Attack on Iraq Interior Ministry kills 21
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-09 22:20

Their efforts seem to have forged an understanding between the main Shiite religious bloc and al-Dulaimi's group — which represent two traditionally hostile camps whose enmity often threatens to plunge Iraq into sectarian warfare.

Shiite leaders have threatened reprisals against the minority Sunni Arabs following twin suicide attacks that killed more than 100 people last week. They have blamed the attacks on both the Sunni-Arab-led insurgency and some Sunni Arab political groups they say openly support the militants.

Talabani said Saturday that Iraq's political groups could form a coalition government within weeks — and some experts say the new government could be formed next month.

Forming a viable broad-based government is a key American goal because such an administration, if it includes Sunni Arabs, could help defuse the insurgency.

The U.S. military released more details about how a French hostage Bernard Planche was freed Saturday, saying his captors fled as Iraqi army soldiers searching for weapons caches approached a farmhouse west of Baghdad and he ran to soldiers at a nearby checkpoint. Iraqi police on Sunday had said Planche had been thrown out of a car approaching a checkpoint.

Planche, 52, who was working for a non-governmental organization he started himself, was abducted Dec. 5. The Defense Ministry in Paris said Planche was returning to France on Monday.