the disqualifications of hundreds of candidates from Iraq’s parliamentary elections in March for ties to the Baath Party of former President Saddam Hussein.

An appeals court decided Wednesday to delay their appeals until after the vote, effectively restoring their candidacies. But since then, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other Shiite leaders have called the court’s decision illegal and insisted that the disqualifications go forward, casting politics into more tumult.

The dispute has taken a personal turn, with Mr. Maliki complaining in a statement late Thursday of intervention in the crisis by the United States ambassador, Christopher R. Hill. He said his government would not allow Mr. Hill “to exceed his diplomatic duties.”

Philip Frayne, an American Embassy spokesman, defended Mr. Hill’s role as appropriate. “Ambassador Hill has been doing what any diplomat normally does, offering his government’s views on issues that could affect American interests,” Mr. Frayne said. “That is not going beyond the bounds of acceptable diplomacy.”

American officials and the United Nations have played a crucial role in trying to solve the complicated dispute over the candidacies.

The issue of Baathists has become incendiary in the campaign for the March 7 vote, with religious Shiite candidates competing with one another in proving their anti-Baathist credentials to a constituency that suffered dearly under Mr. Hussein’s rule. Iraqi law has also proved unhelpful in ending the dispute, as there is no precedence for resolving who has the final say on candidate disqualifications.

In the attacks near Karbala, the Interior Ministry said 27 people were killed and 75 wounded. Officials in Karbala put the toll at 40 killed and more than 150 wounded, although they acknowledged the difficulty in determining precise numbers amid the chaos.

Friday was the observance of Arbaeen, the 40th day after Imam Hussein’s death. Banned under Mr. Hussein’s government, the pilgrimage has flourished in the years since the American-led invasion in 2003. This year, city officials estimated that 10 million people journeyed to the gold-domed shrine in Karbala. Security officials put the number higher, at 11 million, and clerics insisted it was even more.

By custom, pilgrims walk to the shrine, carrying green, red and black flags and sometimes traveling hundreds of miles over days. Occasionally, pilgrims choose to walk barefoot. The sheer numbers have given the region around Karbala a cinematic quality, as people clamber through date groves and surge through the streets in one of the world’s largest voluntary movements of people.

Along the way, volunteers have set up tents for the weary, offering a dish known as hareesa, a stew of lamb and beans, bananas, oranges, cakes, cookies, tea, juice and soda. According to tradition, residents open their houses to travelers to rest and sleep.

Security officials have banned most vehicles from the city, and witnesses reported that crowds were lined up for miles beyond Karbala’s three entrances.

United States military officials said as of Thursday, insurgents had carried out 35 attacks against pilgrims, fewer than the 54 last year and far below the more than 180 in 2007. But as in past bombings, survivors directed their anger at the police and soldiers for failing to stop the attacks and blamed the election crisis for diverting politicians’ attention.

“The explosions are just for the elections so they can say that this party or that party failed to protect the people,” said one pilgrim, Abbas Nasser. “We know the game.”

About 30,000 troops and police officers have been deployed to protect the pilgrims, who in past years have been the object of attacks by insurgents bent on sowing sectarian strife. On Monday, a female suicide bomber with explosives hidden under her garment killed at least 38 people on the outskirts of Baghdad, many of them marching to Karbala. Another bombing Wednesday, just miles from the shrine, killed at least 20 people.

Former Iraq minister sentenced to death

A former Iraqi cabinet minister has been sentenced to death for ordering the murder of a Sunni politician's two sons.

Assad Kamal al-Hashemi, also a Sunni, resigned as culture minister and went into hiding last year when he was first charged in the February 2005 attack on parliamentary candidate Mithal al-Alusi. Al-Alusi's two sons were killed in the attack.

The Central Criminal Court of Iraq handed down a guilty verdict and death sentence in absentia for al-Hashemi on Wednesday, according to a court official.

Sunni members of the cabinet suspended their participation in Iraq's government last summer after al-Hashemi was accused in the plot. They cited the prosecution of al-Hashemi as one reason, calling it an attempt by the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to marginalize the Sunni bloc.

Al-Hashemi was part of the General Conference of the Iraqi People, which is part of the Iraqi Accord Front, the country's largest Sunni bloc. It rejoined the cabinet last month. He was an imam at a Baghdad mosque at the time of the killings.

Two people who planned and carried out the attack confessed that they took orders from al-Hashemi, an Iraqi government official has said. The arrest warrant naming al-Hashemi was issued specifically for the killings of al-Alusi's sons, not the failed attempt against al-Alusi.

