Middle Orient

GAZA – Israeli forces killed six Palestinians on Wednesday, including three members of a Gaza family in a botched air strike, a day after Palestinians said some of the worst violence in months could harm peace moves.

GAZA – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called a leader of rival Hamas on Wednesday to commiserate on the killing of his son by Israeli forces, Hamas said, the first such contact since a Palestinian factional schism last year.

BAGHDAD – The United Nations envoy to Baghdad said on Wednesday he would present a positive picture of progress in Iraq in a report to the Security Council despite earlier having serious misgivings about reconciliation efforts.

Following are the latest figures for military deaths in Iraq and Iraqi civilians killed in attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in March, 2003: U.S.-LED COALITION FORCES: United States 3,926

BAGHDAD – Three U.S. soldiers were killed by small arms fire during operations in Iraq’s northern Salahuddin province on Wednesday, the U.S. military said.

KERBALA, Iraq – Thousands of Shi’ites gathered in Kerbala on Wednesday for the biggest religious ceremony in the Iraqi holy city since gunbattles between rival factions forced a mass exodus of pilgrims last August.

DAMASCUS – Hamas said on Wednesday that Israeli attacks that killed more than 20 Palestinians in the last two days have dashed prospects for a prisoners’ exchange deal involving an Israeli soldier held by the group.

PARIS – Iraq lacks any true spirit of reconciliation despite parliament’s decision to let former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party return to government jobs, the United Nations’ Baghdad envoy said on Wednesday.

IRAQ – Following are security developments in Iraq at 8:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday. * denotes new or updated item.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip observed a general strike on Wednesday, in a rare show of unity after Israel killed 18 people in fighting a day earlier.