IRAQ: Iraqi insurgents attacked a US patrol early yesterday, as Iraqi politicians continue to draft a constitution that Washington hopes will stabilise the country and reduce its military burden.
US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said a new constitution would help undermine support for Sunni Arab rebels. "It's important they stick with their timetable," he told a Pentagon briefing, echoing his earlier call to Iraqi leaders "to get on with it".
A US military statement said the patrol was investigating explosives when a roadside bomb went off, killing four soldiers and wounding five near Baiji, an oil refining town 180km (115 miles) north of Baghdad. The soldiers then came under small-arms fire. A contractor was also wounded.
A large crater on the highway and an account from Iraqi police suggested US vehicles had been struck by one of what appears to be a new breed of roadside bomb or landmine. The devices are more powerful than those that have killed hundreds of troops over the past two years and are capable of penetrating American armour.
"Clearly, improvised explosive devices . . . some with newer technologies these days, are going to change our tactics," Gen Richard Myers had told a Pentagon news briefing before the Baiji attack.
Gen Myers was responding to a landmine explosion that killed 14 marines in an armoured amphibious vehicle near Haditha, northwest of Baghdad, on August 3rd and to half a dozen other heavy losses in the past two months.
Insurgents also struck a checkpoint manned by Iraqi army and police near Baiji yesterday, killing four soldiers and wounding four others, police said. In other violence, six people, including two policemen, were killed and 14 wounded in Baghdad when a suicide bomber drove a car at a police patrol.
Mr Rumsfeld said bloodshed could rise ahead of a referendum on the constitution, scheduled for October 15th, and a general election due two months later.
Iraq's US-backed government believes advancing the political process will defuse the insurgency, a loose alliance of foreign Sunni Muslim militants and Saddam Hussein loyalists that shows no signs of weakening.
President Jalal Talabani is hosting a series of meetings this week aimed at breaking deadlock among leaders of Iraq's many communities, including the Shia Muslim majority, ethnic Kurds and Arab Sunnis.
They are under intense US pressure to meet a self-imposed August 15th deadline. Government spokesman Laith Kubba said Iraqi leaders were likely to agree a framework and tackle the tough issues later.
Leaders working to meet the deadline face volatile issues, including federalism, dividing oil revenue and the fate of Kirkuk, an oil city claimed by Kurds.
Religious and secular groups are also divided over the role of Islam.