Car bombs sweep Baghdad as 32 recruits found dead

By Terry Friel

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The bodies of 32 security force
recruits were found in Baghdad on Monday and a wave of car
bombs hit the city while Iraq’s prime minister-designate vowed
to unite all ethnic and sectarian groups.