Iraq PM announces plan to unite parties

Iraq's prime minister announced a new plan Monday aimed at ending the deepening crisis between Shiite and Sunni parties in his government and uniting them behind the drive to stop sectarian killings that have bloodied the country for months.

On Tuesday, at least nine people were killed in violence around Iraq, including a suicide attack on a fish market in Baghdad that killed two and wounded 19.

The bomber detonated a belt rigged with explosives in the outdoor market in the primarily Sunni area of Sadiyah, southwestern Baghdad, at 7:10 a.m., police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq.

In another attack, two civilians were injured when a roadside bomb targeting an American convoy blew up, police 1st Lt. Bilal Ali Majid said. There were no immediate reports of U.S. casualties.

One civilian was killed and two more wounded in a rocket attack on a residential neighborhood in northern Baghdad, police said.

Another person was killed and nine injured when a parked car bomb blew up near a Shiite mosque in downtown Baghdad. The attack came in Karradah, a Shiite neighborhood at 9 a.m., police 1st Lt. Thair Mahmoud said.

Meanwhile, authorities in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, said four gunmen were killed in a morning clash with police in the city.

One civilian was killed and three others were injured when unidentified gunmen stormed the house of a Shiite family in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

And police found seven bodies in an area north of Baqouba.

Meanwhile, the four-point plan, which emerged after talks between both sides, aims to resolve disputes by giving every party a voice in how security forces operate against violence on a neighborhood by neighborhood level.

Local committees will be formed in each Baghdad district — made up of representatives of every party, religious and tribal leaders and security officials — to consult on security efforts. A Sunni representative, for example, could raise a complaint if he feels police are not pursuing a Shiite militia after an attack. A central committee, also made up of all the parties, will coordinate with the armed forces.

"We have taken the decision to end sectarian hatred once and for all," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters. "We have vowed before Almighty God to stop the bloodshed."

In a possible boost to the effort to rein in the violence, a radical cleric who heads one of the most powerful Shiite militias, Muqtada al-Sadr, has ordered his followers to put aside their weapons temporarily, a Sadr spokesman told The Associated Press.

Al-Maliki announced his plan hours after gunmen abducted 14 computer shop employees in a bold, midday attack in downtown Baghdad, the second mass kidnapping in as many days.

The bodies of seven of the 24 captives seized Sunday were found dumped in southern Baghdad. Sunni politicians blamed Shiite militias for both mass kidnappings and demanded the government take action.

Al-Maliki is under increasing pressure to stop the violence, which has killed thousands since February. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad warned this week that al-Maliki must make progress within the next two months to avert a crisis.

But al-Maliki's administration has been plagued by growing mistrust between its Shiite and Sunni members, who each accuse the other of fueling the bloodshed.

Al-Maliki announced a 24-point reconciliation plan when he took office in May, which laid down ways to tackle violence — including an amnesty for militants who put down their weapons as well as security crackdowns. So far, the plan has done little to stem the daily killings.

Sunnis accuse the Shiite-led security forces of turning a blind eye to killing of Sunnis by Shiite militias — some of which are linked to parties in the government. Sunnis have accused al-Maliki, a Shiite, of being hesitant to crack down on the militias.

Shiites, meanwhile, accused Sunni parties of links to terrorists after a bodyguard of a Sunni party leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, was arrested by U.S. forces on Friday and accused of plotting al-Qaida bombings. Some Shiite politicians demanded a government reshuffle to push out Sunni parties.

The local committees aim to resolve these disputes.

"We will spare no efforts to succeed in this great initiative which we agreed on today to stop the violence and killings in Baghdad and in all Iraq," al-Dulaimi said at a news conference with al-Maliki. The two men signed an agreement with other Sunni and Shiite politicians on the four-point plan.

In addition to the local and central committees, the plan calls for establishment of a media committee and a monthly review of progress, al-Maliki said.

However, the new plan does not directly tackle the issue of cracking down on Shiite militias, a step Sunnis demand but many Shiites oppose.

In theory, the committees would give Sunnis a venue to press security forces to take action against militias. But Shiites on the committee would have an equal chance to try to prevent action.

The top parties are to meet Tuesday to work out the details of how the committees will work, but already divisions were showing — even over wording. Shiite parties want the new plan to be focused on "terrorism," which would suggest insurgents, while Sunnis want it to address "violence," which would include Shiite militias.

The most well-known of these militias is the Mahdi Army led by al-Sadr, who on Friday ordered his fighters to put aside their weapons temporarily. He told supporters "the resistance (should) be political. ... He does not want to see a single drop of (Iraqi) blood shed," said Sadr spokesman Amir al-Husseini.

The Mahdi Army has been blamed for many attacks on Sunnis since the bombing of a Shiite shrine north of Baghdad in February sparked the wave of sectarian violence. But U.S. commanders have suggested that since then some militants have split from al-Sadr, saying he is not radical enough and carrying out attacks on their own.

Violence has not slowed in the wake of al-Sadr's orders. A curfew slapped on Baghdad on Saturday after the arrest of al-Dulaimi's bodyguard brought a day of calm. But as soon as it was lifted, violence explode.

More than 50 bodies — most bound and many of them showing signs of torture — were found in Baghdad alone on Sunday, apparent victims of sectarian killings, police said.

Midday Monday, gunmen wearing military-style uniforms pulled up to a group of computer stores at the Technical University in downtown Baghdad and pulled out 14 employees, forcing them into SUVs and driving off, police said.

On Sunday, gunmen stormed into a frozen meat factory in Baghdad and forced 24 workers into a refrigerator truck, shooting two others who refused to get in.

Hours later, seven bodies were found in a Sunni district of the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora and were identified as workers from the factory. The fate of the other abducted workers was not known. In similar mass kidnappings in the past, the attackers have sorted out Shiites and Sunnis and killed those of the rival sect.

Lawmakers from the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni political group, said the kidnapped workers were all Sunnis and called on the government to act.

"It is the time the government takes serious and urgent steps to disband these criminal organizations and to save the people from their harm," they said in a statement.

At least 20 other people were killed in attacks around Iraq, including a bomb blast in Baghdad's downtown Al-Nasir Square that killed four people and wounded 13, and mortar barrages against two Sunni neighborhoods that killed two people and wounded dozens.

The U.S command said three U.S. Marines died in Anbar province Saturday — two in combat and the third in a vehicle accident. A British soldier was killed and another wounded in a mortar attack in the southern city of Basra. One shell hit a nearby house, killing two children.

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AP correspondent Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.