Al-Alusi was a leading figure in the secular Iraqi National Congress Party but was expelled after visiting Israel. He was elected to Parliament as the head of his own group, the Iraqi Democratic National Party, which holds one seat.

On Saturday, an assistant to the minister of culture was killed. The assistant, Kamel Shiyah, died when militants opened fire on his vehicle, according to an Interior Ministry official. Shiyah's guard was injured in the shooting and taken to a hospital.

Gunmen Kill a Top Official in Baghdad

Kamal Shyaa Abdullah was warned to drive in a guarded convoy when he traveled through the streets of Baghdad — he was a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Culture and was soon to become a deputy minister. But he disliked all the fuss of bodyguards and extra cars, and he refused protection.

On Saturday, Mr. Abdullah, 54, was killed by gunmen as he and his driver headed down the highway toward a public garden where they had planned to relax in the hottest hours of the afternoon.

Akil al-Mendlawi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture, said that Mr. Abdullah, a well-known scholar and a member of the Communist Party, had become friends with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki when both men were in exile in Syria.

Mr. Abdullah’s promotion to deputy minister had been approved, and Mr. Maliki was expected to sign papers confirming his appointment within days.

Violence also erupted on Saturday in the city of Kirkuk, where a suicide bombing killed at least five people and wounded at least seven, including Abdul Kareem Ahmed al-Obaydi, a prominent member of the American-backed Sunni forces known as Awakening Councils.

The bomber detonated an explosives-filled vest inside an automobile dealership in a southern area of the city, according to Maj. Salih al-Lihabi of the Kirkuk police.

Mr. Obaydi, the leader of the Awakening movement in Diyala Province, his son and two bodyguards were killed when the bomb exploded, a few minutes after 7 p.m.

The suicide bombing is the second in Kirkuk since last weekend.

In Baghdad, American military officials released Ahmed Nouri Raziak, 38, an Iraqi photographer working for The Associated Press who had been held in jail for almost three months.

Maj. John C. Hall, an American military spokesman, said that Mr. Raziak had been believed to be a security risk, but was released when “after review, he was determined not to pose a risk.”

Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of The A.P., said in a statement that the news agency “will be seeking more specific information about why he was picked up and held and about his experience during his incarceration.”

Also in Baghdad on Saturday, officials at the Justice Ministry said that a court had issued a death sentence for Asad al-Hashimi, a former culture minister who was convicted for the 2005 murders of two sons of a well-known politician.

Mr. Hashimi, a member of one of the parties in Tawafiq, the largest Sunni bloc in Parliament, has been a fugitive since last year.

Iraq seeks breakup of U.S.-funded Sunni fighters

An emboldened Iraqi government has launched an aggressive campaign to disband a U.S.-funded force of Sunni Arab fighters that has been key to Iraq's fragile peace, arresting prominent members and sending others into hiding or exile as their former patrons in the American military reluctantly stand by.

The Shiite Muslim-led government has long distrusted the fighters, many of whom are former insurgents. Senior Shiite politicians label some of the members murderers, and warn that there is no long-term obligation to employ them after their units are disbanded.

"The ones in Baghdad and Diyala province just changed their T-shirts. There are large numbers who were really Al Qaeda. We have to really look hard for those elements without blood on their hands," said Haidar Abadi, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party.

Amid fears that the Sunnis' treatment could rekindle Iraq's insurgency, the Americans are caught between their wish to support the fighters and their stronger ties to Maliki's government, which has challenged the Sunni paramilitaries in recent months as it grows increasingly confident about its fledgling army.

"We want to have our cake and eat it too, support Maliki and the Sons of Iraq. . . . Maliki wants to make that as hard for us as possible. He wants us to choose him," said Stephen Biddle, a Council on Foreign Relations defense expert who has served as an advisor on strategy to Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq. "What it looks like we are getting is a Maliki government that won't behave itself and wants to crush the Sons of Iraq."

The chief U.S. military spokesman here denied Maliki was targeting the Sons of Iraq, or that the Americans were tilting toward the government at the expense of the Sunni fighters.

"Just last week, the prime minister gave his personal commitment to the program," Brig. Gen. David Perkins said. "They are well aware of the sacrifices the Sons of Iraq have made, that they were a critical element in bringing the security situation under control and that it is in their strategic advantage to assimilate them peacefully and orderly into Iraqi society."

Maliki has grown powerful after successful military operations in spring against Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's militia in southern Iraq and Baghdad. His transformation has provided the Americans a partner they can work with as they look for a way to hand over the reins in Iraq, the long-term U.S. goal here.

A Western advisor to the Iraqi government said the U.S. military couldn't stop the Iraqi security forces now even if it wanted to -- they are larger in size and have their own chain of command.

