Iraq hit by fresh sectarian bloodshed
Gunmen killed 21 people, including a dozen students, after they dragged them off buses north-east of Baghdad. The gunmen spared four Sunni Arabs in one of the worst sectarian atrocities in recent weeks.
In another outbreak of sectarian violence, a firefight broke out after police surrounded a Sunni Arab mosque in oil-rich southern Basra, leaving at least nine people dead in another blow to efforts by Iraq’s prime minister to curb sectarian violence in Iraq’s second largest city.
In the town of Qara Tappah, north-east of Baghdad, mayor Serwan Shokir said one person was also wounded in the attack which occurred in the early morning after three mini buses left his town headed for Baqouba – located 35 miles north-east of Baghdad.
There were 26 people on the buses, including the 12 students who were killed. The students were apparently headed for Baqouba to take exams. Of the dead, 19 were Shiite Turkomen and two were Kurds.
Shokir said that three of the students were in high school – two were 17 and one was 18 – while the other nine – four were 21 and five were 22 – were all students at the al-Yarmouk University in Baqouba.
The four Sunni Arabs who survived were being questioned at Qara Tappah police station, Shokir said.
The attack occurred on the outskirts of Diyala province, a mixed region that in recent weeks has been transformed into a sectarian powder keg – including attacks against Sunni Arab and Shiite Shrines.
Parliament was postponed today after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki again failed to reach any consensus on candidates for the crucial ministers who will run the country’s armed forces and police.
Al-Maliki had promised to name candidates for approval by the 275-member parliament despite the disagreement, but was apparently convinced to wait.
Deputy Parliament Speaker Khalid al-Atiya, a Shiite, said that due to the large number of candidates and failure to reach any agreement, the political parties decided “to give the prime minister another chance to have more negotiations”.
Al-Maliki engaged in last minute negotiations with Sunni Arabs, Shiites and Kurds in an effort to find a solution.
The talks delayed by hours and then suspended the convening parliament, which was to have voted on the candidates for the posts of defence, interior and minister of state for national security.
They have been staffed by al-Maliki and one of his deputies in the two weeks since his government of national unity took office.
The Interior Ministry post will go to a Shiite, the Defence Ministry to a Sunni Arab in an effort to provide balance on security matters.
There were conflicting reports today over the fate of four Russian diplomats who were kidnapped in Baghdad.
An Interior Ministry spokesman denied a report that four Russian hostages had been released the night before in a raid by Iraqi commandos.
A senior ministry official, Lieutenant Colonel Falah al-Mohamedawi, said earlier that the Russian Embassy employees had been freed in a commando raid on Saturday
In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said that Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari spoke with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Saltanov, and told him that the Iraqi president, prime minister and law-enforcement authorities were taking “active efforts to ensure the quickest release of four abducted Russian embassy workers”.
It said that Zebari underlined that Iraq views “Russia as a friendly nation, and the Iraqi society doesn’t remain indifferent to the tragic incident and its representatives were ready to help”.
Yesterday, gunmen attacked a Russian diplomatic car just after noon, killing one Russian foreign service employee and kidnapping four, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ministry identified the slain Russian as Vitaly Vitalyevich Titov, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
In Basra, the stand-off began when police stormed four Sunni mosques hours after a suicide car bomber blew himself up in a crowded market, killing 28 people and wounding 62.
Al-Maliki had declared a state of emergency there last week vowing to crack down with an “iron fist” on rival gangs battling each other for power.
Basra police said they surrounded the al-Arab mosque just after midnight after being tipped off that militants had holed up inside and gunmen opened fire from within. Iraqi forces also said they found two vehicles packed with explosives near the mosque.
Nine people were killed in the firefight and six terror suspects were arrested, police said, adding that part of the mosque was damaged and burned.
A hard-line Sunni organisation in Basra, the influential Sunni Arab Association of Muslim Scholars, said the nine people killed had come to the mosque to protect it after the earlier raids.
