BAGHDAD, Iraq – Gunmen assassinated a Sunni community leader Tuesday in the former extremist stronghold of Fallujah, and bombs and bullets killed at least 11 other people, including four Marines who died in two bombings in western Anbar province.
Sheik Kamal Nazal, a Sunni preacher and chairman of the Fallujah city council, was gunned down in a hail of bullets from two passing cars as he walked to work, police chief Brig. Hudairi al-Janabi said.
In January, Nazal welcomed Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad to Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Three Marines assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit were killed Monday in a bombing in Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. The other Marine, attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, died from wounds caused by a bombing Sunday in an unspecified location in Anbar.
The deaths bring the number of U.S. military personnel killed to at least 2,257 since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Meanwhile, the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the National Guard and Reserves will play a much smaller role next year in Iraq and Afghanistan, dropping to less than one-fifth of overall U.S. forces there.
Gen. Peter Pace told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Guard and Reserves troops will make up just 19 percent of the forces deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan over the next year. Currently, they make up about 30 percent of U.S. forces in those countries, Pace said.
There are now about 138,000 American troops in Iraq and 19,000 more in Afghanistan.
In London, Defense Secretary John Reid said British troops may be able to start leaving if Iraq’s newly elected government can take stronger control of the country’s security this year.
Reid would not comment on numbers or dates, saying “to do so would be to invite chaos.” Britain has about 8,000 soldiers in Iraq, most in or near the southern city of Basra.
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