Iraq Watch: August 4, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military announced the deaths of four more service members killed in action on Thursday. Thee soldiers were killed in a car bombing in southwest Baghdad last night. Also, a marine was killed by small-arms fire near Ar Ramadi yesterday.

In further violence on Thursday, at least four people, including two clerics, were killed when a car bomb exploded near a delegation of the Mahdi Army, the group led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, in the city of Daquq, about 20 miles south of Kirkuk.

Earlier Thursday, thee Iraqi policemen were killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Also, an aide to Iraqi Nationl Congress leader and current Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi was shot to death inside his Baghdad home after gunmen stormed his house early this morning. Haider Mohammed Ali al-Dujaili headed the public relations department for the one-time Washingtion favorite Chalabi.

Insurgents attacked an Iraqi army patrol Thursday morning in the city of Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing at least four soldiers. Near Samarra, three more soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing.

Elsewhere, at least four people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint near the city of Baquba, about 40 miles north of Baghdad.

In an effort to combat the relentless violence plaguing Iraq, Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari today unveiled a new 12-point plan to help better fight extremists. Few details of the plan were made public but the AP reports that it includes steps to improve intelligence, protect Iraqi infrastructure, and prevent foreign fighters from crossing into Iraq.