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Iraqi leader's sister killed

Italian soldiers die in bombing

BAGHDAD: A sister of Iraq's new Sunni Arab Vice-President was killed on Thursday in a drive-by shooting, one day after her brother called for crushing the Sunni-dominated militancy.

Four coalition soldiers — three Italians and a Romanian — were killed on Thursday in a roadside bombing near Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, their Governments said. It was Romania's first combat death in the Iraq conflict.

Elsewhere, a U.S. jet fired two missiles at militant positions in Ramadi, U.S. officers said.

Fighting also broke out northeast of Baghdad between Iraqi forces and militants, killing several Iraqi policemen and civilians.

Bodies of 16 Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured were found on Thursday in Baghdad and other cities, police said.

Visit by Rice, Rumsfeld

The violence occurred as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ended a two-day surprise visit to shore up the new Iraqi leadership as it finalises the new government.

Mayson Ahmed Bakir al-Hashimi (60), sister of Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi, died in a hail of bullets from gunmen in a BMW sedan as she left her home in the morning in southwest Baghdad, police said. Her bodyguard also was killed.

On Wednesday, Mr. Al-Hashimi called for Iraq's militancy to be put down by force and shrugged off threats made in a videotape this week by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who denounced the new government as an American ``stooge.''

On April 13, the Vice-President's brother, Mahmoud al-Hashimi, was shot dead while driving in a mostly Shia area of eastern Baghdad. Four days later, the brother of another leading Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, was found dead in Baghdad after he was kidnapped.

Thursday's clashes northeast of Baghdad occurred when militants attacked four Iraqi police checkpoints in Baqouba, a Sunni-Shia city, police and residents said. Five Iraqis were killed — five policemen and two civilians — said Dr. Ahmed Foad, director of a local morgue.

In Ramadi, 115 km west of Baghdad, U.S. forces exchanged fire with militants who attacked with small arms and shoulder-fired rockets from a former train station and a nearby building.

A U.S. jet fired two laser-guided missiles at the buildings and U.S. forces returned fire with mortars and rockets, killing eight of the attackers.

In a separate incident, one Iraqi army soldier was killed during a firefight with militants in a nearby Ramadi neighbourhood.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister-designate, Nuri al-Maliki, a Shia, visited the country's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who urged him to form a government of leaders who will put the national interest above ``their personal, party or sectarian interests.''

Ayatollah Al-Sistani's office in Najaf also said he had urged Mr. Al-Maliki to improve security .

Mr. Al-Maliki also met the anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who praised the new government and urged it to set a withdrawal timetable for U.S. forces. — Agencies

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