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BAGHDAD, Aug 6 (AFP) - 11h45 - The autonomous
Kurdish parliament was Saturday set to debate the
thorny issues of Iraq's draft constitution as US and
Iraqi troops hunted for rebels along the western
Euphrates valley.
Around 1,000 US marines and Iraqi soldiers combed
western Iraq, a region that has emerged as a killing
field for marines in the last two weeks after
insurgents carried out some of the deadliest attacks
there since the invasion.
About 40 US troops have been killed in the region in
the last two weeks, including 14 near Haditha, a
town 270 kilometers (160 miles) northwest of
Baghdad, when a powerful roadside bomb blew up their
heavily armoured amphibious assault vehicle.
The latest security operation, Quick Strike, was
being conducted in areas of Haditha, Haqliniyah and
Barwanah.
The US military claimed some success Saturday saying
it had thwarted car bombings in the region after
finding three vehicles packed with explosives
following a tip-off by a local inhabitant. It said
the security forces blew up the cars.
The latest operation led to the death on Wednesday
of 14 marines, the largest single combat casualty
figure since the March 2003 invasion.
The operation also came as Iraq awaited finalisation
of its draft constitution which is still under
debate with various contentious issues unresolved.
Kurdish members of 71-strong drafting committee were
set to brief the Kurdish regional parliament on the
stumbling blocks later Saturday, paricularly
federalism, the long oppressed minority's main
demand.
The emergency meeting of the Kurdish parliament
prompted a two-day postponement of a wider national
conference of top Iraqi leaders in Baghdad to break
the constitutional deadlock.
Apart from federalism, issues still in play include
what the official languages of the new Iraq will be,
the relation between religion and state, the rights
of women and the future of the northern oil centre
of Kirkuk, which the Kurds want incorporated in
their autonomous region.
"We are worried about comments from some on the
committee," said the regional parliament's speaker,
Adnan Mufti, who is also a senior official in the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the former rebel group
of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Mufti said the Kurds were ready to endorse the
charter "if all parties understand a constitution
should be based on rights for all Iraqis."
He added: "There is no way to have a unified Iraq
without federalism."
Many leaders of Iraq's Arab majority -- both Shiite
and Sunni -- have voiced concern that federalism
could open the way to secession, although the Kurds
insist it is the best way of preventing the breakup
of Iraq.
Kurdish hopes of a federal structure for Iraq were
boosted Friday after Shiite spiritual leader Grand
Ayatollah Ali Sistani gave a favourable response to
the idea during a meeting with Prime Minister
Ibrahim Jaafari.
"Sistani does not disagree with the principle of
federalism if the Iraqi people choose it," Jaafari
told reporters after meeting the reclusive cleric at
his home in the Shiite pilgrimage city of Najaf.
Iraqi leaders insisted they remained on track to
complete a final draft for debate by parliament by
August 15 ahead of a referendum in mid-October.
The referendum will be followed by new nationwide
elections in December.
The national conference is due to report back by
August 12, and any matters still unresolved will be
put to parliament for decision by majority vote.
Meanwhile, at least four Iraqis, including two
soldiers and a policeman, were killed and 11 wounded
in a spate of insurgent attacks, security sources
said.
AFP
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