Sunday November 12, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A pair of suicide bombs ripped through a crowd of would-be police recruits in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 35, and authorities found 75 bodies in the capital and Baqouba, an unusually high number even by Iraq's grim standards.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rebuked lawmakers for putting party and sectarian loyalty ahead of Iraq's stability, and said he was planning a sweeping Cabinet reshuffle.

The spiraling sectarian violence has put al-Maliki under intense pressure. Responding to questions from lawmakers during a more-than one-hour closed session, he ordered them to stop criticizing his government and declare their loyalty to a unified Iraq - not their religious sects or political parties, two members of parliament told The Associated Press.

Al-Maliki's office said he used the meeting to outline plans to bring stability to the country and ``called for a comprehensive Cabinet shake up suitable with the current period.''

The prime minister issued a similar statement earlier this month, although details of a reshuffle remain sketchy. As many as a third of Cabinet posts could change hands in an apparent bid to improve the performance of some ministries as the government faces criticism that it has been ineffective, especially in curbing violence.

In a further sign of the sectarian strife, security forces in Baghdad found 25 bullet-riddled, handcuffed bodies dumped in several parts of the capital, Lt. Maithem Abdul Razzaq of the city's Yarmouk police station said. In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, 50 bodies were found dumped behind the offices of the provincial electric company, according to the Iraqi army's provincial public affairs office.

Most such bodies are the victims of sectarian fighting and often go unidentified. Investigations are rarely carried out and the killers usually remain unknown.

In Sunday's bombing, two men detonated explosives strapped to their bodies simultaneously at exactly 10:00 a.m., police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq said. The attack outside the police recruiting station off western Baghdad's Nissur Square was one of several Sunday in the capital.

In the holy city of Najaf, three sons of a prominent Iraqi Shiite leader were killed in a bomb attack outside their home, said Najaf police chief Abdul Kerim Al-Meyahi. The bomb exploded at the front gate of the home of Sheik Abu Jaafar, a close aide to Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The U.S. military on Sunday announced the deaths of three soldiers in fighting in Anbar province, raising the toll of American troops killed this month to 29. Elsewhere, four British servicemen were killed and three were injured in an attack on a patrol boat in the southern city of Basra.

The government's main backer, the United States, last week presented al-Maliki with a timeline to end the violence.

On Sunday, the prime minister was responding in part to public charges by lawmakers that the government was complicit in the killing of members of the Sunni minority, even as some Shiites in the government claimed al-Maliki was being unduly harsh in dealing with Shiite militia members.

``Your speeches are affecting the security situation,'' al-Maliki said, according to Shiite legislator Bassem al-Sharif.

The United States is also pressuring al-Maliki to disband Shiite militias, but he countered in the closed session that both Sunnis and Shiites had militias.

``You all have militias. I will not accept a government made up of militiamen,'' he was quoted as saying.

Dhafer al-Ani, of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, told The Associated Press later that al-Maliki's comments ``were disappointing because they were sidelining (Sunnis) and included threats.''

On Saturday, al-Maliki told editors of local newspapers that Syria, which the U.S. and his government accuse of allowing foreign fighters to cross into Iraq, wants to start afresh with Iraq.

``We have the same desire,'' al-Maliki said. ``If they take one step toward us, we would respond by taking five steps toward them.''

Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Labib Abbawi said Sunday that Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Moallem had accepted an official invitation to visit Iraq, though no date was set.

In addition to the suicide bombing at the recruiting station, at least 11 people were killed in scattered explosions in the capital - in both Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods, and five people were killed in drive-by shootings in Baqouba.

In central Baghdad's Karradah neighborhood, police Brig. Abdul-Mutalib Hassan was shot to death as he left home. Hassan was head of a unit in charge of registering vehicles that is widely seen as corrupt.

Patrols were looking for the Sunni gunmen who ambushed a convoy of minibuses at a fake checkpoint along the dangerous highway near Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad in the so-called Triangle of Death. The gunmen murdered 10 Shiite passengers before taking about 50 captives.

A leading Shiite politician warned that local tribes had armed themselves and were headed to the area to join in the search, a move likely to set off even greater bloodshed.

``We demand that the government take quick action to send troops there in order to know the fate of those kidnapped,'' said the politician, Abdul-Karim al-Anzi.

Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said police and soldiers were coordinating their search.

U.S. forces, meanwhile, said they detained 10 people suspected of links to al-Qaida in a raid in Baghdad early Saturday.