Iraq's former prime minister Ayad Allawi has called for the imposition of martial law in a last-ditch attempt to halt the country's worsening security situation.Dr Allawi is the first major Iraqi politician to suggest that democratic freedoms can no longer be sustained in the face of mounting violence. He spoke hours before Iraq suffered a devastating double car bomb attack on casual labourers queuing at Tayaran Square, in the heart of Baghdad and within a few hundred yards of the Green Zone, the citadel of government.
A car laden with explosives rammed a police checkpoint and a pick-up was detonated in the crowds fleeing the scene, causing the deaths of 70 people and injuring 220 more. The victims were mainly thought to be Shia Muslims.
"After the explosion, not a single person in the square was standing. I thought everyone was dead," said Khaled Nasser, a labourer who searched the wreckage for four of his companions. "I found them all cut in half – no legs – and for some I could only find their heads."
A further car bomb attack today in a market square in the east of Baghdad killed ten people and injured 20.
The worsening attacks have added to the sense of a city in chaos. Mr Allawi's prescription is a drastic option but one that many Iraqis would welcome as a last chance to secure order.
"I think martial law is required," Mr Allawi told America's NBC television news. "I pray to God that we don't lose, because the other alternative is going to be the prevalence of extremism and terrorism."
Mr Allawi, who as interim prime minister assumed control of Iraq from the US-appointed Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in 2004, accused the sectarian-based political system enshrined in the new constitution of causing the latest spate of violence. "Iraq needs to move away from sectarianism, from extremism and to really lay down the groundwork to move into a more reconciliatory society, a united society," he said.
Sadoun al-Dulaime, a former defence minister, echoed Mr Allawi's grim prediction that street fighting would break out across the country without urgent action. "I now don't know where this is going to stop," he said. "We will end up fighting room to room because our families are often both Sunni and Shia."
Mr Allawi's comments will be interpreted in some quarters as an attempt to place himself as the strongman who could save Iraq. A British-based exile during the Saddam era, Mr Allawi has cultivated close ties with former officials in the regime.
Iraqi politicians were trying yesterday to oust the incumbent Nouri al-Maliki. He was forced to deny that two key parties in Iraqi's parliament were negotiating a coalition to elect a new leader.
"What is going on now is positive," said Mr Maliki. "There is no alternative in Iraq for this national unity government because it is the guarantee for the political process to continue."
By freezing out Mr Maliki's Dawa party, Iraqi and US leaders hope to end the sway of the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr over the government.
Officials say Sadr party loyalists have a stranglehold on the prime minister and are responsible for the official inertia that has fuelled the rising violence.
It has also been reported that Saudi Arabia has issued a stark warning to the United States of the dangers of a withdrawal from Iraq.
According to the New York Times, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told the Bush administration that it might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis in a war against Iraqi Shias if America took its troops out of the country. King Abdullah is reported to have delivered the message to Dick Cheney during the US vice-president's visit to Riyadh last month. The Saudi king is also said to have expressed strong opposition to diplomatic talks between the United States and Iran, which is largely Shia, as well as supporting a resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, said that the Government may need to reconsider its strategy in Iraq but denied that Britain must wait for AmericaÂ’s lead. The White House yesterday postponed any decision on a revised approach in the country until the New Year.
Mrs Beckett also suggested that Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, had had “words put into his mouth” when he said recently the situation in Iraq was worse than civil war. She insisted that the situation in many areas of British-controlled Basra had improved over the past six months.