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| Iraq |
| Sunni mosque bombed as Iraqi political tensions subside |
| 2006-02-11 |
| A bomb exploded in a car parked 10 yards from a Sunni Muslim mosque Friday, killing eight worshipers in Iraq's deadliest attack during a week otherwise marked by conciliatory words between leaders of feuding religious sects. The midday blast hit people leaving Iskan Shaabi Mosque after the main weekly prayer service in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood. Witnesses said bodies flew through the air and nearby cars went up in flames, sending smoke through the mosque's shattered windows. At least 22 people were wounded. No group claimed responsibility. A Sunni Arab political party blamed foreign elements of the Sunni-led insurgency, which reportedly has been divided over whether to continue targeting civilians in its campaign against U.S. forces and Iraq's Shiite Muslim-led government. Two Marines died after their patrol hit a roadside bomb Thursday near the embattled city of Fallouja, 35 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. military announced. Iraq's electoral commission certified final results for the Dec. 15 elections, setting the stage for U.S.-backed talks aimed at bringing minority Sunnis into a broad-based government and undercutting the insurgency. In the run-up to the talks, Shiite and Sunni leaders have tempered their words and insurgents have diminished the scale of violence. Shiites marked their most important religious holiday Thursday without suffering an insurgent attack such as the bombings that had marred it the previous two years. During Friday prayers at Baghdad's Umm Qura Mosque, normally a font of hard-line Sunni rhetoric, Sheik Ali Sanad offered rare words of affection for Imam Hussein, the Shiite figure commemorated in Thursday's Ashura festivities. Sanad called on Sunnis and Shiites to honor Hussein's legacy by "stopping the bloodshed in Iraq Â… through honest dialogue." The gesture echoed a call Wednesday by the largest Shiite party's leader, Abdelaziz Hakim, for greater respect for human rights by Iraq's Shiite-led police forces, whose alleged violent raids, arbitrary detentions and summary executions have enraged Sunnis. One such incident blamed on police occurred in Baghdad late Thursday. Adel Khalil Dawoud, a Sunni cleric, was dragged from his home by at least 15 men in the uniform of the Interior Ministry's special forces, the cleric's brother said. Dawoud had fled to Jordan to avoid sectarian attacks and recently returned. The Interior Ministry called the incident a kidnapping and denied that its forces were involved. Citing such alleged police abuse, Sunni political leaders have demanded the removal of Interior Minister Bayan Jabr as a condition for joining the government. Jabr has incorporated members of his Badr Brigade, the sectarian militia of Hakim's Shiite party, into the ministry's police. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad appeared to endorse the Sunni demand in a statement Friday, saying Cabinet ministers in the new government "should be dedicated to the defense of Iraqi democracy, not to party militias." The mosque bombing did not fit the recent pattern of Shiite violence against Sunnis. Car bombs are a hallmark of Sunni guerrillas, aimed mainly at U.S. troops and Iraqi government targets and rarely used to kill civilians or blow up mosques. But fighting has been reported in recent months between the foreign-led fighters of Al Qaeda in Iraq and their erstwhile home-grown allies. Gunmen have attacked Sunni tribal and religious leaders who broke with Al Qaeda to support the entry of the Iraqi Islamic Party and other Sunni groups in the December elections. Ammar Wajuih, a spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party, said Friday's attack was "evidence that terrorists from outside the country Â… are trying to ignite sectarian violence among Iraqi people who want to live peacefully." "We condemn this attack, just as we condemn attacks on Shiite mosques," he added. Associated Press said one of its photographers saw several masked gunmen shouting "God is great!" drive up to the mosque an hour after the blast and fire into a crowd outside. A woman was killed, bringing the death toll to nine. The election results announced Friday did not alter uncertified returns released three weeks ago that gave the main Shiite alliance and its Kurdish coalition partners 181 of parliament's 275 seats, just short of the two-thirds majority required to form a government. Two Sunni blocs got 55 seats. Talks aimed at drawing them and smaller parties into the government are expected to start as soon as the Shiite alliance, which is entitled to nominate the prime minister, settles an internal fight. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Nuttin sez subside like a car bomb. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-02-11 15:56 |
| #1 A change from a dozen (or so) Shia mosques boomed. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-02-11 14:47 |