Roundup: Iraqi PM proposes peace plan amid rampant violence

Iraqi Prime Minister proposed a four-point peace plan on Monday amid dozens of corpses dumped on the streets, mass kidnappings, the renewal of state of emergency and several bombings.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the new plan aiming at curbing rampant sectarian violence in his country and achieving solidarity in his divided government.

Under the plan, each district of Baghdad will have a local commission, consists of representatives of each party, Iraqi military commanders and tribal leaders, to monitor security forces ' efforts.

A central committee made up of all the parties will also be formed to coordinate with the armed forces, al-Maliki said.

Furthermore, a media committee will be formed and the progress of the plan will be reviewed monthly, he said.

In June, al-Maliki put forward a 24-point reconciliation plan that he hoped to bridge the religious, ethnic and political divisions feeding Iraq's violence. But it didn't stem violence in the country where almost daily bombings and shootings have killed hundreds of Iraqis.

Earlier on Monday, a police source told Xinhua that 58 bodies were found during the past 24 hours in different parts of Baghdad.

"The number of the unidentified bodies found by our patrols rose to 58 until this morning in different Baghdad neighborhoods," the source said on condition of anonymity.

Most of the bodies were blindfolded and showing signs of torture with bullet holes in different parts of their bodies, he added.

In eastern Baghdad, unknown gunmen wearing police commando uniforms kidnapped 14 people from a market, a well-informed Interior ministry source told Xinhua.

"Gunmen in seven sport utility vehicles, usually used by Iraqi police, stormed several shops selling computer appliances in the Sina'a Street, and seized 14 people," the anonymous source said.

The attackers fled the scene with the kidnapped people, he added.

The mass kidnappings came a day after 26 workers of a food factory were snatched in southwestern Baghdad. The attackers also took away two refrigerator trucks and two modern civilian cars from the factory.

Due to the deterioration of the security situation in Iraq, the Iraqi parliament on Monday voted to extend the state of emergency for an additional period of 30 days.

Despite criticism by some lawmakers, Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani announced the decision after the move was passed by a majority in the parliamentary ballot.

The state of emergency has been renewed monthly since first being authorized in November 2004.

It grants the Iraqi security forces extra powers, including imposing tight security measures on the entire country except for the Kurdish autonomous region.

In other violence, a senior intelligence officer was gunned down in central Baghdad, where two explosion charges went off and demolished a building in a Baghdad downtown district, wounding four people, two people were killed and two others wounded when a car bomb detonated near a police patrol in central Baghdad.

Source: Xinhua