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Two US soldiers among 12 killed in Iraq violence

* Police find 10 more corpses in Baghdad
* US warns Americans against commercial flights from Baghdad

BAGHDAD: Two US soldiers were killed in enemy action in Iraq’s restive western province of Al-Anbar, the US military announced late Friday night.

The soldiers, who died on Thursday, were assigned to the 2/28 Brigade Combat Team, consisting largely of the Pennsylvania National Guard, which is responsible for the provincial capital of Ramadi.

The area has long been a major centre of insurgent activity and the latest deaths bring the number of US casualties in Iraq since the war to 2,323, according to the US Department of Defence.

In other violence, insurgents killed six in more attacks in Iraq on Saturday as officials pressed on with efforts to form a unity government amid mounting frustration at their sluggish progress.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani pronounced himself “optimistic” about the formation of a new government as the United States piled the pressure on Baghdad to speed up the formation of a unity coalition over three months after elections.

Four Iraqis were killed in eastern Baghdad by a roadside bomb while east of the capital, in the small town of Balad Ruz another roadside bomb killed two teenage boys selling farm produce from the back of their bicycles. A passing car was also hit, but the three occupants were only injured. Ten more corpses were also discovered in Baghdad, bringing the number of bodies, most showing signs of torture, discovered by police over the last week to about 75.

Freed British hostage Norman Kember left Kuwait Saturday morning for his native Britain, while his fellow former hostages, Canadians Harmeet Sooden and Jim Loney, currently at the airport, were expected to follow soon.

Some of the violence in the country is being laid at the doorstep of neighboring Iran and in an interview with the Washington Post, US envoy to Baghdad Zalmay Khalilzad accused the Islamic republic of interference in Iraq. “Our judgement is that training and supplying, direct or indirect, takes place, and that there is also provision of financial resources to people, to militias,” Khalilzad told the Washington Post, adding that Iranian agents were present in the country.

He said was especially concerned over Iran’s links to the Mahdi Army, an armed group loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr whom he blamed for the latest spike in sectarian killings in Iraq.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday she was “quite certain” that direct talks would take place with Iran on the turmoil in Iraq, but did not say exactly when.

British forces, meanwhile, reported a joint British-Iraqi operation in the southern city of Amara resulting in the detention of ten suspected insurgents. The US on Friday warned Americans that government employees have been barred from using commercial airlines leaving Baghdad’s airport, expanding an earlier public travel warning. The State Department announced it was advising Americans “of the US Embassy Baghdad’s travel restriction on using commercial airlines departing Baghdad International Airport.”

The restriction was issued on March 12, the department said, quoting the embassy’s message: “As the result of a recent security incident at the Baghdad International Airport (BIAP), the US Embassy is prohibiting outgoing travel by all US government employees on commercial airlines departing BIAP until further notice.” agencies

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