The Iraqi government first challenged the U.S. military over the Sons of Iraq program in the spring -- basically freezing the activities of the Iraqi reconciliation committee charged with integrating the 99,000 fighters into the security forces and civilian jobs, according to a Shiite advisor to the government.

In July, Maliki informed the Americans that he wanted the entire program handed over to him as soon as possible, said Mohammed Salman, the head of the committee. In response, the U.S. military has drafted plans to dissolve the group by next summer, integrating 20% of its members into the police and finding the rest such jobs as mechanics, electricians and carpenters. The Americans want to slash the Sons of Iraq to 60,000 by the end of the year.

"Our goal is that by June 2009, the Sons of Iraq are out of business," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Kulmayer, who is charged with the Sunni paramilitary file.

Just over 9,000 of the Sunni fighters have been hired into the security forces so far. And the government has warned that any program to provide the majority of the fighters job training once their paramilitary units are disbanded will be temporary.

"We have the same problems around the country. We can't just create a program to pay some people and not others," said Abadi, the lawmaker.

Such comments raise concerns in U.S. military circles that the men will be pushed back to joining dwindling militant groups such as Al Qaeda in Iraq.

"If the government of Iraq doesn't decide to employ all of them, you have jobless rates that skyrocket," said a U.S. intelligence analyst who, like some others who spoke for this report, did so on condition of anonymity. "I don't know what will happen."

Many of the fighters are now on the run. The Iraqi military has mostly dismantled the group in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib, once a hub for militant attacks, and it has arrested Sunni fighters in Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of the capital. Influential Sunni paramilitary leaders, from the Baghdad and Baqubah areas, have gone into hiding or are in exile.

In the past, U.S. commanders had deflected arrest warrants for key fighters, but there has been an apparent shift. "We don't have a 'get out of jail free' card for the Sons of Iraq. There is law and order in this country, and we respect the Iraqi government," Kulmayer said.

The men feel increasingly vulnerable -- they have been attacked by Al Qaeda and Shiite militias and subjected to Iraqi army raids. Since January, 462 of them have been killed in attacks by militants. If disbanded, their leaders warn, the men could revolt, but the Sons of Iraq are holding out hope that local elections, still without a date, will improve their lot.

"In the event that the U.S. military and government don't live up to their promises, it could turn back to a violent form of resistance," said a leader, Abu Abed, from the north Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiya. "Every action breeds a reaction."

In Abu Ghraib, there are no Sons of Iraq on the street in the Nasr Salam district, only Iraqi army checkpoints. Soldiers with sunglasses and Kalashnikov rifles stand by concrete barriers with graffiti identifying them as the Muthanna Brigade, a force feared by the local Sunni population. Asked about the Sons of Iraq, locals and an Iraqi army officer say the movement doesn't exist there anymore.

Until May, Abu Azzam, a former stockbroker and onetime Islamic Army insurgent leader, headed the 700-man Sons of Iraq branch in the district. He fled the area in May when the Americans informed him that the Muthanna Brigade was taking security responsibility there.

He says the brigade raided his members' houses and detained up to 10 leaders. His foot soldiers fled. Some haven't seen their families in more than a month. He is stunned about what happened. But the former insurgent has plotted his next move, establishing a political party called Dignity, which he hopes will turn the tables on his opponents in the still-to-be-scheduled elections.

"We have to get rid of the Iranian influence in Iraq and rebuild the democratic state," he said, baring his suspicions about the current government, dominated by religious parties.

Abu Azzam suspects that some of his fighters have already gone back to war, but he doesn't believe the violence will return to its previous levels. Still, the fact that his old allies are on the lam has him worried. "Anyone who feels disappointed will go back," he said. "Definitely, he will go to the resistance. He will go back to violence."

While some have fled their posts, other leaders of the Sons of Iraq are behind bars. Mullah Shihab Safi, the commander of the Sons of Iraq in Baqubah, turned himself in to the government Aug. 15. He had gone into hiding when the Iraqi army launched an offensive in Baqubah in late July and sent soldiers to arrest not only Al Qaeda members but also Sons of Iraq leaders.

The Iraqi army shut down most of the group's checkpoints there, raided its members' homes and closed all but one of its offices. Then, last week, Maliki announced that gunmen could apply for amnesty. Safi decided to take the government up on its offer. He showed up at the local government's headquarters, accompanied by a tribal sheik to vouch for him, and submitted his application. At least 13 Sunni fighters remain in jail, Safi said.

The Sunni commander has accepted the situation -- if only because his options are limited. "We feel this is a political game to embarrass and expel us," he said. "We are just dealing with the matter because we have no choice."

