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Iraq

Dozens of bodies found in Iraq

2006-02-23

MORE than 50 bullet-riddled bodies were found overnight in Iraq as sectarian violence surged after the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine sparked revenge attacks against Sunni mosques. Amid warnings the sectarian bloodshed could spiral inro all out civil war, Iraqi political and religious leaders were set to meet with President Jalal Talabani. A total of 53 bodies were recovered in Baghdad and its suburbs, an interior ministry official said today. The upsurge in killings came after suspected al-Qaeda linked militants yesterday morning bombed the 1000-year-old Imam Ali al-Hadi mausoleum, one of the countries' main Shiite shrines, in the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad. Early today the police reported finding the bodies of three Iraqi journalists working for Dubai-based Arabiya satellite television who were kidnapped near Samarra last night while reporting on the shrine bombing. "The bodies of the presenter Atwar Bahjat, of cameraman Adnan Abdallah and of soundman Khaled Mohsen were found early this morning some 15km north of Samarra," police said. The bombing prompted global condemnation and appeals for calm, but large-scale demonstrations turned violent, leading to the killings of at least six Sunnis in the capital and attacks on a number of Sunni mosques nationwide. Two people were also killed in an attack on offices of a Sunni political party in Iraq's mainly Shiite city of Basra, while gunmen stormed a prison in the southern port city and lynched 10 suspected Sunni militants from Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The latest bloodshed came as Shiite and Sunni political factions bicker over the formation of a national unity government, amid anxiety that further delay in setting up a cabinet could lead the country into chaos. The bomb attack on the shrine destroyed the dome of one of the Shiite Islam's holiest shrines where Shiites believe their 12th Imam disappeared in the 9th century AD. In Baghdad, mobs killed three clerics and three worshippers in assaults on 27 Sunni mosques, an Iraqi security officer said. Gunmen opened fire on Sunni religious sanctuaries and torched at least one, the officer added. "We ask the Marjaiya (Shiite grand ayatollahs) to intervene before it is too late," Sunni-based Islamic Party's chief Tareq al-Hashimi said. Iraq's top Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged his community to remain calm and to refrain from seeking vengeance. But at least 2000 Shiite demonstrators took to the streets of Kut, 175km southeast of the capital, today shouting "vengeance, vengeance". Waving the green flags of Islam and the national Iraqi colours, thousands of Shiites yesterday had also taken to the streets, vowing to punish those responsible for the attack. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari has proclaimed three days of national mourning and decreed that Thursday would be a public holiday. Mr Jaafari called on Iraqis to denounce sectarian attacks and "close the road to those who want to undermine national unity". "They are trying to push us into killing one another," the Government said in a statement. The head of one of the most powerful Shiite parties in Iraq, Abdel Aziz Hakim, attributed part of the blame for the bombing on US ambassador Zalmay Khalizad, two days after the US diplomat offered a veiled rebuke to Shiite parties. "These statements were a reason for more pressure and gave the green light to terrorist groups. Certainly he is partly responsible for what happened," Mr Hakim said. Mr Khalilzad, who has repeatedly warned against growing sectarian tension, enraged Mr Hakim on Monday with a suggestion that the United States would curtail funds if Iraq's next government were run on a sectarian basis. The supreme leader of neighbouring Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also blamed Washington. But he too called on Iraqi Shiites not to seek revenge. The Samarra bombing, carried out by men dressed in police commando uniforms, bore the hallmarks of supporters of al-Qaeda's Iraq frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has declared war on the country's Shiites. US President George W. Bush called on Iraqis to act with restraint.

