KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Hundreds of Afghans protested Saturday against alleged fraud in last week's presidential runoff, part of escalating tensions over what Western officials had hoped would be a smooth transfer of power as violence across the country killed at least 13 people.

Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who is running against Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a former finance minister, has accused electoral officials and others of trying to rig the June 14 vote against him.

Abdullah announced this week that he was severing ties with the Independent Election Commission and would refuse to recognize any results it releases. He also suggested that the United Nations step in, an idea supported by President Hamid Karzai, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.

The IEC's official timetable says initial results are due on July 2. Independent Election Commission chairman Ahmad Yousuf Nouristani said Saturday that the commission would address or investigate any concern Abdullah had.

Around a thousand Abdullah supporters gathered in Kabul to protest against the electoral commission, accusing it of fraud and chanting: "Our vote is our blood and we will stand up for it!"

Hundreds of anti-riot police surrounded the demonstration, which was peaceful.

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Supporters of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah shouts slogans during a protest in Kabul, Afg …

"We gather today to protest against the election commission, which is not an independent commission at all. They are conducting fraud for a specific candidate," said Mohammed Ghani Sharifi, a 23-year-old protester. "The people are so upset and they cannot tolerate such fraud because the people took risks to cast their votes."

While the vote was relatively peaceful, the Taliban had warned people not to participate and carried out a handful of attacks in different parts of the country.

In a separate demonstration, hundreds of Abdullah supporters marched from the northern part of the capital toward the airport, where they were stopped by a police roadblock that preventing anyone from entering or leaving Kabul's international airport.

The U.N. representative to Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, told a news conference that people had a "democratic right" to protest while urging them to remain peaceful and "refrain from inflammatory statements."

"We are talking to the candidates even as we speak, and to their teams," Haysom said. "And at least part of the message that we have for them - and have had really since the outset - is that there will be a winner and there will be a loser and what we expect of the candidates is to exhibit statesmanship, not gamesmanship.

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Afghanistan police forces secure an area as supporters of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah h …

He added that the U.N. would also look at ways of bringing "extra scrutiny" to the ballots.

Afghanistan's next president is expected to sign a long-delayed security pact to allow nearly 10,000 American troops to remain in the country after most foreign forces withdraw by the end of the year. Both candidates have promised to sign the pact, but the next president must be sworn in first.

Earlier on Saturday, a suicide car bombing in Kabul aimed at a senior government official killed one civilian and wounded three others but did not harm its apparent target, Afghan security officials said.

Kabul police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said the bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle alongside the armored car of Mohammed Masoom Stanikzai, a senior official in the High Peace Council, a government body tasked with peace talks with the Taliban insurgency. The two men are not related.

Shafiullah, a police officer at the scene, said Stanikzai, who also serves as an adviser to President Hamid Karzai, was not harmed because he was traveling in an armored car. Like many Afghans, the police officer only has one name.

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Afghan youths watch supporters of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah shout slogans during a pr …

Meanwhile, a bomb hidden in a trash can killed three civilians and one police officer in Jalalabad in eastern Nangarhar province, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the provincial governor.

In the southern Helmand province, Taliban fighters attacked several checkpoints, killing three police and wounding two, said Omer Zwak, a spokesman for the governor. He said 10 militants were killed.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi confirmed the attack, saying the militants had captured half of the Sangin district.

In the southern Uruzgan province, a remotely detonated bomb killed three people and gunmen on a motorbike killed one police officer in the southern Kandahar province, authorities said. In the western Herat province, a roadside bomb killed one civilian and wounded another, provincial police spokesman Raouf Ahmadi said.

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Associated Press writer Mirwais Khan in Kandahar, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's the fog of diplomacy.

For years, Iran has been an archenemy of the United States. Now, with alliances blurred in the Mideast, the two countries are talking about how to stop an offensive in Iraq by al-Qaida-inspired insurgents.

