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Iraqi politicians say government is failing

Story Highlights

• Iraqi lawmakers blame government's weakness on structural problems
• Dual suicide car bombers in Diyala province kill nine U.S. soldiers, wound 20
• Insurgent group claims responsibility for deadly bombings at U.S. base
• Truck bomb kills at least 15 north of Ramadi in Anbar province
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi politicians -- frustrated by violence throughout the country and the glacial pace of parliamentary lawmaking -- say the nearly one-year-old government is failing.

Iraqi lawmakers told CNN the government's impotence and inability to bring peace to the chaotic environment is basically structural, and not the product of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator, was quoted in the USA Today newspaper as describing al-Maliki as weak, but in an interview with CNN, he said, "It's not Maliki, it's the whole government."

That government, he said, is failing on many fronts, such as providing security, fostering reconciliation and offering public services. (Watch patrol in 'no man's land' help dying woman )

He believes Iraq, not the U.S. government, should set deadlines for goals, and the government must "deliver" them or resign.

Hasan al-Shimmari, a Shiite member of the United Iraqi Alliance's Fadhila party, said the government is weak because the political process and the government's structure are "based on partisan allocation of ministries."

"The Maliki government should be strengthened by correcting the political process and allocating ministries democratically," he said.

Hasan al-Sneid, a UIA parliament member who is close to al-Maliki, blamed political forces and parliament for problems, but he praised al-Maliki's efforts to foster reconciliation among Sunnis and Shiites.

Another legislator pointed to Baghdad's two-month-old security plan as evidence of the government's inefficiency.

The plan is "not working," according to Maysoon al-Damalouji, a secular Sunni lawmaker.

She said many people believed that services would be restored to neighborhoods "cleansed" by U.S. and Iraqi troops. However, once troops leave a cleansed region, militias move back in and take revenge on people who have cooperated with the troops.

Al-Damalouji believes that the essential problem is the division of parties by sectarian affiliation.

Suicide bombers kill 9 U.S. soldiers

Nine U.S. paratroopers were killed Monday when a pair of suicide bombers attacked a small U.S. patrol base in Diyala province, the U.S. military said. (Watch how Diyala province is becoming a major battleground )

It was the deadliest attack on U.S. ground forces in Iraq since December 2005.

U.S. military officials said initial reports indicate insurgents used two 30-ton dump trucks full of explosives to attack what they call a combat outpost. The massive blast resulted in the northern and western walls of the compound collapsing. Remains of several troops were recovered from the rubble.

An additional 20 U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack.

The direct assault is a departure from the usual tactics of the insurgents, who in the past have been more inclined to use hit-and-run sniper attacks, or launch mortars from a distance.

The Islamic State of Iraq, the insurgent umbrella group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack in a posting on an Islamist Web site.

The same insurgent group claimed responsibility for the suicide attack at Iraq's parliament complex two weeks ago.

The insurgents said that the U.S. confirmation of the Diyala attack "is a rare confession by the Americans about an operation against their soldiers" and that "God guided the soldiers of ISI to a new method of explosion."

The Diyala region is emerging as a major battleground in the Iraq war, along with Baghdad and Anbar province, with insurgents shifting their operations into the area.

The Diyala attack has jolted the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where all the dead and wounded soldiers are based, according to the U.S. military.

A Fort Bragg spokesman, Maj. Tom Earnhardt, said the Diyala attack is "the worst incident we've had in the whole global war on terrorism."

Other developments

  • At least 15 people were killed and 25 were wounded Tuesday in a suicide truck bombing north of Ramadi, police in the Anbar provincial capital said. The bomber struck a police patrol, killing at least four officers. Women and children were among those wounded, police said.
  • President Bush said Tuesday he will veto a war spending bill that sets a deadline for U.S. troop withdrawals to begin. The House of Representatives and Senate agreed Monday on a bill that requires a pullout of troops to begin by October 1. (Full story)
  • Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad on Monday to protest a concrete wall surrounding Adhamiya, a Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. The U.S. and Iraqi militaries said the wall is a temporary structure to prevent insurgent attacks. But many Baghdad residents fear walls will exacerbate the sectarian divide fueling the insurgency in the Iraqi capital. (Watch why the wall is controversial )
  • CNN's Yousif Bassil, Arwa Damon, Jomana Karadsheh, Octavia Nasr, Jomana Karadsheh and Brian Todd contributed to this report.


    A U.S. soldier takes photographs where a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Baghdad restaurant Monday.

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    SPECIAL REPORT

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