Al-Qaida in Iraq Warns Sunnis on Jobs

A woman and her relatives are seen waiting as a soldier from Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division searches her home for men suspected of involvement in an IED cell in Mosul, Iraq 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad Saturday, May 5, 2007. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo) (Maya Alleruzzo - AP)

Iraqi security forces are frequently targeted by Sunni insurgents who accuse them of collaborating with U.S.-led efforts to stabilize the country.

U.S. officials say a growing number of Sunni tribes are turning against al-Qaida, particularly in the western Anbar province, as they are repelled by the group's brutality and religious extremism.

The military has blamed the terror network for a series of recent car bombs and suicide attacks that have killed hundreds despite stepped up security in the capital.

Elsewhere, a suicide car bomber tore through a police station in western Baghdad, killing a policeman. The bullet-riddled bodies of five policemen dressed in civilian clothes were found late Friday in a deserted field north of Baghdad, with identity documents showing they were from the Sunni city of Ramadi.

At least 50 other Iraqi civilians were killed or found dead on Saturday, including three youths who died in a mortar attack while they were playing soccer in a southern Shiite enclave in Baghdad and two people killed when a bomb hidden under a car exploded in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Karradah in the center of the capital.

The bodies of 29 people who were apparently shot to death by so-called sectarian death squads also were found in Baghdad and other cities, including that of a Sunni surgeon who had been kidnapped three days ago in the northern city of Mosul

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, on a trip to Baghdad with other lawmakers, said Saturday that she is not convinced that the Iraqi leaders have a sense of urgency about achieving political reconciliation. She said she told Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the country's most powerful Shiite political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, that the Iraqi parliament should refrain from taking a recess this summer.

"As we are doing the military surge, we should have a political surge by the government," Snowe said on a conference call with reporters. "They (U.S. troops) should not be on the front lines while the parliament is at recess for two months."

Snowe said al-Hakim told her no decision had been made but he expected parliament to cut short its recess.