How is it that adversaries that haven't trusted each other for 35 years could cooperate on Iraq today?

They are strange bedfellows, to say the least.

In the Syrian civil war, the U.S. backs the opposition. Iran supports Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The U.S. for three decades has considered Iran a "state sponsor of terrorism." The U.S. says Iran bankrolls anti-Israel terrorist groups and other extremists intent on destabilizing the Middle East.

The U.S. has threatened Iran with military action if Iran approaches the capacity to develop nuclear weapons.

But despite all the differences, the U.S. and Iran are more engaged diplomatically at this moment than in years.

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An Iraqi boy living in Iran holds a toy gun and flashes a victory sign in front of a poster of the I …

After a breakthrough interim agreement last year, the U.S., Iran and other nations are hoping to wrap up a deal with the next month that would curb Iran's nuclear program. Progress on nuclear talks is leading American officials to explore whether Iran can be a useful partner on interests long viewed as shared, such as fighting Sunni extremism and ensuring stability of Iraq.

Iran, like the Iraqi government, is Shiite. The insurgent group leading the assault in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, is Sunni.

But there is worry that Iran is trying to leverage its helpfulness on Iraq into better terms in the nuclear negotiations.

"I would be skeptical that cooperating with Iran — particularly sharing sensitive intelligence information — would be in our overall interest," Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate minority leader, told The Associated Press.

"In fact, it's hard for me to conceive of any level of Iranian cooperation that doesn't lead to future demands for concessions on the nuclear program, or foment the return of Shia militias and terrorist groups, which is harmful to resolving the sectarian disputes within Iraq," McConnell said. "Remember, the Iranians are working aggressively to keep Assad in power in Syria."

His concern was highlighted by the comments this past week by Mohammad Nahavandian, chief of staff to Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani. The aide suggested nuclear talks and Iraq's crisis were connected. The State Department rejected any linkage.

Secretary of State John Kerry, heading to the Mideast this weekend to discuss Iraq's stability, has fueled talk about U.S.-Iranian cooperation. He said early last week that the Obama administration was open to discussions with Tehran if the Iranians help end the violence in Iraq and restore confidence in the Baghdad government.

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FILE - In this Wednesday, June 18, 2014, file photo, Secretary of State John Kerry gives the keynote …

American and Iranian diplomats talked about Iraq on the sidelines of nuclear negotiations in Vienna in recent days. U.S. officials have rejected military cooperation with Iran and thus far, legislative aides said, the understanding in Congress is that no intelligence-sharing mechanism with Tehran has been finalized.

But the comments had officials and lawmakers in Washington and the Middle East abuzz.

At a breakfast this past week with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry steered away from questions about how specifically the U.S. might cooperate with Tehran, according to aides, who weren't authorized to speak about private meetings and demanded anonymity.

They said the administration has given no impression it will provide anything to Iran revealing intelligence sources or methods. Congress' intelligence committees also are keeping tabs on what the administration decides to do. So far, the State Department is not reporting any other recent meetings between the U.S. and Iran beyond than the one in Vienna.

There are reasons both might be interested in continuing the dialogue.

Iran, as a Shiite powerhouse, has considerable influence over Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite who spent years in exile in Iran.

Iran also is threated by the Sunni extremists who have taken over Syrian and Iraqi territory and are pressing toward Baghdad. Iran has called ISIL "barbaric."

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Volunteers of the newly formed "Peace Brigades" participate in a parade in the Shiite stro …

But the U.S. doesn't want to simply side with al-Maliki for fear of seeming to favor Shiite over Sunni.

President Barack Obama stressed the need for an inclusive government in Iraq, and several lawmakers have called for the Iraqi leader to step down.

Obama said Thursday that Iran could play a "constructive role if it is helping to send the same message to the Iraqi government that we're sending, which is that Iraq only holds together if it's inclusive and that the interests of Sunni, Shia and Kurd are all respected."

If Iran comes to prop up Shiite domination, he said, "that probably worsens the situation."

