Shiite Mob Torches Kurdish Party Office 11.8.2006 

The attackers fled after seizing three AK-47 rifles from the guards, one of whom was injured, al-Lami said. There were no officials in the office during the early morning raid.

The raid was further evidence of the sectarian and ethnic divisions in Iraq that have exploded into violence, mostly terrorizing Shiite and Sunni Arabs. The largely Sunni Kurds are a separate, non-Arab ethnic group.

The rising sectarian and communal violence is costing about 1,000 lives every month in the Baghdad area alone, raising fears of allout civil war.

The offending article in the PUK newspaper included a July 29 statement by al-Yacoubi in which he accused Kurds in the Kurdish-dominated Kirkuk province of attacking Arabs and Turkomans. The article said al-Yacoubi was spreading "hatred against the Kurds" and trying to "ignite a war between the Arab Shiites and Kurds."

In a statement Friday, Talabani acknowledged that some of the phrases used in his party newspaper's article were "inappropriate ... despite the bitterness that he and every Kurdish felt" over al-Yacoubi's statement.

He said he was not aware of the article's contents until it was published.

Al-Yacoubi, the spiritual leader of the Fadhila, or Virtue, party, which is part of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite alliance, was not immediately available for comment.

However, the Fadhila is demanding an official apology from the PUK, said party spokesman Sabah al-Saiedi. Al-Yacoubi is urging his followers not to resort to violence, al-Saiedi said, after a party delegation met Friday with Talabani.

AP

Top