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Iraqi Civilians officially are called to
arms
9.7.2007
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Sunni, Shiite leaders alike say Iraqis cannot rely
on security forces to protect them
July
9, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- Prominent Shiite and Sunni
politicians called on Iraqi civilians to take up
arms to defend themselves after a weekend of
violence that claimed more than 220 lives, including
60 who died Sunday in a surge of bombings and
shootings around Baghdad.
The calls reflect growing frustration with the
inability of Iraqi security forces to prevent
extremist attacks.
The weekend deaths included two American soldiers —
one killed Sunday in a suicide bombing on the
western outskirts of Baghdad and another who died in
combat Saturday in Salahuddin province north of the
capital, the U.S. command said. Three soldiers were
wounded in the Sunday blast.
Sunday's deadliest attack occurred when a bomb
struck a truckload of newly recruited Iraqi soldiers
on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing 15 and wounding
20, a police official at the nearest police station
said on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to release the information.
The string of attacks in the Iraqi capital showed
that extremists can still unleash strikes in the
city despite a relative lull in violence here in
recent weeks amid the U.S. offensives in and around
Baghdad.
But the bloodshed in the Baghdad area paled in
comparison to the carnage Saturday, when a truck
bomb devastated the public market in Armili, a town
north of the capital whose inhabitants are mostly
Shiites from the Turkoman ethnic minority. There was
still confusion over the death toll Sunday.
Two police officers said 150 people were killed.
Other officials put the death toll at 115. Abbas al-Bayati,
a Shiite Turkoman lawmaker, told reporters in
Baghdad that 130 had died.
Regardless of the precise figure, the attack was
clearly among the deadliest in Iraq in months. It
reinforced suspicions that al-Qaida extremists were
moving north to less protected regions beyond the
U.S. security crackdown in Baghdad and on the
capital's northern doorstep.
A call to arms
During a news conference Sunday in Baghdad, al-Bayati
criticized the security situation in Armili, saying
its police force had only 30 members and that the
Interior Ministry had finally responded to requests
for reinforcements only two days before the attack.
In the absence of enough security forces, al-Bayati
said, authorities should help residents "arm
themselves" for their own protection.
The call for civilians to take up arms in their own
defense was echoed Sunday by the country's Sunni
Arab vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, who said all
Iraqis must "pay the price" for terrorism.
"People have a right to expect from the government
and security agencies protection for their lives,
land, honor and property," al-Hashemi said in a
statement. "But in the case of (their) inability,
the people have no choice but to take up their own
defense."
He said the government should provide communities
with money, weapons and training and "regulate their
use by rules of behavior."
Prime minister under fire
Another prominent Sunni lawmaker, Adnan al-Dulaimi,
said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had failed to
provide services and security, but he stopped short
of saying his followers would seek to topple the
Shiite-led government in a no-confidence vote.
The CBS Evening News reported Saturday that a large
block of Sunni Iraqi politicians will ask for a
parliamentary vote of no-confidence against al-Maliki's
government on July 15.
"The situation has become terribly bad," al-Dulaimi
told the Associated Press.
"All options are open for us. We are going to study
the situation thoroughly, and we are going to look
into the possible measures which go with the
interests of the Iraqi people. We will also consider
whether to keep on with the government or not."
But Iraq's national security adviser, a Shiite,
insisted that the government still enjoyed broad
support and he warned against any effort to replace
al-Maliki.
"I can tell you one thing, that, after Maliki, there
is going to be the hurricane in Iraq," Mouwaffak al-Rubaie
told CNN's Late Edition.
The idea of organizing local communities for their
own defense has caught on here in recent months
after the success of Sunni Arab tribes in Anbar
province that took up arms to help drive al-Qaida
from their towns and villages.
On Sunday, Lt. Gen. Ali Gheidan said the Iraqi army
planned to raise volunteer forces in Diyala
province, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have driven
al-Qaida fighters from part of the capital of
Baqouba. He said more than 3,800 volunteers already
had been recruited.
AP
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