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Suicide bomber kills at least 5 in Iraq
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-23 22:06
A suicide bomber detonated hidden explosives on a small bus in Baghdad on
Friday, killing at least five people, and two American soldiers died in separate
attacks, authorities said.
One of the Americans died in a roadside bombing between the cities of
Fallujah and Ramadi, while the other was killed by small arms fire in Ramadi,
the U.S. military said.
The deaths raised to 1,912 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the
war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
President Bush, briefed at the Pentagon on Thursday, acknowledged the loss of
American lives and said, "We'll honor their sacrifice by completing the mission
and winning the war on terrorism."
He added that withdrawing American forces from Iraq would make the world more
dangerous and allow terrorists "to claim an historic victory over the United
States."
In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, the Saudi Arabian foreign
minister said if U.S. troops pulled out now, Iraq would dissolve into civil war.
Prince Saud al-Faisal also said he was worried that divisions among Iraq's
Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni factions were too great.
"We have not seen a move inside Iraq that would satisfy us that the national
unity of Iraq, and therefore the territorial unity of Iraq, will be assured,"
Saud said.
"I don't think that a constitution by itself will resolve the issues, or an
election by itself will solve the difficult problems."
In Baghdad, the suicide bomber struck while on the public bus in a bustling,
open-air bus terminal, killing five people and wounding eight, police said.
Also in Baghdad, gunmen killed two members of the commission charged with
ensuring former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime were banned from the
Iraqi hierarchy, police said. Their deaths raised to 14 the number of commission
members killed since the 323-member Supreme National Commission for
de-Baathification was created two years ago.
Less than a month before a national referendum on Iraq's new constitution,
the government's campaign to win support for the charter has won the critical
backing of the most influential Shiite religious leader.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, meeting with aides Thursday in the holy city
of Najaf, urged his followers to vote "yes," according to two top officials in
his organization, who refused to be identified because they were not authorized
to speak for the reclusive cleric. He only issues statements through his office
and makes no public appearances.
In January, millions of Shiites followed al-Sistani's call to vote in Iraq's
first democratic elections in nearly half a century, and the ballot gave the
Muslim sect a majority in the new parliament and government.
If two-thirds of the voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject the
constitution during the Oct. 15 national referendum, a new government must be
formed and the process of writing the document would start again.
Days after the draft constitution was approved by Iraq's National Assembly
and sent to the United Nations for printing and distribution, the government
released fliers and posters, with the banner headline stating: "Read the
constitution, it was written for your freedom." But copies of the document have
not been distributed publicly yet.
Most Sunni Muslim clerics and politicians have urged their followers to veto
the charter, complaining they did not have adequate representation in drafting
it. Sunnis, the favored group under Saddam, are estimated to make up nearly 20
percent of the population and form the majority in four of the country's 18
provinces.
In Amman, Jordan, about 150 Iraqi Sunni clerics and tribal leaders called for
its rejection, warning that the constitution would lead to Iraq's fragmentation.
The leaders from insurgency-torn Anbar province, the country's Sunni heartland,
met for a three-day conference in the Jordanian capital for security reasons.
Two other popular leaders in Iraq's majority Shiite sect, Muqtada al-Sadr and
Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yaqoubi, also oppose the constitution, and their stand —
representing a potentially serious rift in the Shiite monolith — has been
reflected in the recent violence in the southern city of Basra.
Violence erupted there after the detention of two British soldiers and their
rescue by forces that battered down prison walls with armored vehicles. The
violence has produced an angry standoff between the British force and some
members of the government.
Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and
International Affairs said the escalation of those tensions underscored the
simmering rift among Shiite factions ahead of the referendum and parliamentary
elections in December.
"In large part, this is a reaction to a struggle between hard-liners and more
moderate religious elements," he said.
Cordesman said the more moderate stance of the largest Shiite political
party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was not accepted
in southern Iraq, where "a relatively hard-line religious takeover in Basra, one
linked closer to Iran," has created animosity toward the British.
Rioting broke out in Basra on Monday after British armored vehicles and
troops encircled a jail where the two soldiers were taken after their arrests by
police. Rioters threw firebombs and stones at British forces, and TV cameras
caught images of soldiers, some with their clothes on fire, jumping from burning
vehicles and running from mobs. Five Iraqis reportedly died, but British
soldiers suffered only minor injuries.
Later that night, British armored vehicles broke through exterior walls of
the jail compound, smashed cars and demolished buildings in a rescue operation
that freed the two, who the British said were then in the hands of Shiite
militiamen at a nearby house.
Iraqi security forces in the south have largely fallen under the authority of
militias — the military wings of Iraq's various Shiite factions.
Basra authorities accused the British of violating Iraqi sovereignty, and the
provincial governor ordered all Iraqis to stop cooperating with them.
On Thursday, Gov. Mohammed al-Waili said violators would face unspecified
punishment. But later, he said he was negotiating with the British and the
dispute was "about to be solved and the crisis ended."
Iraqi and British officials have sought to play down the difficulties between
Basra authorities and the 8,500-soldier British force.
"I do not think that this will be an obstacle that cannot be overcome," Iraqi
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said after meeting with British officials in
London.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, in an interview with the AP at the
United Nations, called the incident "a local flare-up."
"The people in the southern provinces have no interest whatsoever to see
British forces leave because they're providing security, stability, structure,
and relations have always been good ... really between the British forces and
the local Iraqis in this area," Zebari said.
A committee created by Iraq's government to investigate the violence was to
arrive.
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