Accord adds more Sunnis to help write constitution

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi political leaders reached a compromise yesterday to include more Sunni Arabs on the committee responsible for writing the country's next constitution, ending weeks of stalemate and raising hopes that the document can be crafted before the panel's deadline expires in two months.

"The problem is solved and ended. The Sunnis will participate in the process of writing the constitution," said Tariq Hashimi, the secretary general of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a leading Sunni Arab organization.

The U.S. military reported, meanwhile, that a U.S. sailor serving with the Marines in Ramadi was killed by gunfire Wednesday.

Yesterday, a suicide car bomber rammed a truck in Baghdad, killing at least eight police officers and wounding 25 others.

The breakthrough in bringing minority Sunni Arabs into the constitution-writing process bridged a division between leaders of the 55-member constitution committee, who had offered to add 13 Sunnis to the two already on the panel, and Sunni groups that demanded 25 be added.

Under the compromise announced yesterday by committee leaders, the new panel will include the members of the existing committee, 15 additional Sunni Arabs with full voting rights and 10 more Sunnis in an advisory, nonvoting role.

A member of Iraq's Sabean sect will also be added and allowed to vote.

Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who held the bulk of power in Iraq under empires, monarchies and dictatorships spanning centuries, boycotted January's parliamentary elections and hold relatively few seats in the 275-member National Assembly.

When the Shiite Muslim coalition that holds a majority in the assembly formed a constitution committee in April, only two Sunni Arabs were included. Since then leaders from across Iraq's political and sectarian spectrum have been working to include more Sunni Arabs in writing the constitution, which must be completed by Aug. 15.The committee could extend the process by six months, but that would also delay a referendum on it scheduled for Oct. 15 and ultimately postpone election of a permanent government.

The sailor's death in Ramadi added to a sharp increase in U.S. casualties in Anbar province, a vast area that stretches from Baghdad's western edge to the country's borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Ramadi, the provincial capital, has been a center of Iraq's insurgency for more than a year; insurgent activity in nearby Fallujah led to two U.S.-led assaults on the city, the most recent in November.

"The security and the situation in the al-Anbar province has been a challenge for some time," said Air Force Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, the chief spokesman for the U.S.-led military force in Iraq.

Alston announced that multinational forces in the northern city of Mosul had apprehended a key lieutenant of al-Qaida in Iraq, the insurgent group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Mohammed Khalaf, known as Abu Talha, was captured Tuesday without a fight, though he had vowed not to be taken alive, Alston said.

Tips from local residents aided in the arrest, he said.

Since al-Zarqawi declared last month that it was permissible to kill civilians in attacks against security forces, Alston said, "we are getting reporting that cells, as part of his network, are concerned about the consequence of this behavior and the consequence of what they've done to the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people increasingly are exposing the insurgents."

Sergeant charged

in deaths of 2 officers

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A U.S. Army staff sergeant was charged in the killing of his two commanding officers last week at a base outside Baghdad, the military said yesterday, in what is believed to be the first case of an American soldier in Iraq accused of killing his superiors.

Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, 37, a supply specialist with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 42nd Infantry Division, New York Army National Guard, was charged Wednesday in the June 7 deaths of the two officers at Forward Operating Base Danger, near Tikrit — Saddam Hussein's hometown 80 miles north of Baghdad.

The officers killed were Capt. Phillip T. Esposito, 30, of Suffern, N.Y., and 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen, 34, of Milford, Pa. Esposito was company commander and Allen, a father of four, served as a company operations officer.

Compiled from reports by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press.