Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media:AFP
Byline
ave Clark
Date:11 August 2006
BAGHDAD, Aug 11, 2006 (AFP) - Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites gathered at their
respective mosques on Friday under the spectre of sectarian war after
another day of carnage and a bomb attack on the holiest shrine of the Shiite
faith.
At least 35 people were killed and more than 100 wounded on Thursday when a
suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at a police checkpoint outside
the tomb of Imam Ali, a Shiite place of pilgrimage in the holy city of
Najaf.
Clashes and bomb attacks killed at least 13 more in Baghdad and as night
fell a mortar shell crashed out of the sky onto a cafe in a Shiite district
north of the capital, killing six people playing dominos.
Government and Shiite leaders blamed Sunni extremists and fighters still
loyal to the regime of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein for the Najaf blast,
accusing them of fomenting violence between Iraq's rival Sunni and Shiite
communities.
Shiite leader Abdelaziz Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq, one of the pillars of the coalition government, demanded
the right to form neighbourhood defence committees.
"The recurrence of such criminal acts confirms the perpetrators are takfiris
(Sunni extremists), Baathists and the Saddamists who are aiming their dirty
sectarian war against the descendants of the Prophet Mohammed," he said.
The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, has in
the past vowed to disarm unofficial militias, and is now engaged in a large
security operation in Baghdad alongside US forces to root out death squads.
The US ambassador in Iraq, Kalmay Khalilzad, echoed calls from Iraqi leaders
for the increasingly divided communities of Iraq to unite to oppose violence
"Terrorists are the enemies of Iraqi unity, security, democracy and
prosperity," he said in a statement released in the Iraqi capital.
"In addition to uniting, the best response to todays attack is for Iraqis
with information about terrorist activities to provide it to the security
forces," he added.
Nevertheless, the bloodshed continued on Friday when insurgents detonated a
roadside bomb as a police patrol passed the entrance to the northern town of
Hawijah, killing two officers and wounding four.
And in the central, mainly Shiite town of Kut, undidentified gunmen opened
fire on the offices of a Kurdish political party, the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, wounding one guard and starting a fire inside, police said.
In Najaf itself, a measure of calm had returned, but cars were banned from
the historic old city around Imam Ali's mausoleum as families prepared to
bury their dead, an AFP correspondent in the city said.
US commanders estimate that 80 percent of the violence in Iraq is
concentrated around the capital, which is increasing split on sectarian
lines and plagued by attacks.
Along with Maliki's government, which has put more than 50,000 security
personnel on the streets in a bid to regain control, US commanders have
rushed reinforcements to the city to try to quell the fighting.
The second phase of Operation Together Forward was launched on Tuesday. US
and Iraqi commanders plan to move through flashpoint areas street-by-street,
isolating districts and cleansing them of armed militant cells.
Byline
ave ClarkDate:11 August 2006
BAGHDAD, Aug 11, 2006 (AFP) - Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites gathered at their
respective mosques on Friday under the spectre of sectarian war after
another day of carnage and a bomb attack on the holiest shrine of the Shiite
faith.
At least 35 people were killed and more than 100 wounded on Thursday when a
suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at a police checkpoint outside
the tomb of Imam Ali, a Shiite place of pilgrimage in the holy city of
Najaf.
Clashes and bomb attacks killed at least 13 more in Baghdad and as night
fell a mortar shell crashed out of the sky onto a cafe in a Shiite district
north of the capital, killing six people playing dominos.
Government and Shiite leaders blamed Sunni extremists and fighters still
loyal to the regime of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein for the Najaf blast,
accusing them of fomenting violence between Iraq's rival Sunni and Shiite
communities.
Shiite leader Abdelaziz Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq, one of the pillars of the coalition government, demanded
the right to form neighbourhood defence committees.
"The recurrence of such criminal acts confirms the perpetrators are takfiris
(Sunni extremists), Baathists and the Saddamists who are aiming their dirty
sectarian war against the descendants of the Prophet Mohammed," he said.
The government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, has in
the past vowed to disarm unofficial militias, and is now engaged in a large
security operation in Baghdad alongside US forces to root out death squads.
The US ambassador in Iraq, Kalmay Khalilzad, echoed calls from Iraqi leaders
for the increasingly divided communities of Iraq to unite to oppose violence
"Terrorists are the enemies of Iraqi unity, security, democracy and
prosperity," he said in a statement released in the Iraqi capital.
"In addition to uniting, the best response to todays attack is for Iraqis
with information about terrorist activities to provide it to the security
forces," he added.
Nevertheless, the bloodshed continued on Friday when insurgents detonated a
roadside bomb as a police patrol passed the entrance to the northern town of
Hawijah, killing two officers and wounding four.
And in the central, mainly Shiite town of Kut, undidentified gunmen opened
fire on the offices of a Kurdish political party, the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, wounding one guard and starting a fire inside, police said.
In Najaf itself, a measure of calm had returned, but cars were banned from
the historic old city around Imam Ali's mausoleum as families prepared to
bury their dead, an AFP correspondent in the city said.
US commanders estimate that 80 percent of the violence in Iraq is
concentrated around the capital, which is increasing split on sectarian
lines and plagued by attacks.
Along with Maliki's government, which has put more than 50,000 security
personnel on the streets in a bid to regain control, US commanders have
rushed reinforcements to the city to try to quell the fighting.
The second phase of Operation Together Forward was launched on Tuesday. US
and Iraqi commanders plan to move through flashpoint areas street-by-street,
isolating districts and cleansing them of armed militant cells.