IRAQ - Sep 18 - Gunmen Kill A Kurd Lawmaker; Militia Protests Basra Arrests.

Iraqi officials announce that a Kurdish member of Parliament is killed by gunmen north of capital, as hundreds of Shiite militia fighters block off streets in the southern city of Basra to demand the release of three militia members being held by British forces. The Parliament member, Faris Nasir Hussain, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, was killed along with his brother when gunmen opened fire on his car just north of Baghdad on Sep 17 night, Interior Ministry officials said. Another Kurdish member of Parliament who was in the car, Haydar Qasim Shanoun, was wounded, as was the driver. Members of the Iraqi Parliament, meeting Sep 18, observed a moment of silence for Hussain. In Basra, British military officials arrested three members of the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to the rebel Shiite theologian Muqtada Al Sadr, saying the men were believed to have organized terrorist attacks on coalition forces. The arrested men included Shaikh Ahmad Majid al Fartusi, the Basra commander of the group, and his aide, Sajjat al Basri. Hours later, about 200 Mahdi Army members blocked off streets in central Basra, brandishing rifles and demanding the release of the men. The fighters soon dispersed, but the Mahdi Army later issued a threat to retaliate with violence if the men were not released by early Sep 19 morning. The British Army commander of the 12th Mechanised Brigade in Basra, Brig John Lorrimer, later released a statement about the detentions. "I am well aware that the people that we have arrested are prominent individuals in Basra", the statement said. "But let me make it absolutely clear: We have acted against them as individuals, not as members of any particular organization". In a phrase apparently aimed at militia members, the statement added: It has become apparent that the Iraqi Police Service has been prevented from bringing the criminals to justice by people who clearly oppose law and order". Militia members are widely believed to have infiltrated the Basra police, and to be carrying out sectarian assassinations while in uniform. In May, the police chief of Basra Province told The Guardian newspaper of Britain that he trusted only a quarter of his police officers, that half of them were fighters secretly working for militias, and that some were carrying out assassinations. In Baghdad, a final draft of Iraq's new constitution was read in Parliament, with several minor revisions that were added since the document was presented to the body on Aug. 28. The charter was then passed on to UN officials, who are arranging the printing of five million copies to be distributed throughout the country. The steady toll of insurgent violence continued Sep 18. Just south of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb detonated near an Iraqi Army patrol, killing four soldiers and wounding three, the police said. In Tal Afar, where Iraqi and American troops are continuing a large-scale offensive against insurgents, American forces raided two houses and killed at least six guerrilla fighters, US military officials said. Afterward, American air strikes destroyed the houses, the officials said, setting off secondary explosions as weapons in the houses detonated. Also Sep 18, American military officials announced that a soldier was killed Sep 17 evening while on patrol in western Iraq near the Syrian border.