Three U.S. soldiers, 27 Iraqis killed

AP | April 24 2006

BAGHDAD -- The clock is ticking.

With 30 days to pick his cabinet, Iraqi Prime Minster-designate Jawad al-Maliki yesterday opened what are likely to be tangled negotiations among Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties.

The need to move fast was made clear with a new spate of violence: A roadside bomb hit a U.S. patrol, killing three American soldiers, mortars exploded near the Defence Ministry and more bound and tortured bodies -- victims of sectarian slayings -- were found in the capital.

Yesterday's deaths raised to eight the number of Americans killed in the last two days and politicians are under intense pressure to not allow drawn-out squabbling over influential ministries while Iraqis and U.S. troops are dying.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad cautioned Iraqi leaders were still "some distance" from finalizing their new government and urged patience.

At least 61 U.S. service members have died in April, putting it on track to pass January -- with 62 -- as the deadliest month this year. It represents a jump over March, when 31 deaths were the lowest monthly toll for the Americans since 2004.

The three soldiers were killed yesterday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb northwest of the capital, the U.S. command said.

Twenty-seven Iraqis also died in other violence yesterday, including seven killed when three mortars hit just outside the heavily guarded Green Zone in the capital, not far from Iraq's Defence Ministry. Police Lieut. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said it was hard to identify the seven dead because the powerful blasts and shrapnel severed their limbs and destroyed their identification cards.

At least eight other mortars or rockets exploded at about the same time on the other side of the Tigris River in central Baghdad, without causing injuries, police said.

In the evening, another mortar hit a home in southern Baghdad, killing a man and wounding two of his relatives. Drive-by shootings in a nearby district gunned down a teacher outside her home and a car mechanic in his shop.

The United States is hoping the new government will unify Iraq's bitterly divided factions behind a program aimed at reining in both the Sunni-led insurgency and the Shiite-Sunni killings that escalated during months without a stable government.

Khalilzad, a key player in tortuous political negotiations since Iraq's Dec. 15 elections, said he hoped al-Maliki can draw up his government sooner than 30 days.

But he said the parties face "very substantial and complicated" challenges in putting together not only a cabinet, but also agreeing on government programs, rules and institutions amid armed conflict.

He said Iraqis had already made progress on such issues as how to define yourself in relation to each other, how to co-operate among people that had been in conflict.

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