|
17 killed in Baghdad mosque bombing
Political wrangling gathers pace as Iraq's Shiites take reins of power
2/19/2005
BAGHDAD, Feb 18 (AFP): Intense political wrangling gathered pace in Iraq after certified election results put Shiites in power for the first time and the country was wracked by continued killings and fears of more kidnapping.
Police said seventeen people were killed in a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad Friday.
In a gathering marking the first of two days of mourning in the Shiite commemoration ceremony of Ashura, thousands of Shiites Friday put on a show of force in central Baghdad, harangued by the man who led their winning religious ticket in the polls.
Sayyed Abdelaziz Hakim, the black-turbaned cleric who heads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), addressed thousands of supporters before Friday prayers, at a gathering unthinkable two years ago.
He accused the police of having tortured to death three members of his party's officially disbanded militia, the Badr organisation.
The United Iraqi Alliance, grouping SCIRI and several other Shiite religious parties, was blessed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and swept to victory in the January 30 general elections.
Away from the politicians' conclaves, the violence that has scarred the country since the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in April 2003, continued.
Twelve Iraqis and a US soldier have died in insurgent violence since Thursday evening, security sources said.
Two Indonesian journalists were feared kidnapped by insurgents in western Iraq on Friday, disappearing from the notoriously dangerous road linking the Jordan and Iraqi capitals.
Scores of people have been kidnapped in the Sunni-dominated insurgency against US-led and Iraqi forces and those who help or support them. Around 30 have been slain by their captors, some by beheading.
The winning Shiite list will dominate parliament but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for most crucial decisions and will likely seek alliances with the Kurds, the other major beneficiaries of the polls.
Near the holy Shiite city of Karbala, the killing of two of the Najaf police chief's sons cast a pall on the Ashura festival, a mourning ritual which attracts thousands of Shiites from around the world each year.
The US military also announced that one of its soldiers had been killed in the northern city of Mosul Thursday.
Meanwhile, a report from Ankara says: The Iraqi Kurds, one of the big winners of last month's elections in Iraq, are ready to cooperate with rival Sunni Arabs and Turkmens, but will make no concession on the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said.
Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and its ally, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, won the second largest number of parliamentary seats after the main Shiite alliance and also clinched the majority in the provincial council in Tamim province, where ethnically volatile Kirkuk is located.
The January 30 elections "proved the Kurdish identity of Kirkuk," Barzani said, adding: "We always said we would make no concessions on this."
Asked whether the Iraqi Kurds aspire to independence, Barzani said: "We want everyone to acknowledge that the Kurdish people have rights... The problems of our brothers and sisters should be solved through peaceful and democratic means. This should not be at the expense of any nation."
Ankara fears that independence-minded moves in northern Iraq may spill over into adjoining southeast Turkey, also home to a sizeable Kurdish community.
|