In Iraq, Syrian Lawmaker Calls for Withdrawal Timetable

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Syria's foreign minister yesterday called for a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces to help end Iraq's sectarian bloodbath, in a ground-breaking diplomatic mission to Iraq that comes amid increasing calls for America to seek cooperation from Syria and Iran. At least 112 people were killed nationwide yesterday, following a week that had already seen hundreds of deaths.

Walid Moallem, the highest-level Syrian official to visit since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein, denounced terrorism in Iraq even as Washington mulled its own overture to Damascus for help in ending Iraq's violence.

Syria and Iraq share a long and porous desert border, and both Baghdad and Washington have accused Damascus of not doing enough to stop the flow of foreign Arab fighters.

Mr. Moallem spoke at the end of a day that saw the killing of at least 33 Shiites by suspected Sunni Muslim bombers and the kidnapping of a deputy health minister — believed the most senior government official abducted in Iraq. Many Sunni attackers are believed to have infiltrated from Syria.

A suicide bomber in the predominantly Shiite city of Hillah, south of Baghdad, lured men to his Kia minivan with promises of a day's work as laborers, then blew it up, killing at least 22 and wounding 44, police said.

A police captain in Babil province, Muthana Khalid, said three suspected terrorists, two Egyptians and an Iraqi, were arrested on suspicion of planning the attack with the bomber, a Syrian.

Within hours, a roadside bomb and two car bombs exploded one after another near a bus station in a mostly Shiite area of southeastern Baghdad, Mashtal, killing 11 and wounding 51, police said.

Besides the victims of the bombings in Hillah and Baghdad, at least 23 other people were killed nationwide. In addition, the bodies of 56 murder victims, many of them tortured, were dumped in three Iraqi cities, 45 of them in Baghdad alone.

Also yesterday, gunmen kidnapped Iraq's deputy health minister from his home in northern Baghdad. The gunmen wore police uniforms and arrived in seven vehicles to abduct Ammar al-Saffar, a Shiite.

In the deep south of Iraq, security forces searching for five private security contractors — four Americans and an Austrian who were kidnapped near the Kuwait border — detained about 200 suspected insurgents, police said yesterday.