IRAQ Man responsible for 2 mutilations killed in firefight

Nearly 6,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in May and June.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The man behind the killing and mutilation of two U.S. soldiers died after a clash with security forces, and authorities arrested three leaders of a group linked to al-Qaida in Iraq, a senior Iraqi official said Tuesday.
However, the death and the arrests of three Omar Brigade leaders did little to slow the tit-for-tat killings between Sunni and Shiite militants. In the latest, a Sunni suicide bomber lured Shiite laborers into a van Tuesday and blew it up, killing 53 people.
Meanwhile, a U.N. report said Tuesday that nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June, an increase in deaths that coincided with a surge in sectarian attacks.
National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said Diyar Ismail Mahmoud, a Jordanian also known as Abu al-Afghani, died from wounds suffered in a firefight with U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. He did not say when or where the clash occurred.
A U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, confirmed al-Rubaie's statement but refused to elaborate on it.
The bodies of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca of Houston and Pfc. Thomas Tucker of Madras, Ore., of the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, were found June 19 not far from a checkpoint on the Euphrates River south of Baghdad, where they were seized three days earlier.
A third soldier, David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was found dead at the checkpoint.
The three were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment -- the same unit as five soldiers and one former Army private now facing charges in the alleged rape and murder of a teenage girl in Mahmoudiya last March.
The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella of extremist groups, claimed in an Internet statement that the three soldiers were killed last month in retaliation for the rape-murder. U.S. officials say they have no evidence to substantiate the claim.
Suicide attack
The suicide attack Tuesday took place in Kufa, a Shiite city 100 miles south of Baghdad, where the attacker got men into his van on the promise of jobs, then detonated the vehicle on a bustling street. Local officials said at least 53 people were killed and 105 were wounded.
Police imposed a 24-hour driving ban in Kufa and its twin city Najaf to prevent further attacks. Shiite religious students criticized police for failing to prevent the bombing and urged "the oppressed faithful" to defend themselves rather than rely on Iraqi security forces.
The blast occurred one day after suspected Sunni gunmen killed at least 50 people, most of them Shiites, at an outdoor market in Mahmoudiya, 75 miles to the north.
Since the attack, police have found 19 bodies in different parts of Mahmoudiya, all possible victims of reprisal killings.
The spate of sectarian killings has discredited the unity government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which took office May 20. The killings have occurred despite a much-heralded security plan for Baghdad which was unveiled last month.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, has called on all political groups to band together to halt the violence, warning last week that this could be Iraq's "last chance" to avoid civil war.
The country's biggest Sunni Arab political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, deplored the attacks in Mahmoudiya and Kufa and called for an urgent meeting of political and religious leaders "to get Iraq out of this dark tunnel."
Other violence
In other violence Tuesday as reported by police:
UA bomb hidden in a plastic bag exploded near a Sunni mosque in Baghdad, killing one and wounding seven.
UThe bodies of five handcuffed men were found dumped in Baghdad.
UA roadside bomb struck an Iraqi police patrol in the central city of Hawija, killing seven policemen and wounding two.
UA suicide car bomber killed four police officers and wounded three in the northern city of Mosul.