World

Car Bomb Near Iraq Mosque Kills 10

April 16, 2006 / 4:51 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A car bomb exploded Sunday near a Shiite mosque south of Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and injuring about 25, police said.

The blast occurred in the public market in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, a short distance from the mosque, police Capt. Rasheed al-Samaraie said.

No further details were available.

Mahmoudiya is a religiously mixed city on the Euphrates river and has been the scene of frequent vehicle bombings over the past two years.

In other developments:

Six people were killed during a pre-dawn raid Sunday, when U.S. troops stormed into a house looking for an al-Qaida suspect south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Five others died in the capital, including three killed in a bombing on a minibus.

The U.S. military has spent just 40 percent of the $7 billion appropriated in 2005 for the training of Iraqi and Afghanistan security forces, a top Pentagon priority that is the lynchpin for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The slow pace of spending was outlined in a congressional report that also raised questions about whether the Pentagon needs the full $5.9 billion it has requested for training this year in an emergency spending bill that is pending in Congress.

Two U.S. Marines were killed and 22 were wounded, two of them critically, in fighting in western Iraq, the U.S. command announced Saturday. Two of the wounded were in critical condition. A U.S. statement said the casualties occurred Thursday as a result of "enemy action" in Anbar province, but did not give a specific location or provide details of the fighting. It said one Marine, assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, died "at the scene of the attack." Another Marine, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died at a medical facility in Taqqadum, the statement added.

The new U.S. Embassy will be a fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq's turbulent future. It also seems as cloaked in secrecy as the ministate in Rome. "We can't talk about it. Security reasons,'' Roberta Rossi, a spokeswoman at the current embassy, said when asked about the project.

Growing criticism from former U.S. generals over Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the Iraq war has put the White House in defense mode. Despite calls for his resignation, a Pentagon spokesman said Rumsfeld is not considering it.

Iraqi politicians, meanwhile, continued talks over top posts in the next government ahead of a parliament session planned for Monday. But there was little sign of progress, and some officials of the dominant Shiite alliance cast doubt on whether the meeting would take place.

U.S. officials have been pressing the Iraqis to install a new national unity government as quickly as possible to confront armed insurgency and the sharp rise in tensions between Shiites and Sunnis.

Progress has stalled over the refusal of Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties to accept Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite Muslim nominee to head the new government. In a bid to break the deadlock, Shiite politicians not affiliated with major parties proposed that al-Jaafari step aside in favor of another candidate from his Dawa party, several Shiite officials said.

In return, the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, would not push Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi for the post, the officials said on condition of anonymity because the talks are at a sensitive stage.

But Shiite officials said al-Jaafari was digging in his heels, insisting that he would not step aside. Talks are also under way on other key posts that require parliamentary approval, including president and parliament speaker. Those two posts are expected to go to a Kurd and a Sunni.

Without a deal on those posts too, many Shiite officials believe the Monday parliament session should be delayed.

"The (Shiite) alliance prefers to postpone the parliament session if no agreement is reached, and have it held at the end of this week or the beginning of next week in order to have more time," Khalid al-Attiyah, a leading Shiite politician, said Sunday.