BAGHDAD — In mounting bloodshed south of Baghdad, suspected Shiite Muslim militiamen stormed into a Sunni Arab home Tuesday and gunned down seven family members, including a baby being bounced on her mother's shoulder.
Shadowed by the violence, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, co-author of a highly anticipated report to Congress next month, said Washington's blueprint for reconciliation was insufficient to win back control of Iraq. Congressional benchmarks don't tell the whole story, he said.
Crocker and the U.S. military commander, Gen. David Petraeus, may be heading into a storm of discontent as they argue before Congress that American troops need more time in Iraq.
Last week, a stunning suicide bomb attack killed as many as 500 people in northern Iraq. The gruesome family murder south of the capital Tuesday underlined unabated sectarian violence. Even President Bush acknowledged frustration with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's leadership during a Tuesday trip to Canada.
Sen. Carl Levin, Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said al-Maliki should be ousted in favor of a less sectarian and more unifying leader. Levin issued the call shortly after visiting Iraq.
The brutal attack south of Baghdad killed seven members of 70-year-old Khayrallah Salman's family. He ran a small grocery in Mahaweel, 35 miles south of Baghdad, and died along with six relatives, including the 6-month-old girl, a 12-year-old girl and two women. A son and daughter-in-law were wounded, said Babil province police Capt. Muthanna Khalid.
A witness said the baby's mother, who survived, was bouncing the child on her shoulder when the gunmen opened fire after breaking into the house about 8:30 a.m. The witness would not allow use of her name, fearing retribution.
Other witnesses and neighbors said Shiite Mahdi Army militiamen were responsible for the killings of the family, members of the Sunni al-Janabi tribe. Police did not give a motive, and allegations against the militia could not be independently confirmed.
The Mahdi Army, which is nominally loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has splintered in recent months as the firebrand cleric has taken refuge in Iran. Some factions are accused of pursuing a sectarian campaign to rid Baghdad and surrounding areas of Sunnis.
In Baghdad, Crocker spoke to reporters a few days before traveling to Washington to report to the president and Congress. He called Iraq's problems difficult but fixable, arguing for more time for his diplomacy and operations by the bolstered American military force.
"Failure to meet any of them (congressionally mandated benchmarks) does not mean the definitive failure of the state or the society," Crocker said.
"Conversely, to make them all would not by any means mean that they've turned the corner and it's a sun-dappled upland from here on in with peace and harmony and background music. It's just a lot more complex than that."
He parroted Bush's frustration with the lack of action by al-Maliki government's on key legislative measures.
"Progress on national level issues has been extremely disappointing and frustrating to all concerned — to us, to Iraqis, to the Iraqi leadership itself," Crocker said. But he added that the Shiite prime minister was working "in the shadow of a huge national trauma."
While saying U.S. support was not a "blank check," Crocker said Washington would continue backing al-Maliki's government "as it makes serious efforts to achieve national reconciliation and deliver effective governance to the people of Iraq." He stressed that it's not just al-Maliki, but "the whole government that has to perform here."
Crocker acknowledged "a lot of violence" in southern Iraq, where bombers killed Muthana province Gov. Mohammed Ali al-Hassani on Monday and Gov. Khalil Jalil Hamza in neighboring Qadasiyah province nine days earlier.
Both governors were members the Shiite political powerhouse, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, led by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. His loyalists dominate police in Iraq's south and are fighting Mahdi Army militiamen for dominance in the region, which may hold 70 percent or more of Iraq's oil reserves, according to various estimates.
Al-Sadr issued a statement late Monday condemning the attacks on the governors, which he said were aimed at creating a rift among Iraq's majority Islamic sect.
Al-Sadr also renewed his demand that al-Maliki set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign troops. He pulled his five ministers out of the Cabinet in April over that issue.
Closing out a three-day visit to Baghdad, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the United States could not bring peace to Iraq without help. He said Iraqi leaders expressed hope France would play a role.
Kouchner's unannounced trip was seen as a shift in U.S.-French relations and was the first visit by a top French official since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, which France fiercely opposed.
"It was necessary to be here," Kouchner said. "Everyone knows that the Americans cannot bring this country out of difficulty all alone."
Al-Maliki met with Kouchner late Sunday before he left for Syria, where the Iraqi leader met with President Bashar Assad on Tuesday. Al-Maliki described the talks as positive, stressing the necessity of good relations between Baghdad and Damascus.
Assad said he wanted to see calm restored in Iraq. "We want this visit to be a success and we are interested in stabilizing Iraq and improving its situation," he told al-Maliki.
Syria said this month that it had moved to increase security along its border with Iraq, including setting up fixed checkpoints, boosting patrols and tightening rules on crossings by people under age 30.
Iraq and the U.S. have long complained that Assad was not doing enough to prevent the flow of foreign fighters to join the Iraqi insurgency.