BAGHDAD, October 14, 2008 -- An American soldier was killed Tuesday by gunfire in western Baghdad, the U.S. military said, the first U.S. combat death in the capital in two weeks.
Five Sunni insurgent organizations, meanwhile, have issued statements disavowing attacks on Iraqi Christians in Mosul, a monitoring service reported Tuesday. The attacks, widely blamed on al-Qaida in Iraq, have prompted thousands of Christians to flee the northern city.
A U.S. statement said the soldier, whose name was not released, was wounded when gunmen opened fire on a U.S. patrol late Tuesday afternoon. The soldier was rushed to a hospital by helicopter but died of the wounds, the statement said.
It was the first combat death suffered by American forces in the capital since September 30, when the military said a soldier was killed by small arms fire in northern Baghdad.
Seven U.S. troops have died in Iraq this month, all but two of them in combat.
Those figures are well below monthly levels of last year, reflecting the sharp decline in violence and the increasing role of Iraqi forces in security operations.
The trend toward a bigger role for Iraqis would accelerate under a security agreement which the U.S. and Iraq have been negotiating for months. The agreement would hand over control of Baghdad and other cities to the Iraqis by the end of June, with American forces out of the country by Dec. 31, 2011 unless the Baghdad government asks them to stay, Iraqi officials say.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to talk about secret negotiations. The agreement would replace the U.N. mandate that expires at the end of the year.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki briefed the national president and the two vice presidents on the draft agreement Tuesday, a government statement said. The statement did not say whether the draft resolved the contentious issue of legal immunity for U.S. troops, the last major obstacle standing in the way of a final agreement.
As talks with the Americans approached an end, neighboring Turkey reached out to Iraq's top Kurdish leader, urging him to crack down on the Kurdish guerrillas launching cross-border attacks from their Iraqi mountain sanctuaries.
A Turkish delegation met Massoud Barzani, president of the three-province semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, in Baghdad. It was the first direct talks in four years between Turkey and Barzani, whose self-ruled administration controls security in the border area with Turkey.
Turkey has been pressing the Iraqi Kurdish administration to cut supply lines in its territory used by the guerillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey, and to arrest and hand over its leaders who live across the border in Iraq.
Turkish pressure has increased since PKK rebels killed 17 Turkish soldiers on the Turkey-Iraq border earlier this month. Iraqi Kurdish authorities condemned the October 3 attack but the Turks are demanding more.
The Tuesday meeting took place in the U.S.-protected Green Zone and lasted about two hours, Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency reported. No substantive details were available.
The PKK, branded a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984. Tens of thousands of people have been killed.
The statements disavowing attacks on Christians were issued separately this week by five insurgent groups and reported Tuesday by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi Web sites.
The five were Jihad and Change Front, Hamas-Iraq, JAMI, the Mustafa Army, and the Islamic Army in Iraq, SITE said. They blamed the attacks on "the occupier," meaning the U.S., for seeking to discredit the insurgency.
An estimated 4,400 Christians have sought refuge in Christian villages after 10 Christians were slain in Mosul this month, according to local officials.
Many Christians believe the violence has been carried out against them by Islamic zealots of al-Qaida, although some Iraqi police officials suspect criminal gangs seeking ransoms.
One Christian family said it fled to the Christian town of Bartola after receiving a written demand for "tribute to the mujahedeen." The letter was signed by the "Islamic State," an al-Qaida front group.
Family members spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their lives.
Local officials in the Mosul area appealed Tuesday to international organizations to help the Christians.
About 50 families, or 300 people, were sheltering Tuesday in the Sayada monastery outside Mosul, priests said.
Associated Press Television News video showed the Iraqi Red Crescent, the Muslim version of the Red Cross, delivering food and water to Christians there.