Iraqi lawmakers endorse peace plan; 9 U.S. troops killed since Sunday

A Baghdad apartment building was destroyed by a bomb on Monday

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Lawmakers across party lines Tuesday endorsed the prime minister's new plan for stopping sectarian killings, but Shiite and Sunni leaders still must work out details of how to put aside sharp divisions and work together to halt the bloodshed.

At least 33 people died in violence around Iraq, including a suicide attack on a fish market in Baghdad that killed three people and wounded 19. A bomber detonated a belt rigged with explosives in the outdoor market in the primarily Sunni area of Sadiyah in southwestern Baghdad, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. command announced the deaths of nine soldiers and two Marines in recent days.

Four of the soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Monday in separate small-arms fire attacks, the military said. Another four were killed the same day in a roadside bomb attack on their patrol northwest of Baghdad.

The ninth died Sunday when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb west of the capital.

The two Marines, both with the Regimental Combat Team 7, were killed in fighting in Anbar province, one on Sept. 30 and one on Oct. 1, the military said.

At least 2,727 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been under intense pressure to put an end to Shiite-Sunni violence that has killed thousands of people this year. This week, gunmen carried out two mass kidnappings in as many days, abducting 38 people from their workplaces in Baghdad _ attacks that Sunnis said were carried out by Shiite militias.

On Monday night, al-Maliki announced a four-point plan aimed at uniting the sharply divided Shiite and Sunni parties in his government behind security efforts to stop the bloodshed.

The parties have long blamed each other for the killings.

Sunnis accuse the Shiite-led security forces of turning a blind eye to killing of Sunnis by Shiite militias _ some of which are linked to parties in the government. Sunnis have accused al-Maliki, a Shiite, of being hesitant to crack down on the militias.

Shiites, meanwhile, accused Sunni parties of links to terrorists after a bodyguard of a Sunni party leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, was arrested Friday by U.S. forces and accused of plotting al-Qaida bombings.

Read the rest at the Washington Post

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