Killings go on as Iraq Shiites broker deal with Sunnis

BOMB and gun attacks west of Baghdad killed six US soldiers in Iraq yesterday and a suicide car bomber slammed into a truck carrying Iraqi policemen near the airport, killing at least eight and wounding 25 in the latest wave of violence aimed at derailing the country's advancing political process.

The attacks came as Shiite politicians completed their efforts to include the disaffected Sunni Arab minority in the work of drafting Iraq's new constitution. Senior members of the Shiite-dominated committee writing the charter reached agreement with the Sunnis on how many representatives the minority will have on the body.

Yesterday's deal broke weeks of deadlock between the 55-member committee and Sunni Arabs over the size of their representation. The stalemate had threatened Iraq's political process as it was about to enter its final stretch, with two key nationwide votes later this year - a constitutional referendum and a general election.

Insurgents have used that time to carry out attacks, killing nearly 1,100 people since the Shiite-led government took office on 28 April.

The United States yesterday blamed the Jordanian-born terrorist leader Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi. "With Zarqawi's push recently, we certainly see the fantastic rise in the number of civilians killed, given that he has proclaimed that taking out civilians is an acceptable thing," said Brigadier-General Don Alston, a spokesman for the Multinational Force in Iraq.