BAGHDAD (AP) – Mortar rounds slammed into a Shiite area in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least four people and wounding 14, police said, while sectarian clashes erupted for a fourth consecutive day south of the capital.

In political developments, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani were planning to introduce legislation as early as Tuesday to let former members of Saddam Hussein’s ruling party – including those in the feared security and paramilitary forces – resume jobs in the government, Iraqi officials said.

Long demanded by America to appease Iraq’s once-dominant Sunni Arab minority, the measure would set a three-month challenge period after which ex-Baath party loyalists would be immune from legal punishment for their actions during Saddam’s reign.

The draft law, which excludes former regime members already charged with or sought for crimes, also would grant state pensions to many Baathists, even if they were denied posts in the government or military.

The reconciliation measure is seen as an effort to short-circuit expected criticism of Iraq’s government at an Arab League summit this week. Mr. al-Maliki is said to fear rising support among America-allied Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan for an Iraqi national unity government led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a favorite of Washington.

The legislation is being sent to parliament under the names of Mr. al-Maliki, a Shiite, and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd. Shiites and Kurds make up nearly 80 percent of Iraq’s population and both groups were severely oppressed by Saddam’s largely Sunni regime.

“We present the draft Law of Accountability and Justice to parliament to build an Iraq that is accessible to all Iraqis determined to build a new, democratic Iraq that is far from sectarianism, racism, tyranny, discrimination, exclusion and disenfranchisement,” Messrs. al-Maliki and Talabani said in a joint statement released late Monday.

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who left his post in Baghdad on Monday, issued a statement congratulating the prime minister and president for the draft law.

Mr. Khalilzad said it was important because it would allow many former party members “the opportunity to return to their jobs, provided they were not at the highest levels of the former regime and have not been involved in criminal activity.”

The joint statement from Mr. al-Maliki and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said the measure had been put to Mr. al-Maliki’s Cabinet for approval but did not give details of the draft law or say when it would go to the legislature.

Iraqi officials, however, said the measure could reach the floor of the legislature as early as Tuesday. The officials agreed to discuss the draft only if not quoted by name because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

The mortar attack occurred about 9:45 a.m. in Abu Dasheer, a Shiite enclave in the Sunni-dominated Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad. Police said those killed included two children, a woman and a man. It was the second mortar attack on the enclave in three days – three people were killed on Saturday.

In Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, suspected Shiite militants broke into a Sunni mosque about 4 a.m. and planted explosives that damaged the gate and a fence, police said.

Clashes broke out about an hour later, leaving four Sunni militants dead and one Shiite militant wounded, police said. Authorities had imposed a vehicle ban on Monday after similar attacks.

Those were followed by a mortar attack on a nearby Shiite mosque. The rounds landed in a courtyard and did not damage the mosque, although a pedestrian was wounded.

It was the fourth day in a row that mosques were targeted and clashes erupted in the religiously mixed area. The violence started on Sunday when suspected Shiite militants attacked a Sunni mosque in Haswa, in apparent retaliation for a suicide truck bombing against a Shiite mosque in the city that killed 11 people on Saturday.

The violence came a day after Khalilzad expressed cautious optimism about Iraq’s progress but warned that Americans were growing impatient with the war. He also said Americans are in ongoing talks with insurgent representatives to try to persuade them to turn against Al Qaeda.

“In my view, though difficult challenges lie ahead and there is a long way to go, Iraq is fundamentally headed in the right direction and success is possible,” he said, pointing to a nearly 25 percent reduction in violence during a six-week-old security crackdown in Baghdad as well as economic progress.

The American military also announced on Monday the capture of leaders of a car-bombing ring blamed for killing hundreds of Iraqis.

The American command said one of the car-bombers, Haitham al-Shimari, was suspected in the “planning and execution of the majority of car bombs which have killed hundreds of Iraqi citizens in Sadr City,” a Shiite enclave of Baghdad.

Another, identified as Haidar al-Jafar, was second-in-command of a cell that killed some 900 “innocent” Iraqis and wounded almost 2,000, the military said. Three other men believed connected to that cell also were in custody.

The suspected bombers were rounded up last week by American forces during continuing security sweeps in Azamiyah, the Sunni stronghold in northern Baghdad, the military statement said.