Gunmen kill sister of Iraq's Sunni vice president

Meeting with al-Sistani
On Thursday, al-Hashimi met with Iraq’s most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in the holy city of Najaf. Al-Sistani has played a big role in restraining Shiite anger in the face of Sunni insurgent attacks that have pushed Iraq toward civil war. Top politicians, especially Shiite ones, often seek al-Sistani’s advice.

Afterward, the cleric said he had urged al-Hashimi to form a government with politicians who put Iraq’s national needs ahead of “their personal, party or sectarian interests.”

More important, Sistani said, the government must improve security by ending widespread bombings, drive-by shootings and kidnappings, reduce government corruption, and restore electricity and clean drinking water to many people.

After the meeting, al-Hashimi said he was determined to form a government that includes Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, and to disarm militias aligned with Iraq’s political parties.

Latest violence
The clashes northeast of Baghdad occurred when insurgents attacked four Iraqi police checkpoints in Baqouba, a Sunni-Shiite city 35 miles northeast of the capital, police and residents said. U.S. forces have been gradually turning over security responsibilities to Iraqis.

In Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, U.S. forces exchanged fire with insurgents who attacked with small arms and shoulder-fired rockets from a former train station and a nearby building.

Lt. Col. Ronald Clark, commander of the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, said a U.S. jet fired two laser-guided missiles at the buildings and U.S. forces returned fire with mortars and rockets, killing eight of the attackers.

In a separate incident, one Iraqi soldier was killed during a firefight with insurgents in a nearby Ramadi neighborhood, army officers said.

A roadside bomb in Baghdad hit an Iraqi army patrol, killing a soldier, police said.

The bodies of 16 Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured were found Thursday in Baghdad and other cities, police said.

At least 134 Iraqis have been killed in insurgency- or sectarian-related violence since al-Maliki was tapped as prime minister Saturday and asked to form a new government.

Insurgents have targeted prominent men and women politicians in the past.

On April 17, the brother of another leading Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, was found dead after he was kidnapped.

About 2,600 Italian troops are stationed in Nasiriyah, and 27 had been killed before Thursday’s bombing. Romanian Cpl. Bogdan Hancu, 28, who died in the explosion, was the first Romanian soldier killed in combat in Iraq, Romania’s government said. Romania has 860 troops in Iraq.

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