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Abizaid: Iraq can expect more bombings
Updated: 2006-03-05 14:23
Iraq can expect more bombings like the one at a Shiite Muslim shrine that set
off fighting between Shiites and Sunnis, the chief of the US Central Command
said Saturday.
Iraqi Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, right, and the Head of US Central Command,
General John Abizaid address a press conference after their meeting, in
Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, March 4, 2006. Abizaid said he was 'very, very
pleased with the reaction of the Iraqi armed forces' during the violence
that broke out after the Feb. 22 bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in
Samarra and reprisal attacks against Sunni Muslims that pushed Iraq to the
brink of civil war. [AP] |
Gen. John Abizaid blamed Al-Qaida terrorists for the blast and said it marked
a clear 錕斤拷 and successful 錕斤拷 change in tactics by the group in its campaign to
ignite civil war among Iraqis.
"They got more of a reaction from that than they had hoped for," Abizaid told
The Associated Press in Qatar after a two-day trip to Iraq, where he discussed
the Feb. 22 attack's implications with top U.S. and Iraqi leaders.
"I expect we'll see another attack in the near future on another symbol," he
said. "They'll find some other place that's undefended, they'll strike it and
they'll hope for more sectarian violence."
Iraqi security forces eventually blunted the killing with a daytime curfew in
four flashpoint provinces, followed by driving bans in Baghdad and its
outskirts. But as vehicle restrictions lifted Saturday, at least 14 people died
from bombs and gunfire across the country.
Abizaid said he and Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq,
discussed the potential for a withdrawal of some U.S. troops this summer, but he
declined to say what he would recommend to President Bush when they meet next
week.
Pentagon officials have said they are sticking to plans to send additional
units to Iraq to replace troops scheduled to depart, but are waiting to see
whether the clashes between Shiites and Sunnis escalate or slacken.
After meeting with Abizaid in Baghdad, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he
had been assured that U.S. troops will remain in Iraq as long as needed 錕斤拷 "no
matter what the period."
Abizaid described the bombing of the gold-domed shrine in Samarra as a "wake
up call" that demands the attention of Iraq's government, U.S. forces and the
Iraqi public to be on guard for attempts on new symbolic targets.
"Al-Qaida clearly wants to cause civil war in Iraq," he said.
Stressing that the bombers failed to spark an all-out civil conflict, the
general praised Iraqi troops for largely following orders from Iraq's civilian
government by setting up security in the streets. He said he was "very, very
pleased with the reaction of the Iraqi armed forces."
It was a more upbeat assessment than presented by Casey, who told reporters
Thursday that Iraqi police and army units had performed "generally well, not
uniformly well."
Casey said that in some instances, the mostly Shiite security forces gave
armed Shiites free rein in Baghdad and Basra, where reprisal attacks on Sunni
mosques and clerics took days to contain.
Others complained that Iraqi police and troops were slow to react and said
much of the heat had gone out of the sectarian violence by the time security
forces did take action.
Nevertheless, U.S. and Iraqi leaders were heartened that Iraq's fledgling
military held together through a week of bitter clashes that killed hundreds,
most of them civilians.
Tensions between Sunnis and Shiites are still too high, though, Abizaid said
in an interview at a military airport terminal where he paused on his return
from Iraq.
Abizaid and other U.S. military commanders also worry that the violence has
hurt efforts to put together a new, broad-based government. The blast came as
current Iraqi leaders are being viewed as lame ducks, whose authority to govern
and control the security services is dwindling.
Some top American officers in Baghdad fear the blast's true damage could be a
hardening of sectarian attitudes among Iraqi politicians negotiating the next
prime minister and government. Any unwillingness to compromise could block
Washington's hopes for a government that includes all three chief groups 錕斤拷
Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.
"The shrine bombing exposed a lot of sectarian fissures that have been
apparent for a while, but it was the first time I've seen it move in a direction
that was unhelpful to the political process," Abizaid said.
"It shows that we need a government of national unity to emerge in Iraq. Too
many delays in the formation of a national unity government will negatively
affect the security situation."
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