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Iraqi FM 'Zebari' asks U.S. to step back
from talks
1.3.2006
By Borzou Daragahi
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As the foreign minister urges a 'less visible'
role in negotiations on the new government, a surge
in attacks ends a lull in the violence.
BAGHDAD, March 1, - Iraq's foreign minister
cautioned U.S. officials to take a "less visible,
lower profile" in talks aimed at forming a new
national government, as a surge in bombings Tuesday
shattered a brief lull in sectarian violence.
Tuesday's wave of bombings appeared to be a renewed
insurgent offensive aimed predominantly at Shiite
Muslim targets, and left at least 76 Iraqis dead and
179 wounded nationwide.
The violence spread beyond the central and northern
provinces and the country's capital, where bomb
explosions and mortar rounds shook the city, to the
mostly peaceful Shiite south, where two British
soldiers were killed.
The U.S. military also reported that an American
soldier was killed by small-arms fire in western
Baghdad on Monday, bringing the total number of U.S.
military personnel killed in Iraq to 2,292,
according to a count compiled by Associated Press.
U.S. and Iraqi officials hope the formation of a new
government drawn from all of Iraq's religious and
ethnic groups can help stanch the violence.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has been actively
pressuring Shiite, Sunni Muslim and Kurdish factions
to cooperate.
But Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd
and longtime ally of the U.S., suggested Khalilzad
should refrain from making recommendations on
Cabinet positions, such as his ongoing criticism of
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, who is viewed by many
as too close to Shiite militias allegedly involved
in human rights violations.
"Because there is this tension and because any
statement by [Americans] will be interpreted by one
group or the other, it will backfire," Zebari said
in an interview with The Times. "Such a statement
will be read by the Shia that the American
ambassador [is] siding with the Sunnis."
Zebari and his political patron, Kurdish leader
Massoud Barzani, were strong supporters of the
U.S.-led effort to topple former President Saddam
Hussein. Zebari has played several key roles since
the invasion, including as a mediator between Sunnis
and Shiites.
But while he compared Khalilzad favorably with L.
Paul Bremer III and John D. Negroponte, the two
previous U.S. envoys to Iraq, he urged "quieter,
less visible diplomacy" on the part of Americans.
"America has a tremendous amount of influence to be
used," he said. "But for the details of the
government formation, I think it's better not to
interfere."
A U.S. Embassy spokesperson declined to comment on
Zebari's remarks.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have been seeking a
political solution to Iraq's violence with
heightened urgency since the Feb. 22 bombing of a
Shiite shrine in Samarra and subsequent reprisals,
but the resumed talks between Sunnis, Shiites and
Kurds have failed to bring calm.
As bombs exploded throughout the capital, jittery
Iraqi soldiers and police officers riding atop
pickup trucks and clutching mounted machine guns
rattled neighborhoods with automatic weapons fire.
Checkpoints left traffic choked on major roadways.
Explosions continued to sound as night fell and a
newly extended 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew went into
effect. U.S. helicopters and warplanes scoured the
skies after each blast.
Sunni insurgents have long been waging a campaign of
bombing and assassinations against the Shiite-led
government and security forces, as well as Shiite
civilians.
Calmed by senior clergy, the Shiite community until
now has generally turned the other cheek, although
Shiite-dominated security forces have been
implicated in extrajudicial kidnappings and
killings.
The bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra,
however, ignited furious reprisals by members of the
Shiite community. Black-clad militiamen, some with
ties to political factions and official security
forces, allegedly marauded through Sunni
neighborhoods, attacking mosques and killing clergy
and civilians in a glimpse of how an all-out Iraqi
civil war might play out.
The unprecedented sectarian violence of the last
week has left at least 379 Iraqis dead and 458
wounded, according to a news release that was issued
by the office of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari.
Morgue officials in Baghdad said at least 249 people
had been killed since the Samarra mosque attack.
Haidar Safar, a Health Ministry official in charge
of tabulating data from hospitals and morgues across
the country, said 519 Iraqis had died of "unnatural
causes," which could include car accidents and
suicides as well as violence.
The prime minister's office derided as "inaccurate
and exaggerated" media reports that the death toll
had surpassed 1,000. The Washington Post reported in
its Tuesday's editions that morgue officials had
said they had tallied more than 1,300 deaths.
Despite a barrage of attacks against Shiite
civilians, there was scant evidence of Shiite
counterattacks Tuesday.
In the day's deadliest incidents, a pair of bomb
attacks in the poor, mostly Shiite Jadida district
left 27 dead and 112 injured.
In the first incident, shortly after noon, a man
wearing an explosives belt targeted a gas station.
Five minutes later, the first of at least five car
bombs in the capital exploded near a group of
laborers, police said.
A car bomb struck near a small Shiite mosque in the
Hurriya district of central Baghdad, killing 25 and
injuring 43, police and hospital officials said.
Another detonated by remote control near a small
market in the mostly Shiite Karada district left six
dead and 18 injured.
In the upscale Sunni Arab district of Zayona, a car
bomb targeting an army patrol killed five, while a
car bomb targeting a convoy for an advisor to the
Defense Ministry, Daham Radhi Assal, injured three.
Elsewhere, a car bomb targeting a police patrol on
the road between Kirkuk and the capital killed four
civilians.
Police in the northern, mostly Kurdish city of
Kirkuk said they had arrested three suspected Sunni
militants planting a roadside bomb.
In the Hurriya district, gunmen blew up a Sunni
mosque without causing casualties. Attackers also
damaged a mosque in Tikrit that houses the remains
of Hussein's father.
A mortar shell landed near the offices of Baghdad
TV, a satellite channel operated by the Iraqi
Islamic Party, a Sunni faction. Two employees were
injured.
Authorities in Baqubah this morning discovered nine
bodies, each shot in the head in a style that bears
the signature of death squads.
The two British soldiers were killed near the city
of Amarah, a mostly placid agricultural section of
the country's Shiite south, when their vehicle drove
over a roadside bomb.
In the southern city of Nasiriya, which had not seen
violence for months, a roadside bomb targeting a
convoy of Italian troops wounded a civilian.
www.latimes.com
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