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Iraq

SCIRI highlights nomination of Abdel Mahdi as Iraq's next Prime Minister

2006-01-29

Reda Jawad Taqi, the official in charge of political relations in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution (SCIRI), an influential Shia party that is led by Abdel Aziz Hakim and part of the United Iraqi Alliance, has underlined the nomination of vice-president Adel Abdel Mahdi to head the next government. Meanwhile, Dr. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Iraqi Accord Front (Sunni), asserted that no serious or detailed meeting has been held so far with the other entities about forming the next government. Taqi pointed out that official talks concerning the structure of the government would start early next week when Massoud Barzani, the Kurdistan Democratic Party leader and president of the Kurdistan region, arrives in Baghdad to take part. Speaking on the phone to Asharq Al-Awsat from his office in Baghdad yesterday, Taqi said: "Abdel Mahdi is SCIRI's candidate and his rivals are the current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Dr. Nadim Jabiri, secretary general of Al-Fadilah Party. Serious talks will take place over the next two days so that the United Iraqi Alliance will decide on this matter and nominate the person who will form the cabinet. The Alliance won a majority of the votes in the recent elections that qualify it to nominate one of its members to be the next prime minister." He added, "Within the Alliance, we are seeking to nominate the prime minister by consensus and are not expecting any disagreements over this issue." Asked whether Al-Jaafari would insist on being nominated and on remaining prime minister, Taqi said: "We will vote inside the Alliance and it will decide whoever wins in this vote. The name of Hussein al-Shahristani, alliance member and deputy speaker of the outgoing National Assembly, will be added to the list of candidates." Taqi stressed that the "competition within the Alliance in the end will be between Al-Jaafari and Abdel Mahdi." He did not rule out, however, the withdrawal of Al-Fadilah Party from the Alliance if its secretary General Jabiri is not nominated, adding, "This is a possibility."

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Iraq-Jordan

Iraq's parliament opens without deal on government

2005-03-17

BAGHDAD - Iraq opened a new 275-member national assembly but politicians failed to form a unity government in the landmark session, just days before the second anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq. Wednesday's inauguration won praise from US President George W. Bush, who said it was "a bright moment in what is a process toward writing of a constitution, ratification of a constitution, and elections". As the milestone 90-minute session began, a pair of mortars or rockets hit the sealed-off enclave of US and Iraqi institutions where the Baghdad ceremony was being held, but the US military reported no casualties. IThe historic inauguration, meanwhile, coming six weeks after elections, was largely ceremonial amid the political stalemate between the Kurds and Shiites. Haggling over Kurdish claims on the ethnically-divided, oil-rich city of Kirkuk and the status of their peshmerga militia was helping stall progress on key Cabinet appointments. The Shiite candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, said it could take another fortnight but denied that the talks had hit a brick wall. But the landmark parliament session served as a forum for Islamists, secular Iraqis, Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis to stake out their positions ahead of their main task of drafting Iraq's permanent constitution. Outgoing prime minister, Iyad Allawi, in a grey suit, strode to the podium as he completed the mission handed him last June when he was assigned the task of steering Iraq to its first free elections in half a century. "Dear brothers and sisters, we have great duties to face and stand up to. Much honorable Iraqis' blood has been shed to attain these goals," he said, flanked by red-white-and-black Iraqi flags and a table of white flowers. "One of the most important tasks is the inclusion of all the Iraqi people into the political process and in the government establishment." Following him to the podium was political rival and the winning Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) list's top candidate Abdel Aziz Hakim, dressed in the black turban and robes marking a descendent of the Prophet Mohammad. "We want a constitution that guarantees the rights of all, protects human rights and respects the Muslim identity of the Iraqi people," Hakim insisted, as he issued a message of Islamic moderation. Both Hakim and Allawi were at pains to reach out to the Sunnis, the ruling elite for most of Iraq's modern history until the fall of Saddam. The embittered minority is widely seen as fueling the country's insurgency. Kurdish chieftain Jalal Talabani, Iraq's probable next president, reminded the parliament to respect Kurdish rights, on a day which coincided with the anniversary of Saddam's gassing of the Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988 at the cost of some 5,000 lives. Outgoing Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, said he expected a deal to be reached soon, while other Kurdish officials predicted a deal within a few days. Nonetheless, details on the shape of the cabinet were emerging, to preside over Iraq until a new round of elections in December. Iraq's presidency will likely go to Talabani and the two deputies will probably be a Shiite and a Sunni Muslim Arab. Outgoing Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite, is a contender for one of the two deputy slots, while the Sunni leadership has four favorites for the other vice presidency post. They include interim President Ghazi al-Yawar, outgoing Industry Minister Hajem al-Hassani, tribal leader Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarba and senior politician Hussein al-Juburi. The speaker of parliament will likewise be a Sunni Arab, and Yawar, a tribal magnate from northern Iraq, is also in the running for that post.

