Iraq edges closer to open civil warfare
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-15 06:59

Residents watched, some covering their eyes in horror, others offering scarves and newspapers to cover the bodies as they were pulled from the grave.

An abandoned minibus containing 15 other bodies was found earlier on the main road between two mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighborhoods — not far from where another minibus containing 18 bodies was discovered last week, al-Mohammedawi said.

At least 40 more bodies were recovered elsewhere in Baghdad, in both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, al-Mohammedawi said. Police found three other corpses dumped in the northern city of Mosul.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military reported the deaths of two more soldiers in fighting in Anbar province. The soldiers, assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, were killed Monday, bringing the number of U.S. military members killed to at least 2,310 since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld hinted Tuesday that U.S. troop levels may increase slightly in Iraq in the coming days because of pilgrimages connected to the holiday of Ashura. The holiday, which ends March 20, includes pilgrimages to holy sites in Najaf and Karbala. Increased attacks marked the celebration during 2004 and 2005.

Rumsfeld said Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. military officer in Iraq, "may decide he wants to bulk up slightly for the pilgrimage." He did not elaborate.

Scores of frightened Shiite families have fled predominantly Sunni parts of Baghdad in recent weeks, some at gunpoint. More than 100 families arrived between Monday and Tuesday alone in Wasit province, in the southern Shiite heartland, said Haitham Ajaimi Manie, an official with the provisional migration directorate.

More than 300 Baghdad families — 1,818 people — have taken shelter in the province after fleeing the capital, he said.

North of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded Tuesday among Shiite pilgrims headed on foot to the holy city of Karbala, killing one person near Baqouba, police said.

The sectarian violence has complicated negotiations for Iraq's first permanent, post-invasion government. A caretaker government has been in charge since the December elections and U.S. and Iraqi officials fear the vacuum in authority has fueled the bloodshed.

Once parliament meets Thursday, it has 60 days under the new constitution to elect a president and approve the nomination of Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and his Cabinet.

After members of all the major Iraqi political blocs met Tuesday with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, no breakthrough was reported on solving the deadlock over the nomination of al-Jaafari to head a new government.

But in an interview with Fox television, U.S. Embassy Political Counselor Robert Ford seemed guardedly optimistic.

"I can't say that we've had a breakthrough, but we had good talks today," Ford said.

But Iraqis in the meeting said the sides were still so far apart that major Sunni politicians were again pressing for the new constitution be thrown out, despite its adoption late last summer and approval in a subsequent national plebiscite.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iraqi forces and civilians, as well as coalition forces, need to provide stability to allow the new government to do its work.

"The Iraqi people themselves are standing at a crossroads," Pace said Monday night in a speech at the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs, "and they are making critical decisions for their country right now about which road they'll take."