Shiite and Sunni Arabs celebrated the Islamic feast of sacrifice Tuesday with calls for an end to the bloodshed that has wracked Iraq since last month's elections. Sunni Arabs tempered their appeals with renewed calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.In a day with no violence reported, Iraqis nationwide celebrated the opening of the four-day Eid al-Adha celebration with food, sweets and visits to relatives. Lambs were slaughtered and food was distributed to the poor.
"This Eid is a happy day for all Muslims, especially Iraqis. But it comes after painful events that happened in Karbala and Ramadi," said Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite.
He referred to the killings of more than 120 people in suicide bombings last week in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and at a police recruiting center in Ramadi. On Monday, suicide bombers infiltrated the heavily fortified Interior Ministry compound in Baghdad and killed 29 Iraqis - an attack claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq, a group with an avowed aim of starting a sectarian war.
Violence has increased since the Dec. 15 elections, with at least 498 Iraqis and 54 U.S. forces killed.
Al-Jaafari said despite the violence, Iraqi had made significant advances in 2005, citing a large turnout in Dec. 15 elections as one of the biggest achievements.
About 70 percent of Iraq's 15 million voters, including large numbers of Sunni Arabs, participated in the elections, although some Sunni Arab groups complained the vote was tainted by fraud - delaying the release of results.
"The wide participation of the majority I also consider to be an Eid celebration," al-Jaafari told Cabinet ministers visiting him. "Even in counties where security and stability are established, it is rare to reach such a rate of 70 percent which Iraq reached."
Eid al-Adha - one of Iraq's biggest holidays - concludes the pilgrimage to Mecca and is celebrated by Muslims worldwide. It commemorates Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son in God's test of the patriarch's faith. At the last moment, God substituted a sheep for the son. The story is shared by all the great monotheistic religions - Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
Al-Jaafari's governing United Iraqi Alliance emerged with a large lead in the elections, far ahead of a Kurdish coalition and Sunni Arab groups but without the majority it will need in the 275-member parliament to avoid a coalition.
With final results expected next week, the Shiites, Kurds and some Sunni Arab groups have been talking about forming a broad-based coalition government.
Iraq's leading Shiite politician, United Iraqi Alliance leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, urged Sunni Arabs to stop complaining and accept the results.
"We call upon everybody to make the general interest of Iraq their top priority, away from sectarian or private interests. We also call on everyone to respect the will of the people as it is shown by the ballots. We call on everybody to stop screaming, shuffling the cards and forging the facts," al-Hakim said in an Eid message.
The cleric added that "national unity can be achieved when everybody recognize the facts" and "accepts their outcome. Any violation of this undoubtedly will lead to the continuation of chaos and drag the country to more disasters."
In Washington, President Bush, speaking at a gathering of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, also urged Iraqis to put aside their differences to form a government of national unity, warning that the country "risks sliding back into tyranny" if it dwells on old grievances.
A senior Sunni Arab politician giving a holiday sermon Tuesday denounced the suicide bomb attack in Karbala and said "Iraqis would live as brothers" if the occupier - the U.S.-led coalition - left Iraq.
Harith al-Ubaidi, of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front headed by Adnan al-Dulaimi, said in a sermon that Sunnis were "hand in hand" with Shiites against the attack outside a Karbala shrine.
"We also demand that the occupier get out, because he is the reason behind every crime," al-Ubaidi said at the Umm al-Qura mosque, Baghdad headquarters of the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, which is believed to have ties to insurgent groups.
Hundreds of worshippers demonstrated after prayers to denounce a raid on the mosque Sunday by U.S. troops. The mosque is in al-Adel, a rough Sunni Arab neighborhood where American journalist Jill Carroll, a 28-year-old freelance reporter for The Christian Science Monitor, was kidnapped Saturday.
A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the raid was a necessary immediate response to the kidnapping based on a tip provided by an Iraqi citizen. The military said Sunday that six people were detained.