BAGHDAD, 14 October 2007 — A key Shiite member of Iraq’s ruling coalition called yesterday for the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from his country and rejected the possibility of permanent bases.

Ammar Hakim, a leading figure of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), told a gathering celebrating Eid Al-Fitr: “We will work not to have fixed bases for foreign troops on Iraqi lands.”

He also called on American forces to be more careful in their use of force after recent bombings killed civilians in a Shiite village north of Baghdad and in a Sunni area northwest of the Iraqi capital.

“We are working to enter into a security agreement with the international community to ensure that Iraq retrieves its full sovereignty,” he said.

Hakim is the son of SIIC leader Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim and has played an increasingly prominent role in recent months as his father recovers from cancer.

The SIIC is one of the largest parties in the Iraqi Parliament and a key supporter of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s government.

“We express our deep sorrow at the civilian citizens killed by multinational forces as happened at Al-Jayzani and in other regions,” said Hakim. “We wish them to be more cautious in dealing with the citizens.”

A double US airstrike eight days ago on the village of Jayzani, 30 miles north of Baghdad, killed 25 people US commanders said were Iranian-linked militants but which Iraqi authorities said included women and children.

Senior Shiite leader Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim was too ill to lead Eid prayers at his Baghdad home yesterday, his son said, days after he returned to Iraq following treatment for lung cancer in Iran. Hakim made his first public appearance in five months yesterday, waving to a large crowd at his southern Baghdad home after Eid prayers.

Ammar Al-Hakim told worshippers that doctors had advised his father not to lead the Eid prayers.

In another development, a mortar attack in the vicinity of Baghdad earlier this week killed two US soldiers and wounded four others, the American military said yesterday.

Those wounded in the incident on Wednesday were transported to a nearby medical center for emergency treatment, a statement said.

The deaths took US military losses since the March 2003 invasion to 3,817.