Militant attacks kill at least 13 people

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at the home of an Iraqi police officer Sunday, killing his four young children and his brother and wounding his wife. Bombings and shootings around the country killed at least eight other people, officials said.

As Iraq's dominant Shiite leaders prepared for talks with Kurdish and Sunni politicians to form a national unity government, Sunni Arabs warned they would reject the inclusion of any minister who had been involved in violence against Sunnis by Shiite-backed security forces.

The U.S. military said American soldiers Saturday killed three gunmen firing from several cars north of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. They destroyed four cars after one was found rigged for a car bombing.

There was no word, meanwhile, on the fate of American journalist Jill Carroll, kidnapped in Baghdad on Jan. 7 and last seen in a video released Jan. 17. Her kidnappers threatened to kill the 28-year-old if all Iraqi female prisoners were not released within 72 hours.

Insurgents attacked the home of an Iraqi policeman with rocket-propelled grenades in Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, said a spokesman for the Iraqi police Joint Coordination Center. The officer's children, ages 6 to 11, and their uncle were killed, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisal attacks. The officer was unharmed, but his wife was wounded.

Also Sunday, the bodies of a prominent Sunni Arab tribal leader and his son were found in a field near Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, police Capt. Farhad Talabani said. Sayid Ibrahim Ali, 75, and his 28-year-old son, Ayad, were shot as they left a funeral Saturday, Talabani said.

Four policemen were killed and nine were wounded in a pre-dawn roadside bomb blast that targeted their patrol in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the police center said.

Police said a man was gunned down at a west Baghdad gas station.

In the central city of Mashru, police found the bodies of two blindfolded men who had been shot in the head and chest.

A Latvian soldier was wounded in a small-arms attack on a military base southeast of Baghdad. The soldier, part of a 135-member Latvian contingent in Iraq, was in a stable condition.

Despite the violence, U.S. Brig. Gen. Don Alston said insurgent attacks nationwide fell 40 percent during the week ending Saturday, compared with the previous week. Attacks in Baghdad fell 80 percent for the same period, he told reporters.

Sunni leader Tariq al-Hashimi, meanwhile, warned that Sunni Arabs would reject the inclusion in Iraq's new government of any official involved in violence against Sunnis by Shiite-backed security forces.

The warning appeared directed at Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, whom Sunnis accuse of playing a leading role in directing Shiite forces with militia links to kill Sunni clerics and lay people.

Before joining the Cabinet in 2003, Jabr was a senior official in the Badr Brigade militia of Iraq's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. He has denied involvement in killing Sunnis.

"We have red lines on some figures who harmed our people and we will not allow anyone who participated in human rights violation to take any ministerial posts," said al-Hashimi, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party and a partner in the prominent Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front.

Al-Hashimi also said the next government must deal with Sunni Arab opposition to the new constitution, including provisions transforming Iraq into a federal state and banning key members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party from government jobs.

"The new government must promise not to hamper the expected changes on the constitution that divided the Iraqi people more than uniting them," he said.

But Iraq's most powerful Shiite politician, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, has said the Shiites would oppose major concessions on some key Sunni demands.

Al-Hashimi's comments come as Shiite leaders prepare to start negotiations on a national unity government following Friday's release of results from Dec. 15 elections. The United States considers a unity government crucial to curbing the Sunni-led insurgency and paving the way for American forces to go home.

The major Shiite coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance, captured 128 of the 275 seats -- not enough to rule without partners. Two Sunni coalitions won a total of 55 seats, far more than the 17 held by Sunnis in the outgoing parliament.

Sunni politicians said they would appeal results to a judicial commission, which has two weeks to rule on the challenges. The appeals are unlikely to affect the results but could delay the convening of parliament.

Kurdistan's two main political groups signed an agreement to create a unified Kurdish government, a major breakthrough after years of animosity that erupted in violence in the mid-1990s.

A U.S. Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was in Baghdad to press for the release of Carroll, the kidnapped American journalist.

Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim Ali has said six of the nine women in U.S. military custody were expected to be freed this week, but the U.S. military has not confirmed any imminent releases. Ali has said their releases were tentatively planned before the kidnappers' ultimatum.

More than 240 foreigners have been taken hostage, either by insurgents or gangs, since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam. At least 39 have been killed.