In Iraqi Capital, U.S. Toll Resumes

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
October 15, 2008
Pg. 7
Sides ironing out security pact as soldier killed
By Associated Press
BAGHDAD -- An American soldier was killed Tuesday by gunfire in western Baghdad, the U.S. military said. It was the first U.S. combat death in Iraq's capital in two weeks, the military said.
Five Sunni insurgent groups, meanwhile, have issued statements disavowing attacks on Iraqi Christians in Mosul, a website monitoring service, the SITE Intelligence Group, reported Tuesday . The attacks have prompted thousands of Christians to flee the northern city.
A U.S. statement said the soldier, whose name was not released, was wounded when gunmen fired on a patrol Tuesday afternoon. The soldier was rushed by helicopter to a hospital but died, the statement said.
It was the first combat death suffered by U .S. forces in Baghdad since Sept. 30, when the military said a soldier was killed by small-arms fire in northern Baghdad.
Seven U.S. servicemembers have died in Iraq this month, all but two of them in combat.
Those figures are well below monthly levels of last year, reflecting the sharp decline in violence and the increasing role of Iraqi forces for security.
The trend toward a bigger role for Iraqis would accelerate under a security agreement that the U.S. and Iraq have been negotiating for months. The agreement would hand over control of Baghdad and other cities to the Iraqis by the end of June. American forces would be out of the country by Dec. 31, 2011, unless the Baghdad government asks them to stay, Iraqi officials say.
The officials spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to discuss secret negotiations. The pact would replace the United Nations mandate that expires at year's end .
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki briefed the national president and the two vice presidents on the draft agreement Tuesday, a government statement said. The statement did not say whether the draft resolved the contentious issue of legal immunity for U.S. troops, the last obstacle in the way of a final agreement.
As talks with the Americans approached an end, neighboring Turkey reached out to Iraq's top Kurdish leader, urging him to crack down on the Kurdish guerrillas launching cross-border attacks from their Iraqi mountain sanctuaries.
A Turkish delegation met Massoud Barzani, president of the three-province, semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, in Baghdad. It was the first direct talks in four years between Turkey and Barzani, whose self-ruled administration controls security in the border area.
Turkey has been pressing the Iraqi Kurdish administration to cut supply lines in its territory used by guerrillas.
 
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