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JIM CLANCY: All right. We're going to have all of
those stories for you ahead. But first we want to
turn our attention to Iraq.
HALA GORANI: Well, that's where there's been another
bombing that may have targeted children playing in a
park.
CLANCY: It happened in the Sunni-dominated area of
Ramadi. The news coming to us just a short time ago
on a day of some optimism on efforts to try to stem
the violence there.
GORANI: All right. We want to take you first to
Baghdad. That's where Michael Ware is live with
details first on that bombing in Ramadi targeting
children, apparently -- Michael.
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Hala.
What we're getting at this stage is early reporting
from local Iraqi police in Ramadi, in Iraq's western
Anbar Province. This is the province that the U.S.
military, by and large, has conceded is at least
politically controlled or dominated by al Qaeda.
There we understand that shortly after 4:00 p.m.,
according to the Iraqi police, a suicide bomber
detonated an explosive that killed as many as 18
children playing football --Hala.
GORANI: Violence -- amid all of this horrific
violence, there seems to be at least a diplomatic
effort in the works with regional powers, as well as
European powers meeting in Baghdad.
Tell us about that.
WARE: Yes, what we have is, this is an Iraqi
government initiative inviting its neighbors and the
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to a
regional conference, as it's said, to look at ways to
support the Iraqi government. The situation as we
have it right now is that what it appears is that
representatives of varying levels of the American,
Iranian and Syrian governments at this stage are
saying they're prepared to sit down together at the
same table in the same room.
Now, in many ways, this is hugely symbolic gesture.
Yet, there's been back-channel communications between
these three entities for some time, by and large
through the Iraqi government and other partners here
in the region -- Hala.
GORANI: But the big question is, will it work? Will
it make any difference when you say purely symbolic?
I mean, that implies that it won't be as effective as
some might hope it would be.
WARE: Well, at this point, nothing can really hurt. I
mean, the situation here is so frightful. Though
we're seeing some improvement in the day-to-day
sectarian violence in the capital here in Baghdad as
a result of the temporary surge of the Baghdad
security plan, things are still in a perilous state.
And a few meetings are not going to change that.
Indeed, we have Iraqi government officials saying
this is merely a conference to appoint a date for a
further summit some point down the track. We've had a
lot of talk before. It's not expected that anything
substantive will come out of this -- Hala.
GORANI: All right. Michael Ware in Baghdad.
Thank you, Michael -- Jim.