McCain Pressures Iraqi Leaders on Gov’t

BAGHDAD, Iraq Mar 25, 2006 (AP)— Sen. John McCain renewed pressure on Iraqi leaders to quickly form a new government in meetings Saturday, while more than 50 people were killed in violence, many in a gunbattle between Shiite militia forces and insurgents south of Baghdad.

McCain, R-Ariz., was in the country with Sen. Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who opposed the war in Iraq, just four days after another powerful group of American politicians traveled here to press Iraqi politicians to overcome their differences.

“The American people, no matter what party they are associated with, want the experiment of democracy to succeed,” McCain said.


Feingold did not speak, but nodded in agreement as McCain spoke about the future of Iraq.

The delegation arrived in Iraq as the Bush administration has been applying extreme pressure on Iraqi politicians to form a government. Washington hopes to begin withdrawing troops this summer, banking on a decrease in violence once a national unity government is in place.

South of the capital, 40 people were killed or wounded in a big gunbattle near Mahmoudiya, police said. Police said gunmen of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia were fighting insurgent forces, which are primarily Sunni Muslim.

Hospital officials reported two civilians were killed when a mortar shell slammed into their house in the town, some 20 miles south of Baghdad.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, has formed a coalition of with Sunni and secular politicians against a second term for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a move that deepened the stalemate more than three months after the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

After a meeting later Saturday with al-Jaafari, McCain said he was aware that Americans and Iraqis both wanted U.S. troops out of the country.

“All Americans and all Iraqis would like to see the United States withdraw but only after the Iraqi people have a government that can guarantee their security, their safety and their future,” McCain said.

Earlier Saturday, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad also told assembled Iraqi athletes assembled at a community sports center that the country was at a “defining moment.”

Published on ABCNews.com