45 Iraqis, GI killed in Last Two Days, For Future Memorial Days

BAGHDAD, Iraq(AP) Two of Iraq's most influential Shiite and Sunni organizations agreed Saturday to try to ease sectarian tensions pushing the country toward civil war as the government prepared to take its battle against the insurgency to Baghdad's streets.

The new effort to make peace came as attacks killed a U.S. soldier and at least 45 Iraqis over the past two days _ including 10 people returning from a religious pilgrimage in Syria whose bodies were left in the border city of Qaim, as well as three suicide bombers and three men killed when a roadside bomb they planted exploded prematurely.

"We are all Muslims, and usually problems happen between one family. We want to solve them on the basis of Islamic brotherhood," said one Sunni official, Isam Al Rawi.

In an Internet message, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Al-Qaida in Iraq on Saturday launched a tirade against Shiites, accusing them of targeting Islam and especially Sunni Muslims in what appeared to be an attempt to stoke hatreds and sectarian violence.