Sunni group endorses reconciliation plan

One of Iraq's largest Sunni Arab groups endorsed the prime minister's national reconciliation plan on Tuesday, and the government announced new benefits aimed at paving the way for freed detainees to return to their normal lives.

The political moves came a day after bombs killed at least 40 people at markets in two Iraqi cities, while key lawmakers said seven Sunni Arab insurgent groups offered the government a conditional truce.

A suicide car bomb also struck a busy gas station in the norther city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding 17, police Col. Adel Abdullah said. Fifteen cars were charred by the flames.

A U.S. Marine and a soldier were killed in separate attacks Tuesday west and south of Baghdad, while another U.S. soldier died the day before in the volatile Anbar province, the military said. The deaths raised to 2,528 the number of U.S. military service members who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060627/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

for a while now. No surprise here.

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Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5914591,00.html