Iraq violence continues as talks focus on security crackdown
Early-morning bombings - including a blast that killed six when it struck a minivan of workers in southern Baghdad - continued today as US and Iraqi officials promised a crackdown on violence and sectarian attacks.
Police Capt. Jamil Hussein said the blast occurred at about 8am (5am Irish time) in Baghdad’s violent southern neighbourhood of Dora, where bombings and shootings have become commonplace.
A roadside bomb detonated next to a police patrol east of Kirkuk, but missed and struck a civilian car. One person was killed in the explosion, two more were injured, police said.
The deaths come as Iraqi and US officials planned a security crackdown after al-Qaida vowed in a website message to carry out “major attacks” after a coalition airstrike killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Officials hope his death will slow sectarian violence, but internal wrangling in Iraq’s new government has continued. Radical anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the resignations of three Shiite Cabinet ministers, saying they lacked the necessary qualifications and experience to run their ministries.
Al-Sadr also accused at least one of them, the minister of state for provincial affairs Saad Tahir Abid, of having ties to Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime, officials said.
Hassan al-Rubaie, a member of al-Sadr’s bloc, said that Abid, the minister of state for tourism, Liwa Semeism, and transport minister Karim Mahdi already had offered their resignations and prime minister Nouri Maliki would decide whether to accept them over the next few days.
In the United States, President Bush began a two-day summit with top advisers at Camp David to discuss a new strategy for Iraq, which would include reconstruction effort and curbing violence. Bush will talk with Maliki tomorrow.
Together they hope to set a solid agenda for addressing security and repairing infrastructure like Iraq’s electricity system that has led to dissatisfaction with US forces.
Estimates say Iraqis have between 30 minutes and two hours of electricity a day.
Maliki’s new security team also has moved ahead with a plan to restore security in Baghdad, which has suffered most from suicide attackers, roadside bombs and sectarian death squads. The government will announce the plan in days.
Iraqi and US officials yesterday released some 200 detainees from Abu Ghraib. Maliki has promised to release 2,500 prisoners by the end of this month – a total that would be the largest since the US led invasion in March 2003.
Sunnis frequently complain of random detentions and maltreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government and the releases are seen as a key step toward dampening a Sunni-led insurgency.
The discussions on security come after Qaida in Iraq insisted in an internet statement that it was still powerful after the death of Zarqawi.
The statement said the group’s leadership “renews its allegiance” to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
