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Iraq's president warns of civil war after
bombings
13.3.2006
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BAGHDAD (Reuters)
- Iraq's president pressed political parties on
Monday to move faster to form a coalition government
after deadly car bombings he said were aimed at
inflaming sectarian tensions and triggering civil
war.
A government of national unity encompassing Kurds,
Shi'ites and Sunnis is widely seen as the best
chance to bring stability to the country, but three
months after elections political leaders are
deadlocked over who should be prime minister.
Blasts ripped through the east Baghdad stronghold of
a major Shi'ite militia on Sunday, killing or
wounding 250 people and raising fears of fresh
sectarian bloodletting. The U.S. military said on
Monday that the death toll had reached 52.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said the bombings
had been designed to "inflame sectarian strife and
fan the fires of civil war".
"It is the duty of the political blocs to intensify
their efforts to form a government and establish a
broad front to achieve security and stability," he
said in a statement. |
Iraqi
President : Jalal Talabani
Photo: Reuters |
Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said he would
not order his militia to strike Sunni al Qaeda
militants after Sunday's bombings in his Sadr City
stronghold.
"I could order the Mehdi Army to root out the
terrorists and fundamentalists but this would lead
us into civil war and we don't want that," the
youthful Sadr told a news conference in the Shi'ite
holy city of Najaf.
Police discovered the shot and tortured bodies of
four Shi'ites in Sadr City. Next to the bodies was a
sign bearing a single word: "Traitors".
The Mehdi Army was accused of leading reprisals on
Sunni mosques and clerics after the February 22
bombing of a major Shi'ite mosque unleashed a wave
of sectarian violence that killed hundreds in a few
days. Sadr has denied the charge.
Officials, including the U.S. ambassador, said after
the Samarra mosque bombing that a major new attack
could spark all-out sectarian conflict.
Sadr City has previously been relatively immune from
Sunni insurgent attacks. Some speculate that was
because Sadr, who led two uprisings against U.S.
forces in 2004, had won respect among Sunnis with
his anti-American rhetoric.
As a rising kingmaker within the Alliance, Sadr has
been more critical of Sunni militants lately,
including in a lengthy interview aired on
U.S.-backed state television on Friday.
CHECKPOINTS
Police said that in addition to the dead, 204 people
were wounded in at least three car bomb blasts at
two markets in Sadr City on Sunday. Some police
sources said there were six bombs.
Mehdi Army militia manned checkpoints on roads into
the sprawling east Baghdad slum, home to 2 million
people, searching cars for possible explosives and
weapons.
Sunday's blasts erupted as political leaders,
shepherded by U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, met yet
again without obvious result to discuss forming a
unity government.
Sunnis, Kurds and secular leaders have been blocking
accord with a demand that Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the
Shi'ite who has led the interim government for the
past year, be dropped as the Shi'ites' choice of
premier for the new, four-year term.
Politicians said they were not hopeful of striking a
deal by Thursday, when parliament is due to meet for
the first time.
"We wish we could reach a deal by Thursday but I
think it will be very difficult," said Zafir al-Ani,
a spokesman of the Sunni Accordance Front, the
biggest Sunni political grouping.
Meetings will be held "for days and nights", said
Adnan Pachachi, Sunni politician in the secular list
the Iraqi National List, led by Former Prime
Minister Iyad Allawi.
In more violence, four policemen and one civilian
were killed in a bomb blast targeting a police
patrol in central Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home
town.
Two policemen were killed and four wounded when two
car bombs exploded in attacks on two police patrols
in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, police said.
Saddam's trial continued, with the judge who oversaw
the trial of 148 Shi'ite men accused of plotting to
assassinate the former Iraqi leader taking the
stand.
Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's
Revolutionary Court, acknowledged he had issued a
death warrant for the 148 and insisted it was legal.
"They attacked the president of the republic and
they confessed," he said in testimony before the
judges trying him, Saddam and six others for crimes
against humanity.
The killing of the 148 from the Shi'ite town of
Dujail after the assassination attempt is at the
heart of the case.
Reuters
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