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Bomb blasts at an Iraqi police facility have
killed at least 35 people and left dozens of others wounded. Continued
violence in Iraq comes as newly-empowered U.S. Democratic lawmakers urge a
timeline for withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country.
Twin
suicide bombers simultaneously detonated explosives at an Iraqi police
recruitment facility in western Baghdad Sunday. Many of those killed were
young men waiting to join the police force. Several other deadly bombings
and shootings were reported elsewhere in the city.
Meanwhile, security forces continue to search for Sunni gunmen who set
up a fake security checkpoint on an Iraqi highway Saturday, killing at
least 10 Shi'ite travelers and kidnapping dozens of others.
The latest
violence comes amid reports that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki plans to
reshape his cabinet. Specific names and posts to be reorganized have not
been publicly identified, but the prime minister is widely believed to be
dissatisfied with his cabinet's performance in attempting to quell rampant
sectarian
violence.
In the United States, broad public dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq
was credited as a major factor in the outcome of last week's legislative
elections, in which opposition Democrats garnered new majorities in both
houses of Congress.
The likely incoming Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee,
Carl Levin of Michigan, says Democrats will press for a gradual withdrawal
of U.S. forces from Iraq beginning next year.
"There is no military solution in Iraq, there is only a political
solution in Iraq," said Senator Levin. "And the reason we have to tell the
Iraqis that the open-ended commitment is over and we are going to begin to
have a phased withdrawal in four to six months is [that] we have got to
put pressure on them to do what only the Iraqi leaders can do, which is to
work out a political solution."
Senator Levin was speaking on ABC's This Week program.
But the Bush administration continues to insist
that setting a timetable for a troop pullout in Iraq would be disastrous
for the Iraqi people and gravely imperil
the war on terror. White House Chief of Staff
Josh Bolten also appeared on This Week.
"The important thing is that this be done in a way that the Iraqis can
succeed. That we can have a democratic government there that can govern
itself, sustain itself, defend itself, and be an ally in the war on
terror," he noted. "It is hard for me to see how that can be done on a
fixed timetable. It has got to be done based on the conditions on the
ground."
Bolten added, however, that President Bush is open to new ideas on how
to proceed in Iraq, including from Democrats. | 