The notion of intelligence cooperation with Iran, however limited, has prompted a variety of reactions on Capitol Hill, cutting across party lines and traditional splits on foreign policy between hawks and doves.

Among Republicans, House Speaker John Boehner, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a leading hawk, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a tea party leader, are opposed, though not all for the same reasons.

McCain describes ISIL among the "gravest" post-Cold War threats. Cruz says the danger from Sunni militants "pales by comparison to a nuclear-armed Iran."

But Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a usual partner of McCain, doesn't see talking to Tehran as such a bad idea.

"We're going to probably need their help to hold Baghdad," Graham said this past week as ISIL insurgents approached Baghdad after taking several northern Iraqi cities and battled for an oil refinery near the capital.

Democrats also are divided.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader, and Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, are among those against reaching out to Iran.

The two countries have cooperated before, notably when Washington twice invaded Saddam Hussein's Iraq. They've also collaborated on combating drug flows.

James Dobbins, the State Department's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, says perhaps the most constructive period of U.S.-Iranian diplomacy since the fall of the shah in 1979 occurred right after the Sept. 11 attacks. Then, the U.S. worked with Iran on forming a post-Taliban Afghan government.

Relations soured when President George W. Bush lumped Iran with Iraq and North Korea in his "axis of evil," brushing aside Iranian offers to help train a new Afghan army and the possibility of more extensive cooperation in Iraq.

In 2007, Ryan Crocker, then-U.S. ambassador to Iraq, met his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad in a bid to calm Iraq's violence. The process quickly bogged down, but U.S. intelligence believed Iran reduced its support for Shiite militias targeting U.S. troops following the contacts.

Said Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council: "With the region roiling as it is, the reality that Iran and the United States might end up on the same side is simply the new normal."

Longtime rivals eye unlikely partnership

For years, Iran has been an archenemy of the U.S., but now the two countries could unite against a common foe.
Would help Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Thousands of heavily-armed Shiite militiamen paraded through several Iraqi cities Saturday as Sunni militants seized two strategically located towns in what appeared to be a new offensive in western Anbar province.

The capture of the two towns — Qaim on the Syrian border Friday and Rawah along the Euphrates River on Saturday— dealt another blow to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, which has struggled to push back against Islamic extremists and allied militants who have seized large swaths of the country's north, including the second-largest city of Mosul.

But while al-Maliki has come under mounting pressure to reach out to disaffected Kurds and Sunnis, the display of heavy weapons by the Shiite fighters indicated that forces beyond Baghdad's control may be pushing the conflict toward a sectarian showdown.

Sunni militants have controlled the city of Fallujah in Anbar and parts of the provincial capital of Ramadi since January. The vast Anbar province stretches from the western edges of Baghdad all the way to Jordan and Syria to the northwest. The fighting in Anbar has greatly disrupted use of the highway linking Baghdad to the Jordanian border, a key artery for goods and passengers.

In Baghdad, about 20,000 men, many in combat gear, marched through the Sadr City district with assault rifles, machine guns, multiple rocket launchers, field artillery and missiles. Similar parades took place in the southern cities of Amarah and Basra.

The parades were staged by followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who once led a powerful militia that battled U.S. troops and was blamed for some of the mass killing of Sunni civilians during the sectarian bloodletting that peaked in 2006 and 2007.

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Iraqi men crowd a truck to join the Iraqi army at the main recruiting center in Baghdad, Iraq, Thurs …

Police and army officials said the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, along with allied militants, seized Qaim and its crossing, about 320 kilometers (200 miles) west of Baghdad, after killing some 30 Iraqi troops in daylong clashes Friday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists, said people were now crossing back and forth freely.

Chief military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi acknowledged Qaim's fall, telling journalists that troops aided by local tribesmen sought to clear the city of "terrorists."

The mayor of Rawah, Hussein AIi al-Aujail, said Sunni militants captured the town Saturday. The local army and police force pulled out when the militants took control, he said.

