Suicide car bomber kills 30 in Iraq
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-25 08:22

On Thursday, government spokesman Laith Kubba called the pre-election attacks "the last stand" of "Muslim extremists and Saddam's criminals," predicting they would rapidly lose support after establishment of a new government and a national reconciliation conference expected early next year.

More voters of the Sunni Arab minority, the backbone of the insurgency, are expected to vote this time, unlike the January balloting that many of them boycotted. Some Sunni insurgent groups have condemned the election and are expected to launch attacks to discourage a big turnout.

The United States hopes a big Sunni turnout will produce a broad-based government that can win the minority's trust, helping to take the steam out of the insurgency and hasten the day when American and other foreign troops can go home.

At a meeting last weekend in Egypt to pave the way for the reconciliation conference, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he was willing to talk with insurgent groups if they agreed to lay down their arms and renounce terrorism.

On Thursday, residents of Anbar province said four insurgent groups were considering naming a representative to spell out their conditions to Talabani. The four include the Islamic Army of Iraq, the 1920 Revolution Brigade, the Mujahedeen Army and al-Jamea Brigades.

The residents, who have contacts with the insurgents, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Significantly, the four groups do not include the country's most feared terror organization, al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, or the al-Sunnah Army and Ansar al-Islam. All are Islamic extremist groups believed to have staged many suicide attacks.

U.S. and Iraqi officials believe their best chance for a negotiated settlement of the insurgency involves driving a wedge between religious extremists and groups led by members of Saddam's Baath Party more interested in retaining a share of power than waging holy war.

However, the initial contacts appear to be well short of negotiations, a process expected to be complicated and protracted due to the different goals of Iraq's numerous religious and ethnic communities.

In other violence Thursday:

_Gunmen ambushed a police patrol in Baghdad's southern Doha neighborhood, killing four officers, police said. A fifth policeman was killed in a later bombing in the same district.

_A roadside bomb slightly injured three Polish soldiers and one Iraqi child near Camp Echo, headquarters for Poland's military mission in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, said Col. Zdzislaw Gnatowski, a military spokesman in Warsaw.

_A bodyguard for the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party branch in Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, was wounded in a drive-by shooting near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. His boss, Hussein Abid al-Zubeidi, said he escaped unharmed.