Gunmen wounded an Iraqi general Thursday in southeast Baghdad and a blast
killed three people in the heart of the capital as President George W. Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair prepared for a meeting on Iraq strategy now
that a new government is in place.
Brig. Gen. Khalil al-Abadi, head of the Defense Ministry logistics office,
was ambushed as he was driven to work in the Zafraniyah district, police said.
His driver was also wounded.
The blast in central Baghdad occurred in a building on Tahrir Square, killing
three and wounding 11, police Lt. Ali Mitaab said. Police suspect the building
housed a bomb-making factory.
In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, drive-by shooters killed a member
of the city council, Muthana Thanon Jassim, and his driver, police Brig. Gen.
Abdul-Hamid Khalaf said.
Bush and Blair are to meet Thursday and Friday in Washington, with Iraq
strategy at the top of the agenda. Blair, who visited Baghdad this week, also
will discuss Iraqi plans for an international conference to back its government
and seek Bush's support for increased U.N. support, British officials said.
Both leaders have seen their poll ratings drop sharply and are under pressure
to make troop cutbacks. But U.S. and British officials dampened expectations
that the meetings would produce a timetable for withdrawal.
In Baghdad, the new Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said he believes
Iraqi forces are capable of taking over security around the country within 18
months, but he did not mention a timetable for U.S.-led coalition forces to
leave.
"Our forces are capable of taking over the security in all Iraqi provinces
within a year-and-a-half," al-Maliki said in a written statement, in which he
acknowledged that security forces needed more recruits, training and equipment.
Al-Maliki told the U.S. television network NBC that his government would
speed up training of police and soldiers and "considering our determination to
build our forces, we will be finished by the end of 2007."
U.S. military officials have cautioned that transferring
security responsibility to the Iraqis does not mean international troops would
leave concurrently, although some reductions in troop levels might be possible.
