IRAQ:A suicide-bomber struck yesterday at a gathering of Sunni Arab tribal leaders meeting in a Baghdad hotel, one of five suicide attacks that left at least 40 people dead across the country.
The blast in the Mansour Hotel killed four members of the Anbar Salvation Council, an alliance of sheikhs which has co-operated with US forces against the radical al-Qaeda movement, along with at least eight other Iraqis.
The hotel is heavily guarded, as it is home to one of the sheikhs killed in the explosion, and to other Iraqi politicians as well as to western news agencies and the Chinese embassy. Nonetheless, according to police quoted by news agencies, the bomber managed to enter the lobby and detonate his explosive vest.
The deaths of the four sheikhs may be a setback to US plans to rally tribal leaders and former insurgents against al-Qaeda.
The tribal coalition has suffered deadly al-Qaeda attacks in the past, some of which appeared to have helped prompt the sheikhs to mobilise against the radicals.
Yesterday's attack comes at a time of internal dissension within the movement, with some members known to have accused a coalition founder-member, Abd al-Sittar al-Rishawi, of seeking to use US support for his personal aggrandisement.
It also coincides with one of the largest offensives by coalition forces since the 2003 invasion.
Thousands of US and Iraqi troops are targeting al-Qaeda strongholds in the province of Diala, north-east of Baghdad. US officers said that between 60 and 100 al-Qaeda fighters had been killed in "Operation Arrowhead Ripper" - one of a series of operations which began about a week ago, striking at militants in provincial towns around the capital.
The US military says that 50 to 100 more insurgents are surrounded inside their former base in Baqouba.
Such large offensives have been relatively successful in breaking up insurgent strongholds in Iraqi towns. However, the Iraqi government often has problems in consolidating its authority once the main concentrations of militants are broken up - a problem alluded to by one of the US commanders heading the operation.
Brig-Gen Mick Bednarek told the Associated Press this week that Iraqi forces were "not quite up to the job yet" - in some cases lacking ammunition. Iraqi soldiers frequently complain that they are inadequately supplied, which saps morale. Iraqi politicians, meanwhile, called on the US military to provide advanced equipment.
US officers have suggested in the past, however, that the main problem is the failure of the Iraqi military bureaucracy to get equipment to the frontline units.
Most observers agree that the Iraqi military needs to be better-trained and more numerous.