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Iraqi Sunni chiefs raise warnings of civil
war
5.2.2006
By Robert H. Reid
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BAGHDAD, Iraq
(AP) - Sunni politicians warned of civil war
Saturday after the bullet-riddled bodies of 14 Sunni
Arab men were found in Baghdad - apparently the
latest victims of sectarian death squads.
One person was killed and 12 injured when a mortar
shell exploded near a Shiite mosque north of the
capital.
Sunni leaders claimed the 14 men were seized last
week by Shiite-led security forces. There was no
confirmation from the Shiite-led Interior Ministry
that government troops were responsible.
A top ministry official, Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal,
said the bodies were shot multiple times and dumped
in the back of a truck in northern Baghdad late
Friday. He denounced the killings as a ``criminal''
act and said ``we have nothing so far'' to indicate
government forces were to blame.
Leaders of several major Sunni Arab political
organizations insisted the Interior Ministry was
responsible for the killings.
Khalaf al-Ilyan, head of the National Dialogue
Council, said the men were arrested by Interior
Ministry troops at a Sunni mosque in Baghdad and
killed in an unknown location.
``The government is pushing hard toward a civil
war,'' al-Ilyan told reporters.
Dr. Salman al-Jumaili, a senior member of the Iraqi
Islamic Party, part of the largest Sunni bloc in the
new parliament, threatened to carry through with a
threat by his party's leader Wednesday to launch a
``civil disobedience'' campaign if attacks against
Sunnis do not stop.
``There is an escalation in organized assassinations
by parties belonging to government security
forces,'' al-Jumaili said. ``There is an organized
and well-trained force at the Interior Ministry
conducting this sectarian cleansing against us.''
The 14 bodies were taken to a morgue to be collected
by their families, the Association of Muslim
Scholars, a Sunni clerical group, said in a
statement. The bodies of a father and son were taken
to the headquarters of the National Dialogue
Council, another Sunni political group, and
displayed to reporters.
Shiites, an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 27
million people, also have been the victims of
sectarian killings and often have been targeted in
suicide bombings.
Long oppressed under Saddam Hussein, Shiites insist
they must maintain control of the security forces to
defend themselves and to prevent the return of
Saddam-style dictatorship.
Late Saturday, a mortar shell exploded a few yards
from a Shiite shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of
Baghdad. One person was killed and 12 injured,
including three children, police Capt. Layth
Mohammed said.
Top Sunni political leaders have demanded that
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, a member of the
biggest Shiite party, be dismissed and that the post
in the new government go to someone without close
ties to Shiite religious parties.
U.S. and United Nations diplomats have also called
for control of the key security ministries to taken
out of the hands of sectarian groups. The issue is
expected to hinder quick agreement on a new
government when talks among Iraq's parties begin in
earnest this month.
Voters chose a new parliament in elections Dec. 15
but no government has been formed because major
parties have been awaiting final certification of
results, expected in the coming week.
Shiite religious parties, who dominate the outgoing
government, won the biggest number of seats - 128
out of 275 - in the new parliament. That's not
enough to govern without partners, and U.S.
officials have been pressing hard for a major role
for Sunni Arabs as well as Kurds.
Sunni Arab parties won 55 seats, a threefold
increase over representation in the outgoing
parliament. The U.S. hopes that an inclusive
government will encourage many Sunni insurgents to
lay down their arms and join the political process.
Mainstream Sunni politicians warn that killings of
Sunni civilians will undermine that goal.
Elsewhere, gunmen killed a former official of
Saddam's Baath Party as he left his home in the
northern city of Mosul on Friday, police Capt. Ahmed
Khalil said.
U.S. troops also found a large weapons cache west of
Fallujah, the 11th such discovery in 13 days, the
military said Saturday.
Also Saturday, protests continued in Iraq against
caricatures of the prophet Muhammad that were
originally published in a Danish newspaper.
AP
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