Six Sunnis slain after talking with Shiites

Al-Maliki promises shake-up
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, is under strong pressure from Washington to take a stronger hand against Sunni insurgents and the Shiite militia that forms part of his power base.

In an interview with The Associated Press, he said he will reshuffle his 39-seat Cabinet “either this week or next” and pursue criminal charges against political figures — and even members of parliament — linked to extremists.

He said there has been coordination between Iraqi and multinational forces from the beginning of the year “to determine who should arrested and the reasons behind arresting them.”

The prime minister did not say how many Cabinet members would be replaced. But some officials said about nine would lose their jobs, including all six Cabinet members loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who leads the powerful Mahdi Army militia.

U.S. officials had been urging al-Maliki to cut his ties to al-Sadr and form a new alliance of mainstream Shiites, moderate Sunnis and Kurds.

Video apparently shows slain officers
Al-Maliki has won some breathing room in recent days with a notable — but perhaps temporary — drop in bloodshed in Baghdad. It comes as a U.S.-led security crackdown concentrates on areas considered staging grounds for Sunni insurgent car bombs and mortar attacks.

The Mahdi Army also was strong-armed by al-Maliki to pull back. Its suspected death squads once left dozens of Sunni victims around the city — a figure that has fallen off significantly.

The execution video released Saturday firsts depicts the 18 men, some in Iraqi military uniforms, blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs and lined up in three rows before a screen. The men in the front row are kneeling. Armed masked men were seen pointing machine-guns at the captives.

Two masked militants, with checkered scarves on their heads, fire from handguns at close range into the backs of the men’s heads, while a third militant carries a black banner ahead of them. As they are shot, the victims fall, head forward to the ground. The shooting is accompanied by chants of “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is the Greatest.”

Male voices chant repeatedly in Arabic during the video: “At your service, sister” — a likely reference to the revenge for the allegedly raped Sunni woman.

Another male voice is heard reading from the Islamic State of Iraq’s statement posted on the same Web site Friday, saying the group’s court has ordered the 18 security troops executed because al-Maliki’s government failed to meet the group’s demands to hand over the officers who allegedly assaulted the Sunni woman in Baghdad last month, and to release all Sunni women detainees from Iraqi prisons.

Violence down in Baghdad
For the second consecutive day, just one major explosion rocked the capital. The latest — a roadside bomb — killed three U.S. soldiers on patrol in central Baghdad, the military said.

In western Baghdad, meanwhile, a top adviser to Iraq’s Defense Ministry was kidnapped in western Baghdad, said an aide to Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leader of the largest Sunni bloc in parliament.

Lt. Gen. Thamir Sultan hails from Saddam Hussein’s tribe and had been mentioned as a possible defense minister when the current government was organized last year. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

In U.S. raids north of Baghdad, nine suspected insurgents were captured, including two believed to be responsible for recruiting and helping foreign militants in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The suspects were also accused of harboring al-Qaida in Iraq leaders, it said, but gave no further details.

U.S. warplanes also struck a suspected car bomb factory in Arab Jabour, south of Baghdad, the military said. Seven suspected insurgents were killed when two precision-guided bombs destroyed the structure where they were hiding, the military said.

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