Gunmen fire on Sunni pilgrims in Iraq

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writers 39 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen opened fire on a convoy of Iraqi Sunni pilgrims bound for the holy city of Mecca on Sunday, killing at least one person, while U.S. forces said they killed 17 insurgents preparing to ambush American troops.
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The pilgrims were about 15 miles from the city of Baqouba when gunmen showered their convoy with machine gunfire, said a spokesman for Diyala province's Public Relations and Information Bureau, who asked not to be named, citing security procedures. Such killing are usually part of
Iraq's growing sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

The convoy of U.S. troops ran into the insurgents planning the ambush near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, the military said. U.S. warplanes killed three suspected insurgents in an initial attack and 14 more in a second in assault with ground forces.

The U.S. attacks set off blasts among the insurgents that showed they had been armed with homemade mines and other explosives used to disable convoys.

"Despite the terrorists' ambush attempts, coalitions forces successfully continued their operation and detained three suspected terrorists," the military said in a statement.

Elsewhere, Iraqi and U.S. forces encircled the town of Hawija, 165 miles north of Baghdad, and searched for armed men who had fired on patrols, said Brig. Sarhat Qadir of the police force in the nearby city of Kirkuk. The area lies near a key pipeline linking Kirkuk's oilfields to Turkey that has been the target of repeated insurgent attacks.

In Baqouba, gunmen shot dead two policemen at a downtown intersection, said an officer, who asked not to named because of procedures to protect the identity of police.

On Saturday night, gunmen shot dead a translator for U.S. forces outside a restaurant in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

The violence came after a week of intensified exchanges between the United States and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who on four occasions challenged the U.S. handling of the war.

Al-Maliki, whose Shiite-dominated government is backed by U.S. troops, was angered by the U.S. ambassador's announcement Tuesday that al-Maliki had agreed to a U.S. plan to set timelines for progress in quelling Iraq's violence.

In a hastily arranged video conference with
President Bush, al-Maliki said that the U.S. president promised to move swiftly to turn over full control of the Iraqi army to the Baghdad government.

A close aid said the prime minister was intentionally playing on U.S. voter displeasure with the war to strengthen his hand with Washington.

"It's al-Maliki's chance to get what he wants. It's a chance for al-Maliki to force a better deal for himself," Hassan al-Suneid, a member of al-Maliki's inner circle, told the Associated Press.

Al-Suneid said the video conference was sought because issues needed airing at a higher level than with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Al-Suneid said the prime minister complained to Bush that Khalilzad, an Afghan-born Sunni Muslim, was treating the Shiite al-Maliki imperiously.

"The U.S. ambassador is not (L. Paul) Bremer (the former U.S. administrator in Iraq). He does not have a free rein to do what he likes. Khalilzad must not behave like Bremer but rather like an ambassador," al-Suneid quoted al-Maliki as saying.

On Friday, al-Suneid said, the prime minister told Khalilzad: "I am a friend of the United States, but I am not America's man in Iraq."

Following Saturday's talks, White House spokesman Tony Snow said al-Maliki was "not America's man in Iraq. The United States is there in a role to assist him. He's the prime minister — he's the leader of the Iraqi people."

Snow denied there was any rift between the United States and Iraq and said Bush had full confidence in al-Maliki.

A joint statement issued after Saturday's video conference said both countries were committed to their partnership "and will work in every way possible for a stable, democratic Iraq and for victory in the war on terror."

It said Iraq and the U.S. agreed to form an advisory group on achieving those goals. The group will consisting of the U.S. military commander, Gen. George Casey, Khalilzad and Iraq's national security adviser and ministers of defense and interior.

Al-Maliki has grown increasingly prickly as the Americans have pressed him to rein in Shiite militias and crush death squads that have sprung up since a Shiite shrine was bombed by Sunni insurgents in February. Thousands of Sunnis have died in revenge attacks, many under brutal torture.