20 Die as Gunmen Descend on Village

Separately, Turks Report Attack on Kurds

BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 -- Dozens of gunmen overran a Shiite village north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 20 people, police said, the latest in a recent spike in attacks in Diyala province, where the U.S. military is rotating some troops out and moving others in.

Meanwhile, the Turkish military reported that it had attacked as many as 60 Kurdish guerrillas inside Iraq, saying that it inflicted "significant losses." And in Baghdad, top Sunni lawmakers staged a walkout of Saturday's parliamentary session to protest the government's treatment of their leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, who said he had been placed under house arrest Friday. U.S. and Iraqi authorities raided Dulaimi's office compound Thursday and Friday, detaining dozens of employees and his son, and alleging that one of Dulaimi's guards held the keys to a vehicle rigged with explosives discovered nearby.

All three developments underscored the instability that persists in Iraq even as violence has decreased.

The assault on Duwaili village, 45 miles north of Baghdad, began at 6.30 a.m. with a barrage of mortar shells, police said. Gangs of suspected members of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq entered the village, opening fire on civilians and torching homes, said Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Rubaiee, a police commander in Diyala province. The village, he said, was also attacked several months ago.

Muhammad Salman al-Zaidi, 54, a tribal elder, said his village was struck again because the U.S. military had recently withdrawn soldiers from the nearby town of Muqdadiyah. Iraqi security forces, he added, were not ready to take over responsibility for the area's security.

Last week, a suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint in Diyala's capital, Baqubah, killing seven people, including five policemen. Another suicide bomber blew herself up near a U.S. patrol, injuring seven U.S. soldiers and five Iraqi civilians. On Nov. 18, a suicide bomber killed three U.S. soldiers.

Col. Ali Ismail Fattah, a senior police commander, said violence has escalated northeast of Baqubah because al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgents have sensed an opportunity as U.S. troops pull out.

"I do not know why they withdrew the American brigade at this time," he said. "This showed that Iraqi forces are not ready yet to fight the terrorism alone by themselves."

U.S. military officials said they expect al-Qaeda in Iraq to fight back. "I wouldn't read too much into it yet," cautioned a senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We know there will be tough days and weeks ahead. Diyala is still a very tough area, so this isn't what anyone here would call a surprise. Attacks and spikes of attacks are going to happen."

But U.S. military officials insisted that the uptick in violence was not related to the U.S. troop shifts in the province. About 5,000 troops in a combat brigade are heading back to the United States and being replaced by another brigade, a process that will actually leave more troops in the province, they said.

"It has nothing to do with troop movements inside or outside Diyala," said Capt. Vic Beck, a military spokesman, referring to the violence. "There are good days and bad days. The fight is far from over."

In Turkey, the military reported on its Web site that its soldiers had crossed into Iraq and conducted an "intensified operation" against guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

"The terrorist group suffered significant losses as a result of the operation," the statement said. "If necessary, there will be other operations in the region using other means."

U.S. military officials said they were not aware of such a Turkish attack. Col. Hussein Tamor, head of the Iraqi border protection agency in northern Dahuk province, said there were no signs of Turkish troops crossing the border.

"None of the border points at the province of Dahuk have reported any Turkish incursion or military operation," he said.

The reported attack came a day after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the government had given permission for an offensive in northern Iraq against the PKK, which has staged cross-border raids for years into Turkey, seeking more rights for Kurds. Turkey has massed an estimated 100,000 troops along the border and has been shelling the mountains of north Iraq, where PKK fighters have sought sanctuary.

In Baghdad, Dulaimi, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, alleged that Iraq's Shiite-led government prevented him from leaving his home to attend a session of parliament. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh denied the assertion, but stated that Dulaimi would face Iraq's legal system.

"Everyone is subject to the law, whether he is a lawmaker or not, and the government is adamant to be objective and neutral in dealing with this issue," Dabbagh said on state television.

On Saturday, Dulaimi said the car bomb had been parked near his office, not inside the compound. He promised that if any of his guards were found to be involved in illegal acts, they would be punished.

"We do not support terrorism because we are participating in the political process and we should all work to make the political process succeed," Dulaimi told Iraqi state television.

But in Iraq's parliament on Saturday, Sunni and Shiite lawmakers were trading accusations over Dulaimi. The furor threatened to deepen the sectarian rift at a time when U.S. officials are pressuring Iraqi politicians to seize advantage of the downturn in violence and reach power-sharing agreements.

Staff writer Karen DeYoung and special correspondents Naseer Nouri and Saad al-Izzi in Baghdad and Dlovan Brwari in Mosul contributed to this report.