8 Iraqis killed, 40 wounded in Baghdad
By QAIS Al-BASHIR

Baghdad, Iraq - A mortar attack killed at least eight people and wounded dozens in a secondhand goods market Wednesday in a shelling followed closely by a suicide bombing in the Sadr City Shiite district of the capital, police said.

Two rounds landed and exploded at 11:20 a.m. in the Haraj Market in a mixed Shiite-Sunni area in northern Baghdad, said police officers Ali Mutab and Mohammed Khayoun, who provided the casualty totals.

About 25 minutes later, a suicide bomber with explosives hidden beneath his clothing set them off aboard a bus in Sadr City, killing two people and wounding 15, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.

It appeared to be the first attack by suspected Sunni Arab insurgents on the large Shiite slum since Nov. 23, when a bombing and mortar attack killed 215 people in the deadliest single attack since the Iraq war started more than three years ago.

The latest eruptions of Iraq's unrelenting sectarian violence came hours before the anticipated release of a long-awaited study by the Iraq Study Group, a blue-ribbon panel headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind.

It is expected to recommend gradually transforming the U.S. mission from combat to training and supporting Iraqi units, with a goal of pulling back American combat troops by early 2008. It is also expected to urge a more energetic effort to involve Iraq's neighbors in ending the violence, including Iran and Syria, which the U.S. considers pariah states.

Some Iraqis, while critical of U.S. strategy in Iraq, said they feared any new policy would lead to more suffering for their country.

"They (U.S officials) are defeated in Iraq. So they are trying to seek for an outlet to get out of their plight in Iraq. And I think the outlet will be at the expense of the Iraqi people," Maan al-Obeidi, a professor and political analyst at al-Nahrain University in Baghdad, told AP Television News.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki persisted, meanwhile, with his efforts to curb the violence, urging university professors and students to ignore "the desperate attempts" of a Sunni Arab insurgent group to keep them from class.

The group had sent e-mails to students and posted signs at schools and mosques saying students should stay away while it cleanses the campuses of Shiite death squads, according to a statement from the prime minister's office late Tuesday.

But attacks by suspected Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias began soon after sunrise.

At 8:30 a.m., Brig. Muhssin Qassim al-Yassiri, head of a security force that guards the Education Ministry, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle in west Baghdad, killing his driver, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media.

Five minutes earlier, a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in east Baghdad, but caused no casualties, police Capt. Mohammed Abdul-Ghani said.

A bomb also exploded near a shop in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, killing its owner and wounding four people, said police Capt. Muthana Lkalid.

U.S. ground and air forces also conducted a raid targeting foreign insurgents near the Iranian border, killing a militant who opened fire on an aircraft, the U.S. command said.

The early morning raid took place near Khanaqin, a remote desert area 87 miles northeast of Baghdad where U.S. forces have helped Iraqi soldiers set up outposts designed to stop foreign insurgents and their weapons supplies from crossing into Iraq.

A coalition aircraft was leaving the raid when it took small arms fire from a vehicle below; it returned fire, destroying vehicle and killing its armed insurgent, the command said. One suspected militant also was detained during the raid, which resulted in no U.S. casualties, the brief statement said.

A new poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org, meanwhile, found that 75 percent of Americans believe that in order to stabilize Iraq the U.S. should enter into talks with Iran and Syria, and nearly 80 percent support an international conference on Iraq. A majority also oppose keeping U.S. forces in Iraq indefinitely and instead support committing to a timetable for their withdrawal within two years or less, the poll found. It was conducted Nov. 21-29, questioned 1,326 Americans nationwide and had a margin of error of 2.7 percent to 3.9 percent. -- The Associated Press

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