He hints that some could restart the fight against the Americans and the Iraqi government if things continue to deteriorate. Like most, he has his eyes on elections as a way for his group to gain power -- yet even that target seems elusive after parliament failed to pass an election law this summer.

"We don't know what our stance will be if other things happen from the security forces, the Iraqi government or the Americans," Safi said. He recognizes that things have changed with his U.S. allies. "The Americans have made their compromises. They want the Iraqi central government authority to prevail, so they can withdraw to their bases."

U.S. and Iraq close to a troop withdrawal deal

American and Iraqi officials are close to a draft agreement to see U.S. forces conditionally withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011, though both sides warned Thursday that political hurdles to a final settlement remain.

The current version of the deal would set a conditional time frame for U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities by next June and for combat troops to leave the country two years later.

But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki in Baghdad's fortress-like Green Zone, downplayed expectations that approval of an agreement was imminent.

"We'll have agreement when we have agreement," Rice told reporters, addressing speculation that a deal was near.

Rice and Maliki huddled for 2 1/2 hours, trying to iron out differences in the pact, which would govern the presence of U.S. forces here after their United Nations mandate expires in December.

Iraq's foreign minister warned that Iraqi politicians must still approve any deal, cautioning that previous drafts had been touted as complete, only for one side or the other to find fault.

"We've been through this before, but we've never been this close," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told The Times.

Zebari said the draft would be reviewed by the prime minister and other top government leaders tonight or during the weekend.

If senior leaders endorse the deal, it would go before the political council for national security and then to parliament for a final vote, Zebari said. In the past, items endorsed by senior leaders, including a national oil law, have never been voted on in parliament or have been delayed for months.

An aide to Maliki said that the differences with the U.S. were minor and that they hoped to close the deal before the end of the year.

"They tried to resolve some issues," the aide said. "They tried to find some compromise formula to some points. It's too early to say they reached an agreement on all issues."

A senior member of Maliki's ruling coalition, Shiite lawmaker Sheik Jalaluddin Saghir, said the sides had still not agreed on all the issues.

"I believe they are struggling," he said. "It is thorny, but there is a little progress."

U.S. and Iraqi officials had aimed to reach a deal by the end of July.

Saghir said that the Americans wanted their forces to stay one year more than the Iraqis wanted. Maliki has publicly favored a withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of 2010, a timeline for withdrawal that roughly corresponds with that proposed by Sen. Barack Obama.

The Bush administration and Sen. John McCain have voiced opposition to rigid deadlines, although the White House has acknowledged a willingness to OK a "general time horizon" for Iraqi forces to take full control of security and for U.S. troop strength to be reduced if conditions remain relatively stable.

Negotiators have also been debating whether noncombat units would stay after the withdrawal date, Saghir said. The Americans believe that Iraq will need U.S. military advisors, air support and special forces after most troops leave the country.

The two sides also are still bargaining over whether American soldiers can be tried in Iraqi courts, Saghir said.

Maliki's bottom line remains unknown. Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said the danger for the prime minister is being seen by the public as endorsing an agreement that the Americans want.

"He is reluctant to pass it because he cares about his own popularity with the population. He tells his people and party that it should be one way. Maybe he tells Rice another thing," Othman said.

Populist anti-American sentiment that has influenced the negotiations was on display Thursday as radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr's followers denounced Rice's visit and held demonstrations. The head of Sadr's political office, Liwa Sumaysim, warned that the movement would never accept any conditional timeline for a troop withdrawal.

In the Shiite shrine city of Najaf, several hundred demonstrators shouted, "No, no to the agreement. . . . Down with Zionism," and carried a banner that read, "We denounce the visit of mistress of evil Condoleezza Rice to Iraq."

Also Thursday, unknown gunmen in three or four GMC sport utility vehicles opened fire near central Baghdad's Bab al Sharji market, killing one civilian. A police official said they were private security contractors, but another disagreed.

Foreign security contractors' immunity from Iraqi courts has been one of the more contentious issues for the Iraqi government in negotiating a long-term agreement with the Americans.

Bomb in Baghdad strikes Shiite pilgrims, kills 3

Iraqi police and hospital officials say a car bombing targeting Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad has killed three people and wounded nine others.

The officials say the parked car exploded at about 9 a.m. Saturday near minibuses assembled to pick up pilgrims in the city's mainly Shiite district of Shaab.

The officials gave the casualty toll for the bombing on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

Several bombings in recent days have targeted Shiites heading to Karbala for a major religious festival. U.S. and Iraqi troops have stepped up security measures for the pilgrimage but the hundreds of thousands of travelers remain vulnerable on the road.