|
36 dead after blast in baghdad vegetable market Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1678956http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1678956
36 Dead After Bomb Blast in Baghdad Market
36 Dead After Bomb Rips Though Baghdad Market, Senior Sunni Leader Escapes Assassination
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press Writers
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq Mar 2, 2006 (AP)—
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A bomb ripped through a vegetable market in a Shiite section of Baghdad and a leading Sunni politician escaped an attack on his convoy Thursday as at least 36 people were killed in unrelenting violence pushing Iraq toward civil war.
An aide to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, meanwhile, lashed out at Sunni, Kurdish and secular political leaders who have mounted a campaign to deny him another term, saying the Shiite United Iraqi alliance will not change its candidate.
Al-Jaafari canceled a meeting Thursday with top political leaders after they launched their bid to unseat him, raising a new hurdle in U.S.-backed talks on an inclusive government, which already broke down last week when Sunni parties pulled out to protest attacks on Sunni mosques triggered by the Feb. 22 bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in the central city of Samarra. Hundreds were killed in the sectarian fury that followed.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leader of the Sunni's largest parliamentary bloc, escaped the assassination attempt Thursday because he already had sped away from the scene in another vehicle in his convoy after the car in which he had been riding got a flat tire. Gunmen opened fire on the disabled car, killing one of al-Dulaimi's bodyguards and wounding five others. The politician said he was not aware of the attack until he reached his office.
The attack occurred a day after it was revealed that al-Dulaimi one of Iraq's most prominent moderate Sunnis had joined with key Kurdish and secular politicians in a coalition that agreed to ask the main Shiite bloc to withdraw al-Jaafari's nomination for prime minister and put forward another candidate. Officials of all three groups confirmed the plan but spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Al-Jaafari adviser Haider al-Ibadi accused the prime minister's critics of trying to delay the formation of a new government, telling The Associated Press: "There are some elements who have personal differences with al-Jaafari."
The decision also drew sharp opposition from the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose support enabled al-Jaafari to win the nomination over Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi by a single vote in a Feb. 12 caucus of Shiites who dominate the new parliament.
An official close to al-Sadr described the attempt to remove al-Jaafari as a "flagrant interference."
"We will not abandon al-Jaafari and this is the right of the people who voted. None of the politicians can impose their will on the people," the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the political flap.
A convoy of Defense Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi's bodyguards was attacked in the same Baghdad neighborhood as the other convoy attack, police said. Six bodyguards were rushed to Yarmouk Hospital, where one died of his injuries, said Dr. Muhanad Jawad. The minister, a Sunni Arab who is not related to Adnan al-Dulaimi, was not in the convoy at the time.
The explosion during the busy morning shopping period at a vegetable market in Baghdad's southeastern Zafaraniyah neighborhood killed at least eight people and wounded 14, said police Lt. Bilal Ali Majid. Police evacuated the market after finding a second bomb.
Another bomb exploded in a minibus traveling through Sadr City, a Shiite ghetto in east Baghdad, killing five people and wounding 10, police said. A fourth device went off as Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry commandos drove through the mostly Sunni Amariyah neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing one of them and injuring three, police said.
Earlier, gunmen attacked a joint police-army checkpoint about 20 miles north of Samarra, killing six soldiers and four policemen, police said. The attackers set fire to the bodies before fleeing the area, he said.
Four more policemen were killed when gunmen intercepted they vehicle in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, said police Brig. Abdel Hamid al-Jbouri. And police found the bodies of five men apparently shot to death in and around Baghdad on Thursday.
The violence has complicated efforts to form a broad-based government, which U.S. officials consider essential to cut support for insurgents among the Sunni-Arab minority so coalition forces can start drawing down later this year.
Forty-five Sunni preachers and mosque employees have been killed since the latest round of sectarian violence broke out last month, according to Sheik Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samaraie, head of the government's Sunni Endowment, which takes care of Sunni mosques and religious shrines.
He told a news conference Thursday that 37 Sunni mosques were destroyed and 86 damaged by grenade, rocket or gunfire. Six others remained in the hands of Shiite militiamen, he said. U.S. military officials put the figures much lower.
Yet another Sunni cleric was gunned down as he left a mosque after dawn prayers Thursday in Basra, in the southern Shiite heartland. It was not clear whether al-Samaraie included the cleric in his count.
Al-Jaafari's office gave no reason for calling off Thursday's meeting with major political parties, but the decision came a day after the key political groups agreed to mount a campaign to deny him another term.
Al-Sadr's militiamen were believed behind many of the attacks against Sunni mosques last week, and the prospect of a prime minister in debt to the young radical Shiite cleric has alarmed mainstream politicians, including some in the Shiite alliance.
"The cancellation of this meeting is a regrettable thing because such meetings are essential under the current situation," said Mahmoud Othman, a leading figure in Parliament's Kurdish bloc.
The Shiites won 130 of Parliament's 275 seats in December elections, giving them the largest bloc of lawmakers and the first chance to form a government but not enough to govern without partners.
The former U.N. human rights chief for Iraq said abuses are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein. Extrajudicial killings and torture are soaring, and morgue workers are being threatened by both government-backed militiamen and insurgents not to properly investigate deaths, he told AP in Sydney, Australia.
"Under Saddam, if you agreed to forgo your basic right to freedom of expression and thought, you were physically more or less OK," said John Pace, who last month left his post as director of the human rights office at the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq. "But now, no. Here, you have a primitive, chaotic situation where anybody can do anything they want to anyone."
As sectarian killing surged last week, the U.S. 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division was put on alert in neighboring Kuwait for a possible move into Iraq, the military said. But no orders were given for such a move.
Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue, Sameer N. Yacoub, Alexandra Zavis and Steven R. Hurst contributed to this report from Baghdad.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
|
|
