Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the country's leaders have averted a civil war that al-Qaeda tried to provoke and the people are united against terrorists. The Iraqi leadership has succeeded ``in preventing the country from going into a civil war that al-Qaeda, the terrorist organization, has planned,'' Maliki said at a conference sponsored by the United Nations in Stockholm today.
The security situation in Iraq has improved and al-Qaeda has been largely cleared from the country, according to the U.S. military. Iraqi and U.S. troops are battling the group in northern areas, such as Mosul, which has been a safe haven for jihadist fighters. Iraqi forces launched a crackdown on fighters loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Basra and Baghdad to regain control of those areas.
Maliki's comments coincided with an attack by a suicide bomber in the north that killed at least 16 people and wounded 30 more, according to Agence France-Presse.
Representatives from about 100 countries are meeting today in Stockholm to discuss Iraq's economic and political stability as provincial elections threaten to undermine security gains by empowering al-Sadr, who opposes the U.S. presence in Iraq. ``We are particularly pleased by, and gratified by, Iraq's willingness and ability in providing for its own security,'' Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the conference, citing the Iraqi army's confrontations with ``extremists'' in Basra, Mosul and Baghdad. Rice also urged Iraq's neighbors to open embassies in Baghdad.
Iranian Viewpoint
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had a different point of view of the security situation in Iraq. ``Due to the mistaken policies pursued by the occupiers in Iraq, the security situation in Iraq is now so grave it has cast its shadow on other areas of life,'' Mottaki told the conference.
Iran has ``always supported the evolution of the prospects of a new, prosperous Iraq and has time and again declared its preparedness to assist Iraq,'' Mottaki added. The U.S. has repeatedly accused Iran of undermining Iraq's stability by funneling arms to Shiite militias. ``We would like 2008 to mark a boost in our bilateral relations with Iraq,'' Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said, adding that Turkey plans to intensify its diplomatic presence in the country.
Turkish warplanes pounded suspected positions of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in the Hakurk region of northern Iraq, Turkey's army said today on its Web site.
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Turkish forces killed as many as 79 Kurdish militants and lost seven soldiers of their own in the first two days of their largest incursion into Iraq in 11 years, the armed forces said today.