Bomber kills 25 at Iraq peace conference

[cali]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 25 people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide car bombing targeting a national reconciliation conference in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.


Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has urged sheikhs of the nation's tribes to join his government.

Tuesday's attack on a municipal building of Abu Ghraib in western Baghdad came as tribal leaders were attending the conference, the official said.

The bombing came three days after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki rallied sheikhs of the nation's tribes to participate in Iraq's government.

It was the latest official effort to further reconciliation among Sunnis, Shiites and tribes of different sects and bring some former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party into the political fold.

Addressing conference members for sheikhs of Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen tribes in Iraq, al-Maliki said as violence subsides, all Iraqis should embrace change.

"The security in Iraq has settled down at level that allowed leaders of tribes to come from everywhere," said al-Maliki.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/10/iraq.bomb.reconciliation/?iref=mpstoryview