U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has been struggling to negotiate changes to the charter in hopes of winning Sunni Arab support, and senior U.S. officials in Washington have said they are confident that Iraq’s draft constitution will be approved. But those officials also have said that if the constitution is defeated, Iraq could descend into anarchy.

The new surge of violence before an Oct. 15 referendum on Iraq’s constitution has killed at least 194 people, including 13 U.S. service members, in the past five days.

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