Iraq Violence Kills at Least 41 People

An Iraqi man mourns sitting next to the body of his relative, killed in a drive by shooting, in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday Sept.18, 2006. Bombers and gunmen killed eight people in the tense city north east of Baghdad Monday as Iraqi security forces prepared to further tighten security ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, when violence traditionally spikes across Iraq. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) (Hadi Mizban - AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Bombers and gunmen killed at least 41 people and wounded dozens across Iraq on Monday, while parliament leaders again put off debate on legislation that some Iraqis fear could threaten the country's unity and bring even more violence.

On Tuesday, the U.S. military command said that two U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq, one by a roadside bomb and the other after being shot.

Both soldiers died on Sunday afternoon. One was killed by small arms fire in north-central Baghdad, while the other died after his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in the northeastern part of the capital, the military command said in a statement.

The identities of the two soldiers were not released while military authorities contact their families.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military relinquished control of a second Iraqi army division as Iraqi officials prepared to further tighten security ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when insurgent attacks tend to spike.

In a positive development for Iraq's leaders, predominantly Sunni Arab tribes in a volatile western province have joined to fight insurgents in the region and want the government and the U.S.-led coalition to supply them with weapons, a tribal leader said.

Tribal leaders and clerics in Ramadi, capital of violent Anbar province, met last week and set up a force of about 20,000 men "ready to purge the city of these infidels," Sheik Fassal al-Guood, a tribal leader from Ramadi, told The Associated Press.

"People are fed up with the acts of those criminals who take Islam as a cover for their crimes," he said. "The situation in the province is unbearable, the city is abandoned, most of the families have fled the city and all services are poor."

An indication of the situation came Monday when two suicide car bombers attacked a police station in Ramadi, killing at least two police officers and wounding 26 people, the Interior Ministry and U.S. military said. Al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera television put the death toll much higher, saying 13 people were killed.

A suicide bomber also struck in Tal Afar, a city 260 miles northwest of Baghdad that has seen much insurgent activity in the past, killing at least 20 people and wounding 17. Bombings and shootings in and around Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital, killed 12 people.

At least six more people died in other incidents around Iraq, and authorities found at least five bodies, including two women, that probably were victims of the sectarian reprisal killings being waged between Shiite and Sunni Arabs.

In Baghdad, political leaders from Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab groups met to discuss the federalism bill submitted to parliament this month by the largest Shiite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance. They canceled a formal parliament debate scheduled for Tuesday.