He said militants ransacked government offices in the town, along the Euphrates River some 175 miles (275 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.

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Volunteers of the newly formed "Peace Brigades" participate in a parade in the Shiite stro …

Sunni militants have carved out a large fiefdom along the Iraqi-Syrian border and have long traveled back and forth with ease, but the control of crossings, like the one in Qaim, allows them to more easily move weapons and heavy equipment to different battlefields.

The fall of Qaim came as al-Maliki faces mounting pressure to form an inclusive government or step aside, with both a top Shiite cleric and the White House strongly hinting he is in part to blame for the worst crisis since U.S. troops withdrew from the country at the end of 2011.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most respected voice for Iraq's Shiite majority, on Friday joined calls for al-Maliki to reach out to the Kurdish and Sunni minorities a day after President Barack Obama challenged him to create a leadership representative of all Iraqis.

Al-Sistani normally stays above the political fray, and his comments, delivered through a representative, could ultimately seal al-Maliki's fate.

Calling for a dialogue between the political coalitions that won seats in the April 30 parliamentary election, al-Sistani said it was imperative that they form "an effective government that enjoys broad national support" and "avoids past mistakes."

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Volunteers of the newly formed "Peace Brigades" participate in a parade in the Shiite stro …

Al-Sistani is deeply revered by Iraq's majority Shiites, and his critical words could force al-Maliki, who emerged from relative obscurity in 2006 to lead the country, to step down.

On Thursday, Obama stopped short of calling for al-Maliki to resign, but his carefully worded comments did all but that. "Only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the Iraqi people together and help them through this crisis," Obama said.

The Iranian-born al-Sistani, believed to be 86, lives in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, where he rarely ventures out of his modest house and does not give media interviews. His call to arms last week prompted thousands of Shiites to volunteer to fight against the Sunni militants.

His call to defend the country, and its Shiite shrines, has given the fight against the Sunni insurgents the feel of a religious war, but his office in Najaf dismissed that charge, saying the top cleric was addressing all Iraqis.

Al-Maliki's State of Law bloc won the most seats in the April vote, but his hopes to retain his job are in doubt, with rivals challenging him from within the broader Shiite alliance. In order to govern, his bloc must first form a majority coalition in the new 328-seat legislature, which must meet by June 30.

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Volunteers of the newly formed "Peace Brigades" participate in a parade in the Shiite stro …

If al-Maliki were to relinquish his post now, according to the constitution the president, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, would assume the job until a new prime minister is elected. But the ailing Talabani has been in Germany for treatment since 2012, so his deputy, Khudeir al-Khuzaie, a Shiite, would step in for him.

Shiite politicians familiar with the secretive efforts to remove al-Maliki said two names mentioned as replacements are former vice president Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite and French-educated economist, and Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who served as Iraq's first prime minister after Saddam Hussein's ouster. Others include Ahmad Chalabi, a one-time Washington favorite to lead Iraq, and Bayan Jabr, another Shiite who served as finance and interior minister under al-Maliki.

Nearly three years after he heralded the end of America's war in Iraq, Obama announced Thursday he was deploying up to 300 military advisers to help quell the insurgency. They join some 275 troops in and around Iraq to provide security and support for the U.S. Embassy and other American interests.

Obama has been adamant that U.S. troops would not be returning to combat, but has said he could approve "targeted and precise" strikes requested by Baghdad.

Manned and unmanned U.S. aircraft are now flying over Iraq 24 hours a day on intelligence missions, U.S. officials say.

Meanwhile Saturday, two separate explosions killed five people and wounded 21 in Baghdad, authorities said. And in an incident harkening back to the peak days of sectarian killings in 2006 and 2007, two bodies, presumably of Sunnis, were found riddled with bullets in Baghdad's Shiite district of Zafaraniyah, police and morgue officials said.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

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Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

Putin backs Ukraine cease-fire plan

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin backed Ukraine's cease-fire plans Saturday and appealed to both sides to halt all military operations.

