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Iraq's PM vows to fight ouster
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-03 09:18
Iraq's prime minister and his radical Shiite backers vowed to fight a bid by
Sunni Arabs and Kurds to oust him, threatening to plunge the country into
political turmoil, delay formation of a new government and undercut US plans to
begin withdrawing troops this year.
Iraqi army soldiers
inspect the burnt out car of Iraqi Accordance Front head Adnan al-Dulaimi,
in Baghdad,Iraq, Thursday, March 2, 2006. Gunmen attacked the car of a top
Sunni political leader, Thursday, killing one bodyguard and wounding five.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leader of the Sunni's largest parliamentary bloc, had
already sped away in another car after his vehicle was stopped by a flat
tire. [AP] |
Meanwhile, gunmen attacked the disabled car of Iraq's top Sunni politician,
Adnan al-Dulaimi, killing one bodyguard and wounding five after al-Dulaimi sped
away in another vehicle. It was not clear whether the assault was an
assassination attempt, and the Sunni leader refused to blame anyone. Altogether,
39 people died Thursday in a new round of violence.
A coalition of Sunni, Kurdish and secular parties formally asked the Shiite
bloc Thursday to withdraw its nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
for another term. The prime minister's adviser, Haider al-Ibadi, insisted the
bloc would stick by its candidate.
Many Sunnis blame al-Jaafari for failing to rein in commandos of the
Shiite-led Interior Ministry. And Kurds accuse al-Jaafari of dragging his heels
on resolving their claims around the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Al-Jaafari won the nomination by a single vote during an election February 12
among Shiite lawmakers who won seats in the December 15 parliamentary election.
He defeated Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi in large part because of the support
of radical, anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The idea of a prime minister who owes his position to the young radical has
alarmed not only Sunni Arabs and Kurds, but also several key figures in the
Shiite alliance. Abdul-Mahdi was the candidate of Shiite Alliance leader
Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who often is at odds with al-Sadr.
But the alliance does not know how to resolve the problem without risking a
huge fight with al-Sadr, who is revered among impoverished Shiite militias and
who has an armed militia allegedly behind many attacks against Sunni mosques
last week.
Al-Ibadi lashed out at the prime minister's opponents, accusing them of
trying to delay formation of a new government.
"There are some elements who have personal differences with al-Jaafari,"
al-Ibadi told the Associated Press. "The Alliance is still sticking to its
candidate."
As expected, the move against al-Jaafari also drew sharp
opposition from al-Sadr.
"We will not abandon al-Jaafari," said a close aide
to the firebrand Shiite cleric. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because
of the sensitive nature of the dispute.
Reda Jawad Taqi, an al-Hakim aide, said representatives of the largest
parliamentary bloc would meet al-Jaafari opponents to "learn what is behind
their position. We will not reject their demand (to meet). Everything is
negotiable."
The Shiites won 130 of Parliament's 275 seats in December elections, giving
them the largest bloc of lawmakers and the first chance to form a government _
but not enough to govern without partners.
After the attack on his vehicle, al-Dulaimi, leader of the largest Sunni
parliamentary bloc, called for restraint to blunt the spiraling sectarian
violence that has taken about 500 lives since February 22, when a Shiite shrine
was bombed in Samarra.
"I don't accuse anyone. ... I consider it accidental, and I call on my
brothers for self-restraint and to contain what happened because Iraq is bigger
than Adnan and his guards," al-Dulaimi told the AP.
Not long after gunmen hit Adnan al-Dulaimi's convoy Thursday, other attackers
shot up cars carrying security men assigned to his fellow Sunni tribesman,
Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi. One bodyguard was killed and five were
wounded. The attacks on both Sunni heavyweights _ who are not related _ occurred
in Ghazaliyah, a dangerous west Baghdad neighborhood.
In an attempt to avert attacks during the Muslim day of prayer, the
government announced a one-day ban on private vehicles in Baghdad and its
outskirts, effective when the overnight curfew ends Friday morning. The police
and army were instructed to seal off the capital and seize any private vehicles
on the roads between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The military reported a US soldier was killed during combat in
insurgency-ridden Anbar province Wednesday, raising to 2,296 the number of US
servicemembers who have died since the war began, according to an Associated
Press count.
Elsewhere Thursday, an explosion tore through a vegetable market in a largely
Shiite Baghdad neighborhood, killing at least eight people and wounding 14.
In the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, a minibus exploded, killing at least
five people and wounding 10. And in the western Amariyah neighborhood, a
roadside bomb detonated near an Interior Ministry patrol, killing one and
wounding three.
Police found the bodies of five men shot in and around
Baghdad.
Gunmen also attacked a joint police-army checkpoint about 20 miles (30
kilometers) north of Samarra, killing six soldiers and four policemen. The
attackers set fire to the bodies before fleeing. Four more policemen were killed
by gunmen in the northern city of Mosul.
Near Kirkuk, police found the bullet-riddled bodies of two police trainees,
who had been blindfolded, handcuffed and dumped along the road.
Sheik Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samaraie, head of the government's Sunni
Endowment, the caretaker of Sunni mosques and religious shrines, took stock of
recent sectarian violence at a news conference Thursday, reporting that 45 Sunni
preachers and mosque employees had been killed.
He said 37 Sunni mosques were destroyed and 86 damaged by grenade, rocket or
gun fire. Six others are in the hands of Shiite militiamen, he said. US military
officials put the figures much lower.
Another Sunni cleric was gunned down Thursday as he left a mosque after
prayers in Basra, in the southern Shiite heartland.
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