Six GIs killed in Iraq; 20 die in bombing
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-03 09:19

Most of the insurgents are Sunni Arabs, and in an overture to that community Iraq's defense minister Wednesday invited some officers in Saddam Hussein's former army to enlist in the new force. The U.S. decision to disband Saddam's 400,000-member army soon after he was ousted in April 2003 has been widely seen as a major contributor to the growth of the insurgency, which is fueled by Sunni ex-soldiers.

The U.S. command said it is accelerating counterinsurgency training for newly arrived officers, including the best ways to protect their troops against roadside bombs.

Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the U.S. command will soon open the training school at Taji, an air base 12 miles north of Baghdad. U.S. troops undergo counterinsurgency training before heading to Iraq, but the command wants newcomers to become familiar with the latest insurgent tactics.

There was no claim of responsibility for the Musayyib attack — the third major vehicle bombing in a predominantly Shiite area of Iraq within the last five days. A total of 50 people had already been killed since Saturday in car bombings in Basra and a Shiite village in central Diyala province.

Those attacks have fueled fears of more sectarian tension between the majority Shiites and minority Sunni Arabs.

The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has urged his followers to attack Shiites, whom he considers heretics and collaborators with the U.S.-led coalition.

The bloodshed persists despite progress in promoting a political process, which the Bush administration hopes will in time lure Sunni Arabs away from the insurgency and enable the Americans and their coalition partners to begin sending their troops home.

After voters overwhelmingly approved the constitution in an Oct. 15 referendum, attention has focused on the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. Many Sunni Arab candidates have joined the race; most of their community boycotted the last election in January.

In other violence Wednesday, at least 13 Iraqis were killed and 25 wounded in scattered shootings and other bombings around the country.