|
Suicide car bomber kills 30 in Iraq
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-25 08:22
On Thursday, government spokesman Laith Kubba called the pre-election attacks
"the last stand" of "Muslim extremists and Saddam's criminals," predicting they
would rapidly lose support after establishment of a new government and a
national reconciliation conference expected early next year.
More voters of the Sunni Arab minority, the backbone of the insurgency, are
expected to vote this time, unlike the January balloting that many of them
boycotted. Some Sunni insurgent groups have condemned the election and are
expected to launch attacks to discourage a big turnout.
The United States hopes a big Sunni turnout will produce a broad-based
government that can win the minority's trust, helping to take the steam out of
the insurgency and hasten the day when American and other foreign troops can go
home.
At a meeting last weekend in Egypt to pave the way for the reconciliation
conference, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he was willing to talk with
insurgent groups if they agreed to lay down their arms and renounce terrorism.
On Thursday, residents of Anbar province said four insurgent groups were
considering naming a representative to spell out their conditions to Talabani.
The four include the Islamic Army of Iraq, the 1920 Revolution Brigade, the
Mujahedeen Army and al-Jamea Brigades.
The residents, who have contacts with the insurgents, spoke on condition of
anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Significantly, the four groups do not include the country's most feared
terror organization, al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, or the
al-Sunnah Army and Ansar al-Islam. All are Islamic extremist groups believed to
have staged many suicide attacks.
U.S. and Iraqi officials believe their best chance for a negotiated
settlement of the insurgency involves driving a wedge between religious
extremists and groups led by members of Saddam's Baath Party more interested in
retaining a share of power than waging holy war.
However, the initial contacts appear to be well short of negotiations, a
process expected to be complicated and protracted due to the different goals of
Iraq's numerous religious and ethnic communities.
In other violence Thursday:
_Gunmen ambushed a police patrol in Baghdad's southern Doha neighborhood,
killing four officers, police said. A fifth policeman was killed in a later
bombing in the same district.
_A roadside bomb slightly injured three Polish soldiers and one Iraqi child
near Camp Echo, headquarters for Poland's military mission in Diwaniyah, 80
miles south of Baghdad, said Col. Zdzislaw Gnatowski, a military spokesman in
Warsaw.
_A bodyguard for the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party branch in Khalis, 50
miles north of Baghdad, was wounded in a drive-by shooting near Baqouba, 35
miles northeast of Baghdad. His boss, Hussein Abid al-Zubeidi, said he escaped
unharmed.
|
