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Shiite prime minister reaches out to Sunnis

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 18, 2007

BAGHDAD - Iraq's Shiite prime minister carried an appeal for unity to Saddam Hussein's hometown Friday and told Sunni tribal chieftains that all Iraqis must join to crush al-Qaida in Iraq and extremist Shiite militias.

Nouri al-Maliki's sojourn into Tikrit underlined his determination to save his paralyzed government from collapse.

The shift in the government's political course - a willingness to travel to the belly of the Sunni insurgency and talk with former enemies - suggested a new flexibility from the hard-line religious Shiites who hold considerable influence over Maliki's views.

"There is more uniting us than dividing us," Maliki told sheiks in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. "We do not want to allow al-Qaida and the militias to exist for our coming generations. Fighting terrorism gives us a way to unite."

Maliki's turnaround has been noticeable, given accusations of a bias in favor of his Shiite sect.

He owed his premiership to the backing of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, nominal head of the Mahdi Army militia that has cleared entire mixed Baghdad neighborhoods of Sunni residents.

Maliki on Thursday also signed a political manifesto that created a new alliance with the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and the country's two main Kurdish political parties.

U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington did not immediately signal support for the new alliance, with a senior diplomat saying its lack of Sunni participation was a significant problem.

Fast Facts:

Iraq developments

U.S. deaths: The military said one U.S. soldier was killed Friday in a roadside bombing in eastern Baghdad. Another soldier was killed Thursday in fighting in Tarmiyah.

Plea for help: Hospital officials in northwestern Iraq pleaded Friday for more help as cleanup efforts continued after four suicide bombings killed hundreds of members of the Yazidi sect on Tuesday. Officials said food, water and medicine were needed.

Guilty plea: A Houston oil trader, David Chalmers Jr., pleaded guilty Friday in New York to federal fraud charges in connection with illegal profits and kickbacks involving the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule. Chalmers, 53, faced 20 years in prison, but under an agreement with federal prosecutors, his recommended sentence is 37 months to 46 months.

[Last modified August 18, 2007, 01:28:22]