Also in Iraq

Last update: September 22, 2007 - 10:23 PM

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Saturday with Iraq's prime minister in their first face-to-face talks since a Baghdad shootout involving guards from a U.S. company protecting American diplomats. Rice and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki were among numerous top diplomats and officials from Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, gathering at the United Nations with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to discuss Iraq's future. Neither Rice nor Al-Maliki spoke to reporters.

Rice said she had ordered a "full and complete review" of security practices for U.S. diplomats in Iraq following a deadly weekend incident involving private guards protecting an embassy convoy. Her announcement came as the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad resumed diplomatic convoys under the protection of Blackwater USA.

The U.S. command announced the deaths Saturday of two more U.S. soldiers, both from non-combat injuries. Each of the incidents apparently took place in Diyala Province north of Baghdad. There were no further details.

Authorities in Anbar Province announced the arrests of 25 people linked to the assassination of the leader of the U.S.-backed revolt by Sunni Arab tribesmen against Al-Qaida in Iraq. The detainees included the head of the security detail that was supposed to protect Sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, who was killed in a suicide bombing Sept. 13 at his compound near Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad.

Gunmen ambushed Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing one officer and wounding five others.

U.S. troops killed seven insurgents and detained an operative believed to have knowledge of the whereabouts of Al-Qaida leaders south of Baghdad, the military said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces control a little more than half of Baghdad's neighborhoods, but 8 percent are "free of enemy influence" and being secured primarily by Iraqi units, said Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil Jr., the U.S. commander in Baghdad. He said that in about 38 of Baghdad's 474 neighborhoods U.S. forces were playing mainly a supporting role to Iraqis and that violence was at minimal levels.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeted a U.S. military convoy on the highway near Shoala, west Baghdad. One Iraqi civilian was injured, police said. Another roadside bomb targeted civilians in Eskan, west Baghdad, injuring two civilians. And gunmen burned three houses in Washash, west Baghdad. Police said the houses were empty after the families were displaced during the last two days. The police also reported finding nine dead bodies throughout the capital.

NEWS SERVICES

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