Democrats prepare plan to narrow Iraq mission

WASHINGTON — Determined to challenge President Bush, Senate Democrats are drafting legislation to limit the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq, effectively revoking the broad authority Congress granted in 2002, officials said Thursday.

While these officials said the precise wording of the measure remains unsettled, one draft would restrict U.S. troops in Iraq to combating al-Qaida, training Iraqi army and police forces, maintaining Iraq's territorial integrity and otherwise proceeding with the withdrawal of combat forces.

The officials, Democratic aides and others familiar with private discussions, spoke only on condition of anonymity, saying rank-and-file senators had not yet been briefed on the effort. They added, though, that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to present the proposal to fellow Democrats early next week for their consideration.

Officer, soldiers admit to rape, official says

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iraqi police official in the northeastern city of Tal Afar said Thursday a military officer and three soldiers had admitted to raping a Sunni woman and recording the act with a cellphone camera.

Brig. Gen. Nijm Abdullah said the alleged attack took place about 10 days ago in the northern city of Tal Afar during a search for weapons and insurgents.

A lieutenant and three enlisted men denied the charge but later confessed after they were confronted by the woman, a Turkoman, Abdullah said. He said a fifth soldier suspected something was wrong, burst into the house and forced the others at gunpoint to stop the assault.

The soldiers' admission follows another Sunni woman's assertion this week that she had been raped in Baghdad by members of Iraq's predominately Shiite security forces. Iraq's Kurdish president and its Sunni vice president said Thursday that a judge should investigate her case, which the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has dismissed as groundless.

At least 12 killed in Ramadi firefight

Sunni insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked U.S. troops in the volatile city of Ramadi, setting off a six-hour firefight that killed at least 12 people, the U.S. military said Thursday. Iraqi authorities said the dead included women and children.

The battle broke out Wednesday evening when insurgents opened fire on a U.S. patrol from nearby buildings. The Americans responded with "precision guided munitions" that damaged several buildings and ended the fight, Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Shawn Mercer said.

There were no U.S. casualties, but 12 insurgents were killed and three were wounded, Mercer said. He said no civilian casualties were reported.

However, Dr. Hafidh Ibrahim of the Ramadi Hospital said the bodies of 26 people, including four women and children, were pulled from the rubble of three houses damaged in the fighting.

Photographs made available to The Associated Press showed the bodies of two small boys wrapped in one blanket. Other photos showed four or five bodies covered by blankets, and several men clearing rubble.

Firefights are not unusual in Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital 75 miles west of Baghdad. The clashes underscore the challenges posed by Sunni insurgents in the area even as the U.S. seeks to quell Sunni-Shiite violence in the capital.

One U.S. soldier was killed and three others were wounded in a roadside bombing Thursday near the Shiite city of Diwaniyah, the U.S. command said.

Nationwide, at least 19 people were killed or found dead Thursday, including 14 bullet-riddled bodies showing signs of torture that were found in Baghdad and two in the southeastern city of Kut. Three others were shot to death in the northern city of Mosul.

Seattle Times news services