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Iraq-Jordan

8 Chinese taken hostage in Iraq

2005-01-18

Kidnappers released footage of eight Chinese hostages they threatened to execute unless Beijing "clarifies its role" in Iraq, while a Syrian Catholic archbishop was released a day after being captured. And as the campaign for the January 30 general elections kicked into second gear despite the violence, US Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice acknowledged shortcomings in training of Iraqi security forces. In a tape broadcast Tuesday on Arab news networks and showing eight Chinese nationals holding up their passports guarded by two hooded men, the kidnappers charged the group had "worked with US forces in Iraq." "We ask the Chinese government to clarify its position toward those and other Chinese who have entered Iraq to help occupation forces," said one of them without identifying his organization. The Chinese embassy in Baghdad confirmed that eight construction workers from the southern province of Fujian had been abducted last week on the main highway from Iraq to Jordan, China's official Xinhua news agency reported. Another video released Tuesday showed a Lebanese held by a previously unknown group on charges of working with the US military. The embassy could not immediately confirm his capture. The latest hostage crisis came quick on the heels of another kidnapping episode that sent shockwaves through Iraq's small Christian minority. A Syrian Catholic archbishop nabbed in the northern city of Mosul on Monday afternoon, was released by his captors less than 24 hours later. Monsignor Basile Georges Casmoussa said after his release he had been treated well, and that the kidnappers had captured him by mistake and did not request a ransom for his release. His statement contradicted earlier declarations by a senior prelate who said money was being collected to free him, as well as his own driver's statement. The short crisis raised the specter of growing sectarian strife ahead of the elections, though most of the ethnic-torn country's Christian leaders downplayed the kidnapping, blaming criminal gangs. Sunni Arab insurgents fiercely opposed to the very principle of democratic polls have stepped up their attacks against the long-oppressed majority Shiites, who are expected to dominate the vote. On Tuesday, a suicide car bomber killed himself and two others at a checkpoint some 30 meters (yards) from the headquarters of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) -- home also to party leader Abdel Aziz Hakim. Al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for the attack in an Internet statement. Iraq's Interior Minister Falah Naqib warned the country risked sliding into civil war if the Sunni minority boycotted the elections. Eleven other Iraqis were killed in a string of separate incidents across Iraq, and a US soldier was killed in the Baghdad area. With milestone elections less than two weeks away, an electoral debate so far subdued by relentless violence and fear of insurgent reprisal for participation in the electoral process started gathering steam. US-backed interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi staked the hopes of the Iraqi National Accord -- his party -- on his reputation for tough security policies, setting out its platform for the polls. His party also accused policemen loyal to the Shiite list of abusing their position to intimidate voters in the majority community's southern heartland. One of Allawi's running mates, state minister Adnan Junabi, took up the allegations further Tuesday, accusing Shiite supporters in the main southern city of Basra of pressuring voters and again criticizing the use of religion. Ironically, Junabi was forced to admit that the premier's own supporters within the security forces had been guilty of similar abuses, after policemen were seen handing out campaign materials for Allawi's list in Baghdad. A US official conceded there had been violations by several of the larger parties but insisted that teething problems were only to be expected in a country that was holding its first free elections in a half century. In Washington, Rice acknowledged that problems needed to be solved over the training of Iraq's fledgling security services -- to face their toughest challenge so far when they take near full responsibility for security on election day. She told the Senate foreign relations committee that Americans were working "to address some of these problems of leadership and morale and desertion in the armed forces and in the police forces and to look at some of the equipping of the police forces." Rice also warned that Syria may face new US sanctions if it maintains its ties to terrorists and cross-border help for insurgents in neighboring Iraq.

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Iraq-Jordan

Sistani Confirms Support for UIA List

2005-01-17

Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, yesterday reiterated his support for the Unified Iraqi Alliance list which is widely expected to dominate the Jan. 30 general elections, one of his aides said. "Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani stresses the need to hold the elections at the scheduled date and confirms his support for list 169," said Sheikh Najah Al-Abbudi. Sistani's demeanor doesn't make me ooze confidence... He was referring to the Unified Iraqi Alliance, a grouping of major Shiite parties which was formed with Sistani's blessing and is headed by Abdel Aziz Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. "A war has been launched against this list, on the grounds that it includes all the currents and strata of Iraqi society," Abbudi said during a meeting of Sistani's representatives in Diwaniya, south of Baghdad. Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party cried foul last week over the alleged use of religion in advertising by the front-running Shiite coalition. One pamphlet circulating in southern Shiite cities speaks of voting for the UIA as the will of the "Marjaya," a term used for Sistani and his group of elite clerics. The Iraqi Electoral Commission said it would look into the complaint.

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