3 More U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq

More Than A Dozen Iraqis Killed In Bloody Day As Biden, Reed Visit

(CBS/AP) 
In other developments:

An investigation into the cover-up of the alleged murder of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha last November concludes Marine officers at every level up to and including the colonel who commanded the regiment failed to investigate inaccurate and conflicting reports of how the civilians were killed.

President Bush asked Congress for a $50 billion down payment for next year's Iraq and Afghanistan war costs. Almost half the money would be to provide food, water and medical support for troops, purchase parts and fuel for equipment and maintain military facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan. About a quarter of the funds would be for replacing damaged weapons and equipment.

The Army private accused of raping an Iraqi woman and killing her and her family was discharged for what was described as an "anti-social personality disorder." The Army says it discharged more than 1,000 last year for personality disorders. That total represents about 1.2 percent of the soldiers given early discharges during the year ending last September.

The individual that the U.S. military says it captured in Sadr City is described as the head of multiple insurgent cells in Baghdad, reports CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan (audio). Apparently, his followers have kidnapped, tortured and murdered Iraqi civilians and he's also in charge of what they're calling a punishment committee.

Last week, the Iraqi military announced operations in the Muqdadiyah area after an increase in insurgent activity there. The mostly agricultural area sits astride a major highway between Baghdad and Kurdish areas to the north and is located in a province where tensions between Shiites and Sunnis are running high.

The Iraqi Islamic Party is headed by one of Iraq's two vice presidents, Tariq al-Hashimi, who the Americans are hoping can convince disaffected fellow Sunnis to abandon the insurgency and participate in political life so the U.S. can begin withdrawing its troops.

Also on Saturday, a mortar barrage struck homes in a Shiite area in the religiously mixed area of Dora in Baghdad, killing four people and wounding six, Capt. Firas Queti said.

Gunmen opened fire earlier Saturday on a Shiite family trying to move out of Dora to the Shiite city of Karbala. Police said five family members were wounded in the attack in Dora, where sectarian tensions run high.

Also in Dora, gunmen in two cars stopped a vehicle on a city street, forced the two passengers to disembark and killed them in front of horrified bystanders, according to police.

Elsewhere, gunmen Saturday killed three people working in an ice cream shop in the mostly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Nahrawan, police Lt. Fikrat Mohammed said.

Three mortar shells exploded in a mostly Shiite area of southern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding three children, police said.

Police also reported finding four bodies Saturday in separate locations in eastern and western Baghdad. They were believed the latest victims of sectarian death squads.

A car bomb also exploded in a public garage near a Shiite mosque in western Baghdad, killing two people and wounding nine, Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said. The explosion also damaged five other parked cars and slightly damaged the mosque.

Meanwhile, gunmen in two speeding car opened fire Saturday on a Sunni mosque in west Baghdad's Ghazaliya neighborhood. Mosque guards returned fire and the attackers fled, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said.

The incidents occurred a day after at least 17 others died in a wave of bombings and mortar attacks against mostly Sunni mosques in the Baghdad area and northern Iraq. A Sunni cleric was also kidnapped in the capital, a Sunni official said.

Sectarian violence has forced thousands of Iraqis to move to different neighborhoods or cities where their sect is predominant. The Interior Ministry estimated earlier this month that nearly 4,000 families — or about 23,670 people — have been forced to relocate to other neighborhoods in the Baghdad area alone.

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©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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