(Updates with Shi'ite leaders seeking meeting) By Kristin Roberts and Ross Colvin BAGHDAD, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. military reported the deaths of five more soldiers on Friday, bringing the U.S. death toll closer to 3,000, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates ended a two-day visit aimed at finding a new strategy for Iraq. Four U.S. servicemen were killed in action on Thursday in the restive Anbar province, heartland of the unrelenting Sunni insurgency against U.S. forces and the Iraqi government and the most dangerous place in Iraq for American soldiers. A fifth was killed and another wounded west of Baghdad on Friday when their patrol came under machinegun and mortar fire. At least 71 U.S. soldiers have died so far this month. The deaths brought the total U.S. death toll in Iraq to 2,960, creeping closer to the 3,000 mark and adding more pressure on U.S. President George W. Bush to find a strategy that will allow the eventual withdrawal of 135,000 U.S. troops. Bush has said he will announce a new strategy in January after listening to the advice of his military commanders, State Department officials, Iraqi leaders and Gates, who said he would report back to the president this weekend. Gates would not say whether he will recommend a short-term troop surge, one of the options Bush has said he is considering. Military commanders have raised doubts about increasing troop strength, saying it will only delay a handover to Iraqis. Gates said whatever strategy was decided, the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government must take the lead in curbing sectarian violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shi'ites that has killed thousands of Iraqis, many in the Iraqi capital. "The situation in Baghdad is obviously difficult. Clearly success will only be achieved by a joint effort with Iraqis taking the lead," he told reporters. "They do have some concrete plans in mind, and putting flesh on those bones is exactly what General Casey and his team and the Iraqis will be doing in the days ahead," he said, referring to the U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey. But critics of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki say he has done little to rein in the militias, which are tied to parties within his ruling Shi'ite Alliance and operate with impunity. Maliki is weakened by infighting in a fractious government between different factions and a boycott by supporters of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr. The Sadrists, key backers of Maliki, want a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal. POLITICAL PILGRIMAGE Officials in the Shi'ite Alliance said leaders would head to Najaf, home to Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite clerics, within two days to seek their help in uniting the Shi'ite factions. The alliance was created with the blessing of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric. "There will be a total review of the Alliance and the government's situation," said Haidar al-Ibadi, a member of parliament in the Alliance. The Pentagon said this week that Sadr's Mehdi Army militia had overtaken Sunni Islamist al Qaeda as the greatest threat to Iraq's stability. Sadr's supporters say it is for self-defence only and does not launch revenge attacks against Sunni Arabs. Revenge was on the minds of angry residents of Haditha northwest of Baghdad on Friday. They demanded the execution of four U.S. Marines charged with murder on Thursday over the killing of 24 unarmed civilians there in November 2005. "Those soldiers killed 24 people. They killed women and children, isn't that enough for them be executed? Just so that the family can have peace," said Khaled Salman, whose sister Asmaa was among those killed. None of the murder charges carries a possible death sentence because the Marines are charged with unpremeditated murder, and the maximum possible sentence is life in prison. Iraqi witnesses say enraged Marines shot the civilians in their homes to retaliate for the death of a popular comrade who was killed by a bomb that hit a convoy in the town. Defence lawyers dispute the Iraqi witnesses' version of events and say the Marines were engaged in a furious battle in Haditha and the civilians may have been killed during the chaos. (Additional reporting by Majid Hameed in Haditha)
