Iraq blast targets agents of change

BAGHDAD — Five sheiks and a political official supporting the arming of Sunni Arab tribes to fight against al-Qaida in Iraq were among 13 people killed Monday in a massive bomb blast at a heavily guarded Baghdad hotel.

The attack risked derailing an emerging alliance between Sunni tribal leaders in long-restive Anbar province and the country's Shiite majority the day after a key round of negotiations to formalize their relationship with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, though U.S. and Iraqi government officials blamed al-Qaida-linked militants.

The explosion at the fortified Mansour Melia hotel, home to the Chinese Embassy, parliament members and prominent national figures, came on a day that saw dozens of deaths across Iraq in suicide attacks, bombings and mortar strikes.

Police were investigating how the bomber slipped through the Mansour Hotel's security. "It was a great breach of security because there are three checkpoints, one outside and two inside," said hotel worker Saif al-Rubaie, 28, who witnessed the blast.

Survivors described being knocked down by the blast, which various witnesses ascribed to either a suicide bomber or explosives placed earlier in the hotel's lobby.

Many of the victims had been in a meeting with al-Maliki on Sunday in which they agreed on procedures for enlisting tribesmen into local police forces. The dead included a former governor of Al Anbar province, Sheik Fassal al-Guood of the Albu Nimir tribe; Sheik Abdul-Aziz al-Fahdawi of the Fahad tribe; Sheik Tariq Saleh al-Dulaimi, a commander in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq; a Shiite cleric from Najaf, Mohammed Awadi: a Shiite tribal leader, Hussein al-Shaalan, who had attended a government conference on reconciliation; and Shiite politician Aziz Al-Yasseri, an adviser to the Iraqi defense ministry.

Also killed in the attack was poet Rahim Maliki, who was making a TV program on the Sunni tribes fighting al-Qaida. Eighteen others were injured, police said.

In other attacks Monday, a car bomb targeted two minibuses carrying police-academy recruits in the city of Hillah, killing eight people and wounding 25, police said.

A suicide bomber exploded a fuel truck outside the Beiji police station, 125 miles north of Baghdad, killing 18 and injuring 50 others, police said.

Later Monday morning, a suicide car bomb exploded at a joint U.S.-Iraqi army checkpoint in central Siniyah, nine miles west of Beiji, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding three, the Iraqi army reported.

Seventeen corpses, most bearing gunshot wounds or signs of torture, were found in Baghdad.

A U.S. soldier from the Multinational Division Center south of Baghdad died from small-arms fire as he drove in a convoy, the U.S. military said. A second soldier was killed and three wounded in a bomb blast in Baghdad, the U.S. army announced.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.

GOP senator urges drawdown of troops

WASHINGTON — The top-ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called Monday for a drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq, breaking with the Bush administration and signaling a further weakening of congressional support for the president's Iraq strategy.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said the White House's commitment to its troop buildup is hurting U.S. leverage with other countries, strengthening America's enemies, stressing the military and compounding the chances of a chaotic retreat from Iraq down the road.

Chicago Tribune