(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-11 11:25

Sunni politicians acknowledged that Iraq's security forces were not ready to defend the country on their own, but challenged al-Maliki's statements that life was improving.

"Al-Maliki was talking about the illusion of improvement in the security situation," Sunni lawmaker Mohammed al-Dayni. "This is just talk ... All streets are blocked with concrete walls and barbed wires ... You can see only few people in the streets. People are living a confused and abnormal life."

Salim Abdullah al-Jubouri, spokesman for the main Sunni bloc in parliament, said the "real solution" to the Iraq crisis was a "fundamental change in the political process," dominated by Shiite religious parties and their Kurdish allies.

Such views appear to be shared by a large number of Iraqis, according to a poll released Monday by ABC News, Britain's BBC, and Japan's public broadcaster NHK. The poll found that 47 percent of those surveyed want US forces and their coalition allies to leave the country immediately and only 39 percent said their lives were going well. Only 25 percent said their own communities have become safer in the past half year.

The poll was conducted August 17 to 24 with 2,212 randomly chosen adult Iraqis from across the country. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

"Things have improved in one respect only," said Qassim Uraibi, a baker from the Shiite enclave of Sadr City. "We have fewer bombs, but everything else is going from bad to worse."

Mustapha Abdul-Razak, a Sunni and retired army officer in Saddam's regime, called the testimony in Washington nothing more than "empty talk."

"It will not change anything," he said. "The Americans are experimenting with our lives."

As politicians spoke of reconciliation, the bloodletting continued.

In the north, a suicide car bomber killed eight people and injured 20 others in an attack near an Iraqi army headquarters near Tall Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, the local mayor Nam Abdullah said.

Also Monday, US and Iraqi troops killed three civilians during a raid in Sadr City, police and residents said.

Bleichwehl, the military spokesman, said the raid targeted a suspected Shiite extremist who eluded capture. He said there were no reports of civilian or military casualties.

But residents showed AP Television News the coffins of the people they said were killed in the raid - a woman and her two daughters. A police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, confirmed they were killed in the firefight.

In Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, US and Iraqi troops killed 12 insurgents in a morning attack, the US said. Three American soldiers were wounded.

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