- BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter during a
raid against al-Qaida militants south of Baghdad and killed two soldiers,
bringing the weekend death toll of American service members to seven, the
U.S. military said Monday.
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- The military also said American forces
killed more than 40 militants, including an al-Qaida operative, in five
raids south of Baghdad in an area commonly known as the Triangle of Death
because of the large number of insurgent attacks.
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- The U.S. hopes a national unity government
that includes Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds will sap the insurgency's strength,
but Iraqi politicians struggled against a deadline to form such a government.
And with at least 20 Iraqis killed in roadside bombings and drive-by shootings
Monday, sectarian violence showed no signs of letting up.
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- The helicopter was downed after a U.S.
operation in Youssifiyah, about 12 miles south of Baghdad. The Mujahedeen
Shura Council, a coalition of insurgent groups that includes al-Qaida in
Iraq, claimed responsibility in a statement posted on the Internet.
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- Other Americans killed over the weekend
included two U.S. Marines who died Sunday during unspecified enemy action
in Anbar province, the area of western Iraq that is the heart of the Sunni-led
insurgency. Two soldiers died Sunday in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad,
and another died in a roadside bomb in the capital Saturday.
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- The deaths raised to at least 2,443 the
number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the war began in
2003, according to a count by The Associated Press.
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- The five U.S. raids south of Baghdad
resulted in the killing of an al-Qaida militant blamed for an April 1 attack
in the same area that downed a U.S. Apache helicopter and killed two soldiers.
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- An al-Qaida group had claimed responsibility
for downing the Apache and posted a gruesome video on the Internet showing
men dragging the burning body of what appeared to be an American soldier
across a field as they shouted Allahu akbar! or God is great!
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- Also Monday, insurgents fired more than
30 mortar rounds at a British military camp in southern Iraq, wounding
four soldiers.
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- Six British soldiers have been killed
and five wounded over the past nine days - all in southern Iraq, an area
that has traditionally been far more peaceful that central and northern
Iraq where U.S. forces are based.
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- Monday's violence came as Iraqi lawmakers
alternately - and with varying degrees of sincerity - withdrew from the
Cabinet negotiations or threatened to do so, and accused each other of
greed, sectarianism and self-interest.
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- Deputies said Prime Minister-designate
Nouri al-Maliki could announce a partial Cabinet ahead of a constitutionally
mandated May 22 deadline, taking for himself the disputed defense and interior
ministry posts. President Jalal Talabani, however, rejected that option.
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- The presidency council does not want
to see such key ministries excluded, Talabani said after meeting with his
Shiite and Sunni Arab vice presidents. We think the entire Cabinet should
be announced.
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- The defense and interior ministries are
important, and we have previously agreed that they should be taken by independents
agreeable to all the main blocs in Iraq, he said.
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- Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a member
of the Sunni Arab Accordance Front, said it had reached a deal with the
main Shiite United Iraqi Alliance in which the Sunnis would nominate the
defense minister. In return, the Shiite bloc would name the interior minister.
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- Similar deals have unraveled over the
past few days.
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- Shiite lawmaker Ali al-Deeb, a member
of al-Maliki's Dawa Party, told the AP that the Defense Ministry is still
a problem.
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- Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's secular
Iraqi List, favored to get the defense post, accused the Sunnis of delaying
the process and of stoking violence as a pressure tactic.
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- The ceiling has been set too high by
the Accordance Front who claim they represent the Sunnis. They still insist
on the Defense Ministry, Wael Abdul-Latif, the bloc's spokesman, told the
AP. But the bombs are still playing a role in the negotiations.
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- The violence underscored the pressure
al-Maliki faces.
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- In Balad Ruz, 50 miles northeast of Baghdad,
gunmen pulled three teachers - two brothers and a cousin - and their driver
from a minibus and killed them. The assault prompted a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
curfew in nearby Baqouba, a mixed city where six Shiite shrines were bombed
Saturday.
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- In addition to the 20 Iraqis killed around
Iraq Monday, five corpses were found in western Baghdad.
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