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Iraq

Assassination makes statement in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - The assassination of an ex-judge who had offered to help draft Iraq's constitution sent a powerful message to moderate Sunnis: stay out of the Shiite-dominated political process, or risk death.

Hours after Wednesday's assassination, militants hit with a string of coordinated car bombs that ripped through two restaurants and a bus station, scattering body parts on the streets at dusk. In all, four car bombs hit western Baghdad, bringing to at least 32 the number of people killed across Iraq.

Two bombs exploded in front of a pair of restaurants, killing at least 11 and wounding 28. "The body parts of the dead were scattered everywhere, along with fragments of broken glass from nearby shops," said police Maj. Musa Abdul Karim, who was at the scene. "Blood was everywhere."

The assassination of Jassim al-Issawi, a prominent Sunni law professor who put his name forward at one point to join the committee drafting Iraq's constitution, appeared aimed at intimidating Sunni Arabs willing to join Iraq's efforts to create a stable political system.

Issawi's killing, potentially the most politically significant act of violence since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari came to office nearly two months ago, marked the first direct attempt to scare moderates away from political participation.

It sent a powerful message to the Sunni Arab community to either boycott involvement in the fledgling government or risk death.

Insurgents bent on starting a civil war to overthrow Iraq's U.S.-backed government have maintained nearly eight weeks of relentless attacks, killing at least 1,230 people since April 28, when Jaafari announced his Shiite-dominated government.

Issawi, thought to be 50, was shot dead with his son, according to Abdul-Sattar Jawad, editor-in-chief of al-Siyadah, a daily newspaper where the lawyer was a contributing editor.

In Brussels, an international conference adopted a declaration of support for the struggling nation, backing the Iraqi government's "efforts to achieve a democratic, pluralist, federal and unified Iraq."

No new money was offered at a meeting that was never intended as a donors conference, but the gathering was applauded as proof that differences over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq could be put aside to help Iraqis now.

"It's a good day for Iraq," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, clearly moved, called it a "watershed" moment for Iraq.

Among the steps to emerge was a new donors conference July 18-19 in Amman, Jordan; assurances from several nations to follow through on recent pledges of aid or to consider debt relief; and advice on drafting a constitution ahead of December elections.

At the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice vowed the insurgency would be defeated.

"Terrorism can be defeated in Iraq," Rice said. "And when it's defeated in Iraq, at the heart of the Middle East, it will be a death knell for terrorism as we know it."

But Issawi's killing and the bombings provided fresh evidence of the insurgents' ability to strike with impunity in the heavily protected Iraqi capital, where U.S. and Iraqi forces hunt insurgents around the clock.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a senior Shiite politician and a former Washington insider, condemned the assassination and renewed his government's commitment to include Sunni Arabs in drafting the constitution.

"The constitution will be the document that represents the unity of Iraq," he vowed in remarks to reporters after meeting leaders of the Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential and militant Sunni Arab group known to have links to the insurgency.

Leaders of the Sunni Arab minority also condemned Issawi's assassination, linking it to what they said was a plan to eliminate key minority figures ahead of the crucial task of writing the basic law.

There was no claim of responsibility for Issawi's assassination, but Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq has threatened to kill Sunni Arabs cooperating with the government or the United States.

[Last modified June 23, 2005, 00:47:00]