However, Ali Adnan, spokesman for the Dawa party, one of the main groups in the Shiite political coalition, said Thursday, "The final draft [of an agreement] was reached yesterday. They are revising it today."
Insurgent attacks on Iraqi security units and U.S. and foreign forces stationed in Iraq continued Thursday morning with the ambush killing in Baghdad of a top police official, Lt. Col. Ahmed Obais, his driver and a bodyguard. Obais was being driven to work when the assassins struck.
Kadim Obais clutches the shoe of his brother, Lt. Col. Ahmed Obais, a Baghdad police official shot dead in his pickup.
(Khalid Mohammed -- AP)
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Iraq War Deaths
Total number of U.S. military deaths and names of the U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war as announced by the Pentagon yesterday:
1,506 Fatalities
In hostile actions: 1,151
In non-hostile actions: 355
Sgt. Seth K. Garceau, 27, of Oelwein, Iowa; Army National Guard's 224th Engineer Battalion, 155th Brigade Combat Team, based in Fairfield, Iowa. Died March 4 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany of injuries received in combat in Ramadi.
Total fatalities include four civilian employees of the Defense Department.
A full list of casualties is available online at www.washingtonpost.com/nation
SOURCE: Defense Department's www.defenselink.mil/newsThe Washington Post
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Maj. Abdul Wahab Ahmed Ali, who worked under Obais at the Salhiya police station in central Baghdad, said the chief had "expected such an end. In fact, all of us expect to have the same fate. We are here to be martyrs -- not them."
Ali said Obais's white Toyota pickup was attacked about 7 a.m. near his home in the Turath neighborhood of northwestern Baghdad. He said four masked gunmen in a white Kia sedan apparently trailed Obais's vehicle from near his home, forced it to stop and then sprayed it with bullets.
"This was a cowardly act," Ali said. "The lieutenant colonel was a good man, honorable, brave and committed to his job and the people." He said Obais, 45, had three children.
The drive-by shooting suggests that even high-ranking security officials are not beyond the reach of insurgents adept at both indiscriminate suicide bombings and pinpoint assassinations.
Ordinary Iraqis express fear and anger at the risks they face daily.
"I thank my God every day for my safety when I get back home," said Huda Farhan, 20, a teacher in western Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood who said her husband keeps telling her to quit her job. "I am always afraid, because I have lost my trust in the security forces."
Anderson reported from Baghdad. Staff writer Caryle Murphy and special correspondents Bassam Sebti and Naseer Nouri contributed to this report.
