U.S., Iraqi forces launch operation against insurgents

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- After two days of suicide bombings nationwide that killed nearly 100 people, U.S. Marines and Iraqi security forces launched a joint operation Sunday to crack down on insurgents in troubled cities west of Baghdad, as the military announced the death of another soldier.

In Baghdad, Shiites stung by a string of bombings attended services in fortified funeral tents in hopes of avoiding a third straight day of attacks.

Shiite politicians, poised to take power for the first time in Iraq's modern history, have vowed not to allow the bloodshed to begin a civil war, despite attacks Friday and Saturday that left at least 91 dead -- including a U.S. soldier -- and at least 100 wounded. The attacks came as Shiites celebrated their holiest day of the year.

In political moves Sunday, Iraq's major Sunni Arab tribes and political parties met in Baghdad to discuss their roles in the wake of landmark Jan. 30 elections. The tribes apparently are looking for a role in the new government and drafting of Iraq's new constitution.

The Jan. 30 election was for seats in the 275-member National Assembly, which picks the president and two vice presidents, and drafts a new constitution.

The joint U.S-Iraqi operation was underway in several Euphrates River cities in Anbar province, including Hit, Baghdadi, Hadithah and the provincial capital, Ramadi, where authorities imposed a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., the military said in a statement.

Control access to city

The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said the curfew was designed to control access into the city and check for weapons. Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad, has long been a center of insurgent activity.

On Sunday, the U.S. command announced that a Marine was killed in action Saturday during an operation in Anbar. It gave no other details. At least 1,478 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The government said two alleged terrorists were killed in a Feb. 11 raid in Baghdad. It identified the two as Abu al-Izz and Adel Mujtaba, known as Abu Rim, who the government said "disseminated propaganda" for the al-Qaida leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and created "terrorist Web sites." It did not name the sites.

At a western Baghdad funeral for the Shiites killed in Saturday's bombings, Sattar Wahhab, a 35-year-old worker, said, "We built barriers, barricades and we are searching everybody who enters the funeral so that we do not meet the fate of my friend."

Although 50 chairs were set up inside the funeral tent in Baghdad's Bayaa district, only 10 people turned up.

On Saturday, eight suicide bombers struck in a wave of attacks that killed 55 people as Iraqi Shiites commemorated Ashoura, the holiday marking the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, in a seventh-century battle for leadership of the Islamic world.

Similar attacks Friday killed 36 people and injured dozens.

Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim and head of the Iraqis Party list of candidates that won five parliamentary seats in the election, was to attend the meeting with the Sunni parties and tribes.

Iyad al-Sameria, a senior leader of the Iraqi Islamic party, a Sunni group that boycotted the elections, said his party was not invited.

Iraq's interim national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said the recent suicide bombings were attempts "to create a religious war within Iraq. Iraqis will not allow this to happen. Iraqis will stand united as Iraqis foremost, and Iraq will not fall into sectarian war."

In other violence reported Sunday:

* A roadside bomb in Baghdad targeting a convoy of Iraqi troops killed two Iraqi National Guardsmen, police 1st Lt. Ali Hussein al-Hamadani said.

* In the same area, coalition gunners in a convoy opened fire on a car that approached too closely, killing an Iraqi man, said police 1st Lt. Muthana Hussein.

* In a separate shooting in Baghdad, foreign troops killed a woman and injured another person traveling with her on the dangerous road to Baghdad's international airport, al-Hamadani said. A bystander also was shot in the spine and taken to a hospital.

* In the northern city of Mosul, police found two corpses Saturday of men believed to be former police officers who were shot in the head, a morgue director said Sunday.

* Six charred bodies were discovered several days ago floating in the Tigris River in Suwayrah, about 25 miles south of the capital, hospital officials in Kut said. The six men were each found handcuffed and shot in the head, chest and back. Their identities were not known.