BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 11 — The American military announced today the deaths of five soldiers, bringing number that have died so far in April to at least 32. That figure already surpasses the number of the American military deaths for all of March.
When 31 troops died last month, it was the second-lowest monthly death toll of the war for the Americans and the fifth month in a row of declining fatalities, according to statistics from the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent organization.
But the death toll has begun to climb. Many of the deaths this month have taken place in parched Anbar Province, the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency. The province was rated "critical" in confidential report written recently by the American Embassy and military command in Baghdad. Though sectarian violence overshadows anti-American attacks in much of central Iraq, there are relatively few Shiites in Anbar, so much of the insurgency's venom has been directed at the Americans.
The military said three soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb explosion north of Baghdad today, a soldier died Monday from wounds sustained the previous day in combat in Anbar, and a soldier was killed Sunday by a roadside bomb near Balad.
As the insurgency raged, political tirades burst forth in the Iraqi capital today. Incensed by what he called anti-Shiite remarks from the Egyptian president, the Iraqi prime minister said that Iraq would boycott a conference of Middle Eastern foreign ministers that is scheduled to be held in Cairo on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who is fighting to keep his job, said at a news conference that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt had defamed Iraq and the majority Shiites population by saying in a television interview last Saturday that the Shiites here are more loyal to Iran than to Iraq.
"We hope that others would remind themselves to support the Iraqi people and never spoil the Arab identity of Iraq," Mr. Jaafari said. The Shiites in Iraq are mostly Arabs, while those in Iran are primarily Persians. Many Iraqi Shiites fought against Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war, from 1980 to 1988. A million people died.
Even so, the Iranian government gave refuge to several prominent Shiite political parties that were oppressed during Saddam Hussein's rule. One was Mr. Jaafari's party, the Islamic Dawa Party. Another was Dawa's main rival, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is now trying to unseat Mr. Jaafari as the prime minister.
The Arab League, which is headed by Egypt and is holding the conference, has traditionally regarded itself as a protector of Sunni Arab interests in the region and a counterweight to Iran. In February, right after sectarian bloodletting erupted in Iraq following the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, at least one prominent Sunni Arab cleric called on the Arab League to intervene here on the side of the Sunnis. The Arab League never did anything, but its officials still maintain close ties with Sunni groups here.
Iraqi Shiite officials said today that they still had not resolved the dispute over the post of prime minister. Talks to form a new government are deadlocked over the issue because the Sunni Arab, Kurdish and secular blocs — as well as some Shiites — are demanding the withdrawal of Mr. Jaafari's nomination. The biggest bloc in the 275-member Parliament, in this case the Shiites, has the constitutional right to appoint a nominee for prime minister, who then must be approved by Parliament.
Mr. Jaafari won the nomination in February after a closely contested vote among the 130-member Shiite bloc. Now, in light of the opposition to Mr. Jaafari, several Shiite groups have announced that they are ready to put forward their own candidates. These include the Supreme Council and the Fadhila Party.
Shiite leaders met today, but they did not reach any agreement on the issue, said Redha Jowad Taki, a political officer for the Supreme Council. A member of the Shiite bloc who does not belong to a party said that some Dawa officials were ready to withdraw Mr. Jaafari's nomination, but that Mr. Jaafari insisted on keeping his job. The independent legislator spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the political struggle over Mr. Jaafari. One of Mr. Jaafari's deputies, Ali al-Adeeb, is now being talked about by Iraqi politicians as a possible replacement.
As the talks inch along, other Iraqi leaders say the country has already spiraled down into civil war. One of them is Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister and White House ally. He told Reuters today that the "new form of terrorism" here is "ideological, political and sectarian terror."
"We must be aware and not bury our head in the soil and say the situation in Iraq is good," he added.
A bomb hidden in a minibus exploded in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least three and injuring nine, an Interior Ministry official said.
Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi contributed reporting for this article.