Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived in Tehran on Monday to meet with his Iranian peer. Iran has been trying to organize a summit joining President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Talabani and Syrian President Bashar Assad in an effort to assert its role as the main regional powerbroker.
Iranian officials have confirmed that an invitation was extended to Assad, but Damascus has not responded.
On Sunday, Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders called for an end to Iraq's sectarian conflict and vowed to track down those responsible for Thursday's attack, which killed over 200 people. "We promise the great martyrs that we will chase the killers and criminals, the terrorists, Saddamists and Takfiri (Sunni extremists) for viciously trying to divide you," Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sunni Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani and Kurdish President Jalal Talabani said in their joint statement on state-run TV.
On the ground, three American troops were killed and two injured during combat operations in Baghdad, the military said Monday. The Multinational Division soldiers died at about 9 a.m. Sunday, the command said, according to the AP.
The deaths raised to at least 2,878 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. So far in November, 59 American service members have been killed.
In another blow for US forces, an American Air Force jet carrying one pilot crashed in Iraq on Monday, the military said. The F-16CG went down at about 1:35 p.m., about 20 miles northwest of Baghdad in Anbar province, the military said in a brief statement without giving information about the cause of the crash or the fate of the pilot.
In central Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a crowded street, killing six Iraqis and injuring three, said police Lt. Ali Muhsin. In the southern district of Dora, armed men in two cars attacked a police patrol at 8:30 a.m., wounding six policemen, said police 1st Lt. Abdul Razzaq. A half-hour later, other gunmen attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint, wounding four soldiers, he said.
Police in western Baghdad found the bodies of two Iraqis who had been kidnapped, blindfolded and shot, said police 1st Lt. Miathem Abdel-Razaq.
Police and witnesses also said U.S. soldiers shot and killed 11 civilians and wounded five on Sunday night in Husseiniya, a suburb about 13 miles outside northeast Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Iraq's government on Monday reopened Baghdad International Airport and lifted a curfew imposed after a string of deadly attacks in the capital's Sadr City neighborhood last Thursday.
