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Sistani endorses an end to militias

Security should be the next prime minister's top priority, the ayatollah says on a day the Sunni vice president's sister is shot.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 28, 2006

BAGHDAD - The incoming prime minister won the backing Thursday of Iraq's top Shiite cleric for his plan to disband militias, which the U.S. believes is the key to calming sectarian strife and halting the country's slide toward civil war.

But violence flared across a wide area of Iraq on Thursday, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld departed after two days of talks with Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki and other Iraqi officials.

In Baghdad, gunmen assassinated the sister of the Sunni vice president a day after he endorsed the use of force to quell Sunni-led insurgents.

Elsewhere, three Italian and one Romanian soldiers were killed in a bombing in southern Iraq, insurgents launched attacks northeast of the capital, and a U.S. jet fired missiles at insurgent positions in Ramadi.

The endorsement of Maliki's plan came during a meeting in Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. The ayatollah told Maliki, a Shiite tapped last weekend to form a government, that security should be his top priority.

"Therefore, weapons must be exclusively in the hands of government forces, and these forces must be built on a proper national basis so that their loyalty is to the country alone, not to political or other sides," a statement from Sistani's office said.

Maliki plans to integrate militias, many of them linked to Shiite parties, into the army and police. To ensure their loyalty to the government, he wants to appoint defense and interior ministers without connections to militias.

Former militiamen who have joined government forces, especially those run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry, have been widely accused by Sunni Arabs of operating as death squads targeting Sunni civilians.

Attempts by previous Iraqi governments to abolish militias have failed, and their numbers have grown, in part because U.S. and Iraqi forces have been unable to guarantee public safety.

Maliki has until late May to present his Cabinet to parliament, the final step in building a national unity government. The United States believes a government of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds will help calm sectarian passions and tamp down the Sunni-led insurgency so the 130,000 American troops can begin to go home.

But there was little sign Thursday that the violence was nearing an end.

In Baghdad, gunmen firing from a speeding car assassinated Mayson al-Hashimi, sister of Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, as she left her home in a southwestern neighborhood, police said. Her bodyguard was also slain.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Wednesday, however, Vice President Hashimi, a Sunni, joined Shiite and Kurdish leaders in calling for the use of force if necessary to crush the Sunni-led insurgency.

Two weeks ago, the vice president's brother, Mahmoud al-Hashimi, was shot and killed while driving in a mostly Shiite area of Baghdad. The brother of another leading Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlak, was found dead in Baghdad on April 17 after he was kidnapped.

No arrests have been reported in either case.

The Italian and Romanian soldiers were killed near Nasiriyah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, when a bomb exploded near their four-vehicle convoy in a Shiite area. The death was Romania's first combat loss of the war.

The Italian news agency ANSA reported conflicting claims of responsibility by the Islamic Army in Iraq, a major insurgent group, and the lesser-known Imam Hussein Brigades.

In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi police and soldiers repelled nine attacks Thursday by insurgents against police stations and checkpoints at the edge of the city, Iraqi officials said.

Seven Iraqi soldiers and 21 insurgents were killed, Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Awad said. He said 46 attackers were captured. Authorities imposed a curfew, and residents said roads to Baghdad had been sealed off.

In Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, a U.S. jet fired two laser-guided missiles at buildings used by insurgents during a gunbattle with American soldiers, Lt. Col. Ronald Clark said.

He said there were no U.S. losses but that eight attackers were killed.

Elsewhere in Ramadi, an Iraqi soldier was killed in a firefight with insurgents.

[Last modified April 28, 2006, 01:17:12]