Grenade attack kills four young children

INSURGENTS fired rocket-propelled grenades at the home of an Iraqi police officer yesterday, killing his four children and his brother and wounding his wife.

Bombings and shootings around the country killed at least eight other people.

As Iraq’s dominant Shi’ite leaders prepared for talks with Kurdish and Sunni politicians to form a national unity government, Sunni Arabs warned they would reject the inclusion of any minister who had been involved in violence against Sunnis by Shi’ite-backed security forces.

American soldiers on Saturday killed three gunmen firing from cars north of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. They destroyed four cars after one was found rigged for a bombing.

Meanwhile, there was no word on the fate of journalist Jill Carroll, last seen in a video released on January 17. Her kidnappers threatened to kill her fall Iraqi female prisoners were not released within 72 hours.

Insurgents attacked the home of a policeman with rocket-propelled grenades in Balad Ruz, 45 miles north-east of Baghdad, said a police spokesman. The officer’s children, ages 6 to 11, and their uncle were killed, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisal attacks. The officer was unharmed, but his wife was wounded.

Also yesterday, the bodies of a Sunni Arab tribal leader and his son were found in a field 150 miles north of Baghdad. Sayid Ibrahim Ali and his son Ayad were shot after a funeral on Saturday.

Four policemen were killed and nine wounded in a pre-dawn roadside bomb blast in Baqouba, 35 miles north-east of Baghdad.

In Mashru, police found the bodies of two blindfolded men who had been shot in the head and chest.

US Brigadier General Don Alston said insurgent attacks fell 40% during the week ending Saturday compared with the previous week. Attacks in Baghdad fell 80%, he told reporters.

Elsewhere, Sunni leader Tariq al-Hashimi said Sunni Arabs would reject the inclusion in Iraq’s government of any official involved in violence against Sunnis by Shi’ite-backed forces.

This appeared directed at Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, whom Sunnis accuse of playing a role in directing Shi’ite forces to kill Sunni clerics and lay people.

Mr al-Hashimi also said the government must deal with Sunni opposition to the new constitution, including provisions transforming Iraq into a federal state and banning key members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party from government jobs.