Prometheus 6

U.S., Rebels in Iraq Talking
Amid reports of direct contacts with militants and on a day of more deadly suicide attacks, American officials seek to quell doubts at home.

By Borzou Daragahi

Times Staff Writer

June 27, 2005

BAGHDAD — Insurgents killed nearly three dozen Iraqis with suicide bombings and gun and mortar fire Sunday as a newly published report detailed direct contacts between leaders of violent rebel groups and high-level U.S. officials attempting to end the attacks.

U.S. officials did not confirm or deny reports that American diplomats had recently met with insurgent commanders, the majority of whom are Sunni Arabs. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Gen. John P. Abizaid, who commands U.S. forces in the region, acknowledged that U.S. and Iraqi officials had met with Sunni leaders, but insisted that they were not prepared to compromise with those who have killed Americans and Iraqis.

As U.S. officials were forced to confront details of reported meetings with insurgent leaders, three suicide bombings took place in and around the northern city of Mosul. In one attack, a suicide bomber wearing explosives blew himself up among a group of guards and day laborers waiting at the gate of an Iraqi military base. The attack killed at least 15 Iraqis.