24 killed in wave of Iraq violence
Foreign Desk Report

BAGHDAD—Fourteen Iraqis, both men and women, were machine-gunned to death while travelling in a minibus south of Baghdad, local police said. The attack took place Thursday on a small road in Latifiyah, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the capital.
Those killed were Shiites from nearby Mahmudiyah who reportedly left their home Thursday morning and whose bodies were found later in the day. There was no immediate indication as to who was responsible for the attack. Latifiyah is located in the so-called ‘triangle of death’, a restive mixed Sunni-Shiite area where murders are rife.
US fighter jets dropped two 500-pound bombs on a village in northern Iraq, killing 10 Iraqis they suspected of planting explosive devices on a nearby road, the U.S. military said on Thursday. The incident occurred on Tuesday in a small village near the town of Hawija, 50 km (30 miles)  southwest of Kirkuk, the military said. The pilots were flying a routine patrol when they saw three men digging holes by the side of major road and planting bombs in them, a statement said. When they heard the planes overhead, the men jumped in a car and fled. They were soon joined by another car as the jets tracked them. They drove the cars into the village and tried to hide by parking between two buildings, the statement said. The pilots then dropped two 500-pound laser-guided bombs. “They were able to destroy the vehicles while causing only minimal damage to surrounding structures,” the military said.
U.S. soldiers later raided the village and found assault rifles, a machine gun and bomb-making equipment in houses near the site of the air strike. They said they also found a bomb by the side of the road where the men were first spotted. Sunni Arab and secular groups refused Thursday to open discussions with the Shiite religious bloc leading in Iraq’s parliamentary elections until a full review of the contested results is carried out. Their refusal could deepen the political turmoil following a U.N. observer’s endorsement of Iraq’s Dec. 15 elections. The official said the results were credible and that the results should stand. “We are not taking part in discussions,” said Nasser al-Ani, a senior official in the main Sunni Arab coalition — the Iraqi Accordance Front. Preliminary results from the vote have given the governing Shiite religious bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, a big lead — but one which still would require forming a coalition with other groups. Al-Ani told The Associated Press that his political group favored participating in broad-based coalition government, but would not begin contacts “until we get a clear picture about the results of the investigation.”
Mehedi al-Hafidh, a senior member of the secular Iraqi National List headed by former Shiite Premier Ayad Allawi, raised similar concerns. “We confirm that we are not part of this process of consultations to form a new government,” al-Hafidh told reporters. The U.N. endorsement came on Wednesday after opposition groups demanded international intervention and an independent review of more than 1,500 complaints about irregularities. Jalal Talabani, Iraq’s Kurd president, was holding talks this week with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the cleric who heads the United Iraqi Alliance, and other members of that religious group to begin forming a coalition government after final results are released next week. There were no Sunni Arabs or secular Shiites at the meeting. Al-Hakim has said that preparations were being made to choose a candidate for prime minister, who they have said must come from the United Iraqi Alliance. Alliance officials have indicated likely candidates are current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who heads the Islamic Dawa party, and Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who belongs to the other main Shiite party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.