Civil war warning after Iraq bomb kills 67
Iraq’s interim prime minister warned that insurgents are trying to foment sectarian civil war as well as derail elections, while thousands of mourners turned out for funerals in the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala a day after car bombs killed 67 people.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said the mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents, blamed for Sunday’s bloody attacks, want to ”create ethnic and religious tensions, problems and conflicts … to destroy the unity of this country”.
“These attacks are designed to stop the political process from taking place in Iraq,” Allawi told reporters yesterday.
He added that his administration would not be deterred despite expecting more strikes before key January 30 parliamentary elections – the first free vote in Iraq since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958.
Although members of his cabinet have made similar warnings about the danger of a civil war, Allawi himself had regularly played down that possibility.
Political and religious leaders of the Shiite community also have discounted the threat of an armed conflict with Sunnis, instructing their followers not to react violently to attacks.
These included a bombing in August 2003 that killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, leader of the main Shiite party – the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
In a new attack in Karbala yesterday, a bomb exploded at a police checkpoint, damaging nearby buildings but inflicting no casualties. Police said they arrested the attacker. In Najaf, police said they defused a bomb stashed in a car.
Shiite Muslims, who make up around 60% of Iraq’s people, have been strong supporters of the electoral process, which they expect to reverse the long-time domination of Iraq’s Sunni minority.
The insurgency is believed to draw most of its support from Sunnis, who provided much of Saddam Hussein’s former Baath Party leadership.
Shiite officials and clerics blamed Sunnis for Sunday’s bombings, which caused the worst carnage in Iraq since July. The strikes appeared designed to cause heavy casualties, and provoke reprisals by Shiites against Sunnis.
The bombings – aimed at a funeral procession in Najaf and a packed bus station in Karbala – again highlighted the capability of the guerrillas to strike.
Their attacks have undermined confidence in repeated claims by US military commanders that the capture of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah last month dealt a serious blow to the insurgency.
In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan strongly condemned Sunday’s violence and called on Iraqis “to come together in a spirit of national reconciliation”, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
