U.S. roadblock shootings in Iraq kill at least 5

In Amman, in neighboring Jordan, the journalist challenged the Iraqi government’s account and accused the Interior Ministry forces of involvement in the deaths. Dhia al-Kawaz said they raided a wake in Iraq for his slain family Tuesday in the predominantly Shiite city of Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, tearing down banners commemorating the dead.

Al-Kawaz, who has lived outside Iraq for 20 years, said the killing of his family members was “a message to me and to any journalist inside Iraq or outside Iraq who opposes the policies of the Iraqi government.”

Around Baqouba, the capital of violent Diyala province about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, a suicide bomber disguised as a man herding goats targeted the local police headquarters, killing seven people, including three women, according to police.

East of the city, mortar rounds apparently targeting a radio station instead landed near homes, killing two people, and a roadside bomb killed one civilian, police said.

A female suicide bomber targeting a U.S. patrol near Baqouba wounded five civilians, an Iraqi army officer said. The officer, who like the police officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details of the attacks, did not know if there were U.S. casualties.

Tuesday’s violence underlined the fragility of security gains made recently by U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad and other areas, and came one day after President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed an agreement setting the foundation for a potential long-term U.S. presence in Iraq.

The U.S.-Iraq agreement will replace the present U.N. mandate regulating the presence of the U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Al-Maliki said the agreement provides for U.S. support for the “democratic regime in Iraq against domestic and external dangers.”

It also would help the Iraqi government thwart any attempt to suspend or repeal a constitution drafted with U.S. help and adopted in a nationwide vote in 2005. That appeared to be a reference to any attempt to remove the government by violence or in a coup.

A Finance Ministry official, Aziz Jaafar, told parliament that Iraq will spend nearly one-fifth of its 2008 budget on security — $9 billion out of a total of $48.4 billion — to allow its forces “to take over full responsibility for the country.”

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