2 Marines slain in western Iraq

Two U.S. Marines were killed in Iraq’s embattled western Al Anbar province, the military said Friday.

The two Marines, assigned to Regimental Combat Teams 5 and 7, were fatally wounded in combat Thursday, a statement said.

More U.S.-led coalition troops have died in Al Anbar than in any other province, about 37% of all deaths since 2003, according to www.icasualties.org, which tracks casualties in the conflict.

The military also announced that a soldier assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division in northern Nineveh province was killed Tuesday by enemy fire. Two soldiers were injured in the attack, it said.

This week’s deaths bring the total number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to 2,942, according to www.icasualties.org.Elsewhere in Al Anbar, two suicide bombs exploded at noon in central Ramadi near an Iraqi government building that issues identification cards, according to traffic police officer Wisam Ahmed Ali. Wire reports said four people died.

Also on Friday, gunmen in the southern city of Basra killed Shiite Muslim tribal leader Muhsin Kanan and his driver, another tribal leader said.

Kanan was a member of the provincial council in the city, Iraq’s second-largest.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded in the southern neighborhood of Qadisiya, killing a person and injuring two.

In the southern city of Diwaniya, gunmen killed a member of the Iraqi intelligence agency and a guard for an oil company, police said.

The Interior Ministry said 22 bodies were found dumped in Baghdad over a 24-hour period ending late Friday, all of the victims shot to death.

On the eve of a conference today presided over by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki with leaders from across the political spectrum, Shiite Muslim clerics called for unity and condemned sectarianism.

“The spark of sectarian sedition will not only burn one sect, it will burn everybody,” Sheik Abdul Mehdi Karbalai told worshipers in the holy Shiite city of Karbala. “The sanctity of Shiite blood is the same for Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.”

molly.hennessy-fiske@

latimes.com

Times staff writers Suhail Affan and Saif Hameed contributed to this report.