Iraqi Politicians Warn Against Pullout

On Monday, Zebari said Iraq's government cannot dispatch troops to secure the border with Turkey because they were already stretched by fighting the insurgency in Baghdad and nearby Diyala province.

"Our military forces are over-occupied with securing the streets," he said, "and we do not have forces enough to open a new front."

For 23 years, Turkey has been fighting separatist Kurdish rebels belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a group that the United States has designated as a terrorist organization. The Turkish government has long complained that Iraq's Kurdish authorities have done little to stop the separatist fighters. In recent months, the Turkish government has said it would stage cross-border incursions if needed.

Zebari said that Turkey's "fears are legitimate" but that "the perfect solution is the withdrawal of the Turkish forces from the borders," followed by diplomatic negotiations involving the United States, Iraq and Turkey.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said there was "a substantial presence of Turkish troops that are engaged in counterterrorism operations" in southeast Turkey. Such a deployment, he said, was not unusual because the Kurdistan Workers' Party typically stages attacks in the spring. He expressed skepticism about Zebari's 140,000 figure.

"I would steer you away from that number of troops being immediately along the border," McCormack said.

Also Monday, a car bomb exploded near a restaurant in the Harithiya district of central Baghdad, killing eight people and injuring five, police said.

In Balad, about 50 miles north of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol, followed by an assault by gunmen, police said. The clashes claimed the lives of nine soldiers and wounded 21. Across Baghdad on Monday, police said they found 17 unidentified corpses, most blindfolded and shot in the head and chest.

Special correspondents Saad al-Izzi, K.I. Ibrahim and Dahlia Farooq contributed to this report.