The Kremlin said in a statement that Putin "calls on the opposing sides to halt any military activities and sit down at the negotiating table."

The statement said Putin supported Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's decision to order Ukrainian troops to observe a unilateral cease-fire starting Friday night.

Poroshenko bills the weeklong cease-fire as the first step in a wider peace plan that would include an amnesty for pro-Russian separatist fighters.

Putin said however that without action directed at starting talks, the plan was "not viable and unrealistic."

Ukrainian troops have struggled to suppress separatists who have seized buildings and declared independence in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions near the border with Russia.

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A pro-Russian fighter holds a gun and a rose after taking the oath of allegiance to the self-proclai …

Ukraine and the United States have accused Russia of supporting the insurgency, including by permitting tanks to cross the border and wind up in the rebels' arsenal. Russia counters that it is not supporting the insurgents and Russians who have joined the fighting are doing so as private citizens.

The U.S. and European leaders have called on Russia to play a constructive role in settling the conflict and halt what they say is support for the rebels. The U.S. and Europe have placed targeted financial sanctions on some Russian officials but have held off on targeting entire economic sectors.

It has been unclear whether Russia can or will influence the fighters to de-escalate the conflict. Putin consulted with Poroshenko several times by phone on the cease-fire, but Russia's foreign minister earlier Saturday had criticized it sharply as an "ultimatum" to rebels.

The more conciliatory tone of the Kremlin statement contrasted with Putin's move Saturday to order military forces in central Russia to observe a combat alert and to launch an exercise for airborne troops.

The combat alert in the central military district, which encompasses the Volga region and the Ural mountains but not western Russia, will last until next Saturday and involve 65,000 troops, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu on Saturday lamented Moscow's military exercises, saying that "it can be seen as a further escalation of the crisis with Ukraine."

Pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's embattled east have dismissed the cease-fire as fake, while nine Ukrainian service members were wounded in clashes just before and after the cease-fire began Friday.

Otherwise, no large-scale fighting had been reported Saturday, the first full day of what is to be a six-and-a-half-day stand-down by the Ukrainian military

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Putin supports Ukraine cease-fire

The Russian president backs a break in the violence, appealing to both sides to halt military operations.
Calls for negotiations

CASSANO ALL'JONIO, Italy (AP) — Pope Francis journeyed Saturday to the heart of Italy's biggest crime syndicate, met the father of a 3-year-old boy slain in the region's drug war, and declared that all mobsters are automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

During his one-day pilgrimage to the southern region of Calabria, Francis comforted the imprisoned father of Nicola Campolongo in the courtyard of a prison in the town of Castrovillari.

In January the boy was shot, along with one of his grandfathers and the grandfather's girlfriend, in an attack blamed on drug turf wars in the nearby town of Cassano all'Jonio. The attackers torched the car with all three victims inside.

The boy's father and mother already were in jail at the time on drug trafficking charges. The pope had expressed his horror following the attack and promised to visit the town.

Francis embraced the man. He asked the pope to pray for the boy's mother, who was permitted to leave prison following her son's slaying and remains under house arrest. The pope also met two of the boy's grandmothers.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said Francis told the father: "May children never again have to suffer in this way."

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Pope Francis waves from his pope-mobile at the end of his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Sq …

"The two grandmothers were weeping like fountains," Benedettini added.

Calabria is the power base of the 'ndrangheta, a global drug trafficking syndicate that enriches itself by extorting businesses and infiltrating public works contracts in underdeveloped Calabria.

During his homily at an outdoor Mass, Francis denounced the 'ndrangheta for what he called its "adoration of evil and contempt for the common good. "

"Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated," he warned.

Francis greeted about 200 other prisoners during his visit there.

When Francis visited a hospice, a doctor there removed a bothersome wooden splinter from one of the pope's fingers at his request, organizers said.