New bombings swell Iraqi death toll

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqis seeking jobs with security forces were targeted once again yesterday when a bomber with explosives strapped to his body mingled among hundreds of men and blew himself up in one of four attacks that killed 26 people.

Iraqi and U.S. officials are searching for new ways to stem the surge of bombings, with tactics ranging from political to technical.

A surge of violence has killed more than 200 since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new government last week with seven positions still undecided.

Sunni Arab politicians, increasingly frustrated at being shut out of key Cabinet posts, say a meaningful role in Iraq's new government would help them restrain insurgent violence.

Also yesterday, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Conway told reporters an increasing number of car bombs that kill the drivers are being detonated by people outside the vehicles. Conway said this might suggest that Iraqis, who typically do not use the tactic of suicide attacks, are being forced or duped by foreign fighters into operating vehicles used in bombing missions.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the Army to buy up to 10,000 new jammers the Navy has developed to counter homemade, remote-controlled bombs, the leading cause of death for U.S. military personnel in Iraq. Rumsfeld on April 30 invoked a new law allowing him to bypass the Pentagon acquisition process. He told the Army to order the new jammers within 15 days. They should be built and fielded within two months, said Harald Stavenas, a spokesman for the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.

Conway, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and previously the commander of all Marines in Iraq, said that in the last week to 10 days, the number of insurgent attacks involving car bombs has increased.

Sunni moderates are eager to distance themselves from the "terrorists" behind the bombing campaign.

Adding to frustrations among Sunnis is the fact that 10 of their nominees for the coveted post of defense minister apparently have been turned down by Shiite leaders.

Mishan al-Jabbouri, a Sunni Arab member of the National Assembly, says that the latest political impasse was "definitely related" to the surge in violence.

Al-Jaafari says he wants his government to include the Sunni minority, whose disaffected ranks form the main support base for the insurgency. But three months of haggling between the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance and the second-place Kurdistan Alliance has seemingly left a shortage of political capital to throw the Sunnis' way.

Potentially influential Sunnis, meanwhile, are often tainted by association with former ruler Saddam Hussein.

The defense ministry nearly went to Sadoun Dulaymi, a former Saddam-era general with roots in western Iraq's tribal Sunni heartland. But last-minute objections from within the Shiite bloc forced al-Jaafari to instead bring an incomplete Cabinet list to the National Assembly, with himself as acting defense minister, while negotiations with a small and loosely organized Sunni faction continued.

In the past, the Iraqi military offered a respectable, secure career path, particularly for middle-class Sunnis. Many officers have rejoined Iraq's newly formed army, asserting that their first loyalty is to Iraq rather than to any particular leadership.

Having one of their own in the defense ministry, the Sunnis say, could provide assurance that purges would be kept off the government's agenda.

Compiled from The Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor and Bloomberg News.