BAGHDAD, Iraq – Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at a policeman’s home northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing his four children and his brother, raising to at least 23 the number of Iraqis killed in attacks this weekend.
Also Sunday, police found the bullet-riddled bodies of nearly two dozen men abducted last week north of Baghdad after being rejected entry into a police academy, officials said.
The violence continued as Iraq’s political parties began gearing up for talks on a new coalition government that U.S. officials hope will win the confidence of disaffected Sunni Arabs and undermine support for the insurgency. That would hasten the time when U.S. and other foreign troops can go home.
There was still no word on the fate of kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll two days after a deadline set by her captors. They had threatened to kill the 28-year-old freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor unless all Iraqi women detainees were freed.