|
Iraq’s U.S.-backed
government says it is extending emergency powers
equivalent to martial law for a further 30 days to
try to safeguard January 30 elections under threat
from deadly attacks by insurgents.
The state of emergency, first imposed in November
ahead of a major U.S. assault on the rebel
stronghold of Falluja west of Baghdad, would stay in
effect into February, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s
government said in a statement on Thursday.
Emergency powers allow the government to impose
curfews, close borders and airports and detain
suspects without following normal legal procedures.
The emergency applies to all regions of Iraq except
the Kurdish north, which has been relatively stable.
”Since terrorist gangs continue their activities to
prevent the creation of a broad representative
government and try to impede peaceful political
participation of all Iraqis, we have decided to
extend the state of emergency in all areas of Iraq
except the region of Kurdistan for 30 days,” Allawi
said.
As the insurgency raged nearly 22 months after the
U.S.-led invasion, the U.S. military said seven
American soldiers were killed on Thursday when their
Bradley fighting vehicle hit a roadside bomb during
a security patrol in northwestern Baghdad.
Two Marines were killed west of Baghdad in al-Anbar
province, which includes the cities of Falluja,
where U.S. troops launched a major offensive in
November to try to drive out insurgents, and Ramadi,
another guerrilla stronghold.
It was the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Iraq
since December 21 when a suicide bomber blasted a
mess tent in a U.S. base in the northern city of
Mosul, killing 22 people, most of them American
soldiers.
In Mosul on Thursday, police found the bodies of 18
Iraqi Shi’ites killed last month on their way to
work at a U.S. base.
Iraqi police also said a female French journalist
had been missing since Wednesday and may have been
kidnapped. French newspaper Liberation said the
journalist was Florence Aubenas, who had been
working for the paper in Iraq since December.
Her disappearance came just weeks after the release
of French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges
Malbrunot, who were kidnapped in Iraq on August 20.
BOYCOTTS AND MISGIVINGS
Violence in the heartland of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni
minority has impeded preparations for the elections
there and many Sunni groups are boycotting them,
saying unrest and intimidation will prevent people
from voting.
Lt.-Gen. Thomas Metz, No. 2 commander of U.S.-led
forces, said delaying the poll could risk provoking
civil war and urged Sunnis to vote in large numbers.
The country’s 60 percent Shi’ite majority, long
oppressed during Saddam’s rule, is expected to
cement its newfound political dominance in the
elections. But Sunni leaders say the insurgency --
which is strongest in Sunni areas -- will only
strengthen if Sunnis feel disenfranchised.
Metz said any postponement would play into the hands
of “thugs and terrorists” bent on stopping the vote.
”I think there is a greater chance of civil war with
a delay than without one, in my military opinion,”
he told a news conference in Baghdad. Many Iraqis
believe putting off the vote would enrage Shi’ites.
The United Nations envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, added
his own voice in favour of the elections going ahead
as scheduled.
Speaking in Amman, Qazi said the January 30 ballot
was to pick a National Assembly to draft a new
constitution but Iraqis would have more chances
later to exercise their democratic rights.
Iraqis would go back to the polls in October to vote
in a referendum on the new constitution and again in
December in a general election to chose a new
government, he said.
SURGE IN ATTACKS
Metz pledged the U.S. military would do everything
possible to help fledgling security services protect
voters but said they could not “put a bubble around
every person going out to vote”.
On Wednesday, suicide bombers killed 21 people in
attacks on an Iraqi police academy in the town of
Hilla, south of Baghdad, and a checkpoint in Baquba
northeast of the capital.
The attacks were the latest by insurgents who have
killed more than 90 people, mostly policemen, this
week alone in a campaign targeting the U.S.-backed
interim government and its emergent security
services.
In Washington, the U.S. government said Iraq’s
struggling security forces have had mixed results
against insurgents and the United States was
examining if more funds were needed.
The administration’s quarterly update to Congress on
Iraq said attacks against Iraqi security forces had
increased at all levels in recent months and
intimidation made retention of military and police
tough in many areas.
”While Iraq’s security forces have shown
considerable progress during this last quarter, the
overall performance of these forces has been mixed
when put to the test,” said the report, obtained by
Reuters.
Insurgents regard security force members,
politicians and any Iraqi working with U.S.-led
forces as collaborators with a foreign occupier, and
have marked them for death
http://news.ft.com
Top |
® 