Blast Outside Shrine in Najaf Kills at Least 13, Ruins Tombs

Najaf is a base of at least two of the increasingly rivalrous Shiite religious parties now governing Iraq, including that of militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Sadr in recent weeks has become the last major supporter of Jafari, whose nomination to remain as prime minister in Iraq's next government is opposed by a growing number of critics who call him an ineffective and polarizing figure.

Jafari continued to refuse to step down Thursday, insisting that he is the Shiites' legitimate nominee. "I am defending democracy. I will adhere to the results of democracy," he said at a news conference.

Sadr's camp remained equally adamant. "We will stick to the end with the candidate of the alliance, and we are not bargaining," Riyadh al-Nouri, head of the political committee of Sadr's bloc, said in Najaf.

In violence targeting another heavily guarded city, a suicide car bomb exploded Wednesday night at a U.S. and Iraqi military checkpoint leading into the western city of Fallujah, killing 10 civilians and wounding three Iraqi soldiers.

Since U.S. forces waged a major assault on the city in November 2004 in an attempt to drive out insurgents, Fallujah has been largely sealed off to prevent them from returning. But despite the well-guarded checkpoints on the few access roads into the city, armed groups have maintained a presence there.

An Iraqi army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the blast occurred in a line of cars being searched as they entered the city.

The insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq asserted responsibility for the attack in postings placed in some of the city's mosques. The group said its intended targets were U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, not civilians.

Meanwhile, the bodies of six Iraqis were found on the main highway in the Ghazaliya neighborhood in western Baghdad, said Capt. Sami Hassan, a spokesman for the Baghdad police. Hassan said the six were "handcuffed, blindfolded and shot dead in the head."

In Baghdad's al-Salaam neighborhood, two roadside bombs targeting a police patrol killed three officers and wounded five, Hassan said.

In Iskandariyah, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, armed men in two cars sprayed bullets at a minibus carrying civilians, killing five, said Capt. Muthanna Ahmed, a spokesman for the Babil province police.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the political party of President Jalal Talabani, announced that eight graves were discovered Wednesday near the villages of al-Asri and Tubzawa in Kurdish-populated northern Iraq. A statement by the party said the graves held "1,000 remains."

"Most of the remains belonged to Kurds, Christians and Turkomen, including people executed after the 1991 uprising," the statement said, without elaborating. After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi military crushed a Kurdish rebellion against Saddam Hussein's rule.

Hussein and seven co-defendants are on trial for the executions of 148 men and boys in Dujail, north of Baghdad, following an attempt to assassinate him in 1982.

Hussein was cross-examined Wednesday and acknowledged approving death warrants for people he said took part in the attempt on his life. He did not appear Thursday, when prosecutors cross-examined Awad Haman al-Bander, the former chief of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, who tried and condemned the Dujail defendants in a 16-day proceeding.

During Hussein's rule, many Iraqis saw the Revolutionary Court as a rubber stamp for whatever verdict and punishment he ordered. Part of the prosecution's case is intended to show that the court was not legitimate and that Bander and Hussein approved summary executions.

Bander insisted Thursday that all of the suspects had confessed, adding that many of the defendants acknowledged their membership in the Dawa party. At the time, membership in Dawa carried the death penalty; today the prime minister of Iraq, Jafari, is the head of the party.

"It was a legal and a just court," Bander said. "I was keen to carry out justice, and I hoped that the defendants would be found not guilty. . . . May God be my witness, it made us happy whenever a defendant was released." None of the defendants in the Dujail case was released, however; 46 died during interrogation.

Correspondents Jonathan Finer in Najaf and John Ward Anderson in Baghdad, special correspondent Bassam Sebti in Baghdad and other Washington Post staff members contributed to this report.