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Iraq

Iraqi leaders support militias Sunnis fear, U.S. opposes

By wire services
Published June 9, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The rift between Iraq's government and disgruntled Sunni Arabs widened further on Wednesday as Iraq's leaders came out in support of sectarian militias that Sunnis fear could be used against them.

Top Sunni Arab leaders also demanded that a 55-member committee that is to begin writing a new constitution add at least 25 Sunni seats with full voting powers. There was no immediate response from the Shiite-led Iraqi government, but in recent days Shiite committee members have proposed adding 12 to 15 nonvoting seats for Sunni Arabs.

It was the first time the new government had publicly backed armed sectarian groups, and it was an implicit rebuke to American officials, who have repeatedly asked that the government disband all militias in the country. Many Iraqi militias are formed along sectarian lines, like the Kurdish pesh merga and an Iranian-trained Shiite militia that Sunni leaders have blamed for attacks against them.

The remarks supporting the militias were made at a news conference that was attended by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite Arab; President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd and a militia leader himself; and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Shiite political party that created the Shiite militia, known as the Badr Organization.

The joint appearance of Talabani and the Shiite leaders seemed to indicate that Shiite and Kurdish leaders had reached an understanding that their respective militias should continue to exist.

In Washington, Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman, said Wednesday that American officials no longer play a role in determining the policy on militias.

"I have to emphasize this is an Iraqi issue that they will decide and that they will deal with," he told reporters. "But we will continue to work closely with them in the training of Iraqi forces."

Meanwhile, the Sunni-led insurgency ground on, with the American military announcing that four soldiers had been killed in various attacks in northern Iraq on Tuesday and Wednesday. There were also unconfirmed reports of the kidnapping of 22 Shiite soldiers in the western desert region.

A car bomb exploded in a line of drivers outside a gas station in the city of Baqubah, killing three people and wounding one, an Interior Ministry official said. Two bodyguards of a National Assembly member were shot dead in Baghdad, while a police officer was killed in the capital and another was assassinated in Mosul, the official said.

The Badr Organization has become a target of some Sunni Arab leaders, who have blamed it for the killings of prominent Sunni clerics and others. Among the group's harshest critics is Harith al-Dhari, leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, a powerful group of Sunni clerics that says it represents 3,000 mosques.

Indeed, from the time the Badr militia entered Iraq from Iran during the American-led invasion, Sunnis have blamed its fighters for assassinations across the country, especially the killings of former Baath Party officials.

The two main Kurdish parties together have the strongest militia in the country, a force of 100,000.

FORT STEWART, Ga. - Iraqi insurgents appear to be forcing some followers to commit suicide car bombings by tying or binding them inside explosive-carrying vehicles, the commanding general of allied security forces in Baghdad said Wednesday.

"In one case, Iraqi police found pieces of a car after it exploded which included an accelerator pedal that had the suicide bomber's foot still taped to it, so that you can't chicken out and leave," Maj. Gen. William G. Webster said.

Webster, commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and the 30,000-troop task force securing Baghdad, said reports of bound attackers could indicate slipping support for the insurgency.

"We think it means the insurgents had less support and less ability to conduct these operations," he said.

[Last modified June 9, 2005, 06:08:53]