Iraq Gunmen Seize 24 People, Killing 20

Local Iraqi shop owners gather around the site of a suicide bomber's attack, Wednesday, July 12, 2006, in Baghdad, Iraq. A suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing seven people and wounding 31, police said. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban) (Samir Mizban - AP)

`What we are seeing now as a counter to that is death squads, primarily from Shiite extremist groups that are retaliating against civilians," Casey said. "So you have both sides now attacking civilians, and that is what has caused the recent spike in violence here in Baghdad."

Casey said he was consulting with the Iraqi government on means of counteracting the violence. Asked whether that might include putting more U.S. troops in the Baghdad area, Casey replied, "It may, yes."

Casey and Rumsfeld were meeting later with al-Malaki.

Rumsfeld said earlier Wednesday on an unannounced visit to an air base north of Baghdad the new Iraqi government is not yet ready to decide on security issues that will determine the pace of U.S. troop reductions this year.

Muqdadiyah was the site of a recent Iraqi military operation aimed at stopping an increase in insurgent activity in the mostly rural area, where sectarian tensions run high.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni political group, complained last week that U.S. and Iraqi troops had surrounded 15 mostly Sunni villages near the city and called on them to allow the entry of food and medicine and to compensate farmers for damage to their crops.

Shiite lawmaker Sheik Jalaluddin al-Saghir told a session of parliament that 50 to 60 Shiites were abducted. But police in Diyala province, where Muqdadiyah is located, later put the figure at 24 and said it included Shiites and Sunnis.

Also Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in the southeastern mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood of New Baghdad, killing eight people and wounding 30, police chief Col. Ahmed Aboud said.

Gunmen on a motorcycles killed a former member of the ousted Baath Party and a taxi driver in separate attacks in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad.

A parked car bomb also exploded near an Iraqi army base in Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad, wounding eight people, while gunmen attacked an army patrol to the north of the capital, wounding four soldiers, police said.

Despite the sectarian bloodshed, fliers were circulated in a predominantly Sunni area north of Baghdad, urging Shiite families not to flee and warning people not to hurt members of the majority sect. The fliers were purported signed by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of several Islamic extremist groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq.

In another positive sign, the Iraqi Accordance Front, the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, lifted its legislative boycott and attended Wednesday's session. It thanked the parliament for its help in seeking the release of kidnapped legislator Tayseer al-Mashhadani and called for a new spirit of cooperation.