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ByQassimAbdul-Zahra The Associated Press BAGHDAD Iraq'stopShiite cleric stepped up the pres- sure Friday on politicians to agree on Iraq's next prime minister, after incumbent Nouri al-Maliki lost the confidence of former allies in the fight against Sunni militants. The appeal by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani comes as al-Maliki is fight- ing to keep his job, with even key patron Iran ex- ploring alternatives in the face of Iraq's worst crisis since U.S. troops withdrew at the end of 2011. The conflict has drawn the Americans back to Iraq with special forces being de- ployed to help Iraqi troops. The U.S. also has started flying armed drones over Baghdad to protect U.S. in- terests in the Iraqi capital, a Pentagon official said Fri- day. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to dis- cuss the new flights on the record. Al-Maliki, who has gov- erned the country since 2006, needs support from other parties after his State of Law bloc won the most seats in the elections but failed to gain the majority needed to govern alone. That set the stage for potentially months of coalition negoti- ations. But now a new gov- ernment is wanted urgently to face the lightning advance across the north and west of the country by the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The stunning gains were made possible in large part because Iraqi security forces melted away in the face of the onslaught. Human Rights Watch released a report Friday about the killings of scores of police and soldiers by the Sunni militants in the days after it captured the north- ern city of Mosul on June 10 then stormed south to capture Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. The killings were widely reported after the Islamic State posted graphic, on- line photos showing doz- ens of men wearing civilian clothes lined up and bent over as militants pointed rifles at them from behind. A final set of photos shows bodies. Human Rights Watch said that based on analy- sis of the photos and satel- lite imagery, the militants killed between 160 to 190 men in two locations in Ti- krit between June 11 and June 14. "The number of victims may well be much higher, but the difficulty of locating bodies and accessing the area has prevented a full in- vestigation," the group said. Human Rights Watch said it used satellite imag- ery from 2013 and publicly available photos taken ear- lier to pinpoint the site of the killings in a field next to the Tigris River and near one of Saddam's for- mer palaces. It said satel- lite imagery of the site from June 16 did not reveal bod- ies but showed indications of earth movement consis- tent with the two shallow trenches visible in the pho- tos, in which the soldiers were forced to lie down be- fore being shot. "The photos and satellite images from Tikrit provide strong evidence of a horri- ble war crime that needs further investigation," Pe- ter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Chief Iraqi military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi confirmed the online photos' authenticity on June 15, after they first surfaced, and told The As- sociated Press at the time that an examination of the images by military experts showed that about 170 sol- diers were shot to death af- ter their capture. Captions on the photos showing the soldiers after they were shot say "hun- dreds have been liqui- dated," but the total could not be verified. The massacre appeared to be aimed at instilling fear in Iraq's demoralized armed forces as well as the country's Shiite major- ity, whom the Islamic State views as apostates. But evidence points to atrocities committed by both sides in the conflict, rights groups say. IRAQ Top cleric calls for deal on leader by Tuesday THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A damaged Iraqi army Humvee is le behind in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq. Two weeks has passed since the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took over the country's second largest city. By Pauline Jelinek The Associated Press WASHINGTON The U.S. has armed drones flying over Baghdad to protect U.S. troops that recently arrived to assess Iraq's deteriorating security, the Pentagon said Friday. The military for more than a week has been flying manned and un- manned aircraft over Iraq, averaging a few dozen sor- ties daily for reconnais- sance. The decision to arm some of the drones follows the deployment to Bagh- dad of troops who will ad- vise and assist Iraqi coun- terterrorism forces. "The reason that some of those aircraft are armed is primarily for force pro- tection reasons now that we have introduced into the country some mili- tary advisers whose ob- jective will be to operate outside the confines of the embassy," the Defense Department's press sec- retary, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, told a Penta- gon press conference. Using U.S. air assets to target the leaders of the Sunni-led insurgency is one of the options be- ing prepared for President Barack Obama as he con- siders what support to pro- vide to Iraq, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, told NPR in an interview. Pro- tection of critical infra- structure is part of that option, he said. "We're flying a great deal (of) manned and un- manned ... intelligence and reconnaissance assets, and we're building a picture so that if the decision were made to support the Iraqi security forces as they con- front (ISIS), we could do so," Dempsey said. So far, 180 of 300 troops promised by Obama have arrived in the country. That's 90 advisers and 90 who are setting up an op- erations and intelligence analysis unit. A handful of Predators armed with Hellfire mis- siles are being used over the capital for the new force protection mission, a senior defense official said. The official was not authorized to discuss the new flights on the record and requested anonym- ity. WASHINGTON Pentagon: Drones guard US interests in THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An MQ-4Predator controlled by the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron stands on the tarmac at Balad Air Base, north of Baghdad, Iraq. A Pentagon official says the U.S. has started flying armed drones over Baghdad to protect U.S. civilians and military forces in the Iraqi capital. By John-Thor Dahlburg The Associated Press BRUSSELS Over Russia's objections, Ukraine's new president on Friday signed a free-trade deal binding his country more closely to Western Europe, sealing the very agreement that trig- gered the bloodshed and political convulsions of the past seven months. Russia, meanwhile, fended off for the time being a new, more crippling round of Western sanctions over its intervention in Ukraine, where a fragile cease-fire between government forces and pro-Moscow separat- ists in the east expired Fri- day night with no immediate word from Ukrainian Pres- ident Petro Poroshenko on whether he would extend it. "What a great day!" a beaming Poroshenko said in Brussels upon the sign- ing of the economic agree- ment with the European Union. "Maybe the most im- portant day for my country after independence." Since it became indepen- dent in the 1991 Soviet col- lapse, Ukraine has been involved in a delicate bal- ancing act between Russia and the West. The Kremlin wants to keep Ukraine, the birthplace of Russian state- hood and Russian Orthodox Christianity, in its orbit. In November, under pres- sure from Moscow, Ukrai- nian President Viktor Ya- nuknovych spiked the EU pact, triggering huge pro- tests that drove him from power. Moscow responded by annexing the mainly Russian-speaking Crimean Peninsula in March, and pro-Russian separatists soon rose up in Ukraine's eastern provinces. While Friday's signing marked a defeat for Rus- sian President Vladimir Pu- tin, who has threatened to cancel trade preferences for Ukraine, the Kremlin made no immediate move to pun- ish its neighbor or the two other former Soviet repub- lics that joined the pact, Moldova and Georgia. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia will take the necessary measures to protect its markets only when the agreement takes effect. That will take a few months. Meanwhile, EU lead- ers decided not to immedi- ately impose new sanctions on Russia for the uprising. But they warned that pu- nitive measures have been drawn up and could be lev- ied immediately. And they gave Russia and the rebels until Monday to take steps to ease the vio- lence, including releasing all captives, retreating from border checkpoints, agree- ing on a way to verify the cease-fire and launching "substantial negotiations" on Poroshenko's peace plan. The weeklong cease-fire, which both sides have been accused of violating, ex- pired at 10 p.m. local time. Poroshenko earlier said in Brussels that he would de- cide whether to extend it af- ter consulting with military and security officials, and his office said that the meet- ing was under way. Insurgent leader Alexan- der Borodai said the reb- els were ready to do so and would also soon release the European observers they have been holding for weeks. At the signing ceremony, Poroshenko reminded EU leaders of the bloodshed in his country. Ukraine "paid the high- est possible price to make her European dreams come true," he said, asking the EU to pledge that one day Ukraine can join the 28-nation bloc. Member- ship "would cost the Eu- ropean Union nothing," he said, "but would mean the world to my country." In Kiev's Independence Square, the site of last win- ter's huge protests against Russian domination, bal- loons the color of the EU's blue flag were released over the crowd as a rock band pounded out the Eu- ropean Union's anthem, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." The crowd of several hun- dredwasfarsmallerthanthe hundreds of thousands who jammed the square at the height of the protests. Rain, people getting out of town ahead ofa longholidayweek- end, and the simmering con- flict in the east worked to re- strain the mood. Protest veteran Oleg Mi- tyukhin, 48, came wrapped in the Ukrainian flag. "I think there will be less corruption, there will be better quality goods, and it will be a push for- ward for the development of Ukraine," he said. The agreements signed Friday let businesses in Ukraine, Moldova and Geor- gia, trade freely in any of the EU's nations without tariffs or restrictions as long as their goods and practices meet EU standards. UKRAINE Hi st or ic E U pa ct s ig ne d DMITRY LOVETSKY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Pro-Russian fighters dance and fire in the air in an Ukrainian military unit captured by pro-Russian fighters in the city of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine on Friday. Select"Subscribe"tabinlowerrightcorner Complete information for automatic weekly delivery to your email inbox That's it! 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