Iraq: Government stalemate in shadow of civil war
On the day of the first session of Iraq’s new parliament today, and within days of the third anniversary of the US-led invasion, the country lie under the shadow of a feared civil war and politicians report a stalemate over the next government.
Continuing divisions among lawmakers suggested the opening session of the legislature may do little more than swear in members elected in landmark elections three months earlier.
There was little sign of progress after a second full day of meetings among leaders of the major political blocs. US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad brokered the sessions, designed to speed agreement on the next government’s shape.
“I expect that there still will be difficulties over choosing the prime minister,” said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish politician who was in yesterday’s session.
Khalilzad has been pressing political leaders to reach agreement on a national unity government, under which the country’s majority Shiite Muslims would share Cabinet posts equitably with minority Sunnis and Kurds.
The Americans see that as the best opportunity for blunting the Sunni-driven insurgency that has ravaged the country since 2003. If a strong central government were in place, Washington had hoped to start removing some troops by summer.
Under the constitution, the largest parliamentary bloc, controlled by Shiites, has the right to nominate the prime minister. The Shiites named the current prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Politicians involved in the negotiations have said part of the Shiite bloc, those aligned with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, would like to see al-Jaafari ousted but fear the consequences, given his backing from radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and al-Sadr’s thousands-strong Mahdi Army.
Sunni, Kurdish and some secular Shiites argue al-Jaafari is too divisive and accuse him of doing too little to contain revenge killing after bombers destroyed an important Shiite shrine on February 22 and ripped apart teeming markets in an al-Sadr stronghold in Baghdad on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the US military dispatched a battalion of soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armoured Division – about 700 troops – to Iraq from its base in Kuwait to provide extra security for Shiite holy cities as tens of thousands of pilgrims converged for a major religious commemoration that came under attack in the two previous years.
Monday marks the end of the 40-day mourning period after the death of Imam Hussein in 680 A.D. He was the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and was killed in Karbala in present-day Iraq, now the site of massive Shiite pilgrimages to mark the date.
The day also marks the third anniversary since the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003.
Authorities in one of the Shiite holy cities, Karbala, imposed a six-day driving ban starting today in a bid to protect pilgrims this year.
In violence yesterday, a US air strike north of the capital killed 11 people - most of them women and children, said police and relatives of the victims. The US military said it captured the target of the raid, a man suspected of supporting foreign fighters of the al-Qaida in Iraq terror network.
But the military said only four people were killed – a man, two women and a child.
Police Capt. Laith Mohammed said the attack near Balad, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Baghdad, involved US warplanes and armour that flattened a house in the village of Isahaqi. An Associated Press reporter at the scene said the roof of the house had collapsed, three cars were destroyed and two cows were killed.
Relatives said the 11 victims were wrapped in blankets and driven in three pickup trucks to the Tikrit General Hospital, about 75 kilometres (45 miles) to the north.
AP photographs showed the bodies of two men, five children and four other covered figures arriving at the hospital accompanied by grief-stricken relatives. The victims were covered in dust with bits of rubble tangled in their hair.
Riyadh Majid, who identified himself as the nephew of Faez Khalaf, the head of the household who was killed, told AP at the hospital that US forces landed in helicopters and raided the home early yesterday.
Khalaf’s brother, Ahmed, said nine of the victims were family members who lived at the house and two were visitors.
“The dead family was not part of the resistance, they were women and children,” he said. “The Americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death.”
In other violence, the military said a US soldier was killed by mortar fire southwest of Baghdad about 6.30pm.
At least 2,311 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Bomb blasts also killed at least five more people and injured dozens Wednesday in Baghdad and north of the capital. The worst attacks were in Baqouba, 60 kilometres (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, where there were at least three explosions.
| Related Stories: |
|
