Car bombs hit Baghdad as Sunnis say will end boycott

BAGHDAD, Tiuesday (AFP) Sunni Arab leaders were expected to decide Tuesday to end their boycott of constitutional talks after agreement was reached to investigate the murder of two of their number drafting the document.

With just six days left for the constitutional panel to agree on a draft or call for a six-month extension of its mandate, government leaders Monday announced agreement on conditions set by Sunni Arabs for calling off their boycott.

Conditions to end the boycott include better security for representatives of the Sunni minority on the committee, and Sunni participation in a judicial investigation into last week's murder. "We have already asked (the investigating judge) to open the investigation," said parliamentary speaker Hajim al-Hasani.

The Iraqi parliament is still hoping the draft constitution will be ready for debate by the August 1 deadline, despite a delay caused by the boycott, Hasani told AFP.

"The committee will be under pressure over the next six days," Hasani said.

The official end to the boycott was expected early Tuesday at a meeting of Sunni factions.

"I think that given the official statement by parliamentary speaker Hasani there will be agreement on our immediate return" to the panel, Salim Abdallah, a member of the Sunni-based Islamic Party, told AFP.

Meanwhile two suicide car bombers struck in Baghdad.

The first bombing targeted the Al-Sadeer Hotel in the center of the capital, a building used by foreign security personnel which had previously suffered attacks. Six people died and 16 were wounded, mostly hotel security guards. The second bombing targeted a police commando patrol in the west of the city and left two policemen dead and 11 wounded, security officials said,

The attacks followed Sunday's massive suicide truck bombing against a police station in the southeast of the capital that killed 27 and wounded 33, many of them policemen.