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Iraqi rebels in western city turn against Qaeda

BAGHDAD, Tuesday (Reuters) Iraqi nationalist rebels in the Sunni Arab city of Ramadi have turned against their former al Qaeda allies after a bomb attack this month killed 80 people.

Residents said on Monday at least three prominent figures on both sides were killed in tit-for-tat assassinations after local insurgent groups formed an alliance against al Qaeda, blaming it for massacring police recruits in Ramadi on Jan. 5.

In Baghdad, bomb blasts killed five Iraqi policemen and a U.S. soldier despite a security clampdown on the capital to thwart attacks by Sunni Arab rebels angry over election results.

The attacks took place the day before the trial of Saddam Hussein was due to resume.

The Ramadi bloodshed, which one resident described as "all-out war", has taken place as political parties prepare for talks on forming a coalition government the United States hopes will undermine support for a Sunni Arab insurgency.

Since U.S. forces overthrew Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated government in 2003, disparate Iraqi groups have made common cause with foreign Islamists like al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, seeking to force out U.S. troops and bring down the U.S.-backed government of Shi'ites and Kurds. But there are signs that their goals may be diverging, with some nationalists seeing political negotiation in Baghdad as a way of attaining some of their goals.

Despite increased security throughout Baghdad, a suicide car bomber struck a checkpoint into the Green Zone government compound, close to the Iranian embassy, killing two policemen and a television sports journalist.

Bombs killed two more policemen and a U.S. soldier in four other attacks in the capital. Several mortar bombs fell short of the Green Zone into a park that also houses Baghdad zoo and an amusement park. Police said no one was injured.

Iraq's Interior Ministry said a security clampdown in the capital was still in force, amid fears of a spike in insurgent violence as political parties gear up for negotiations on a coalition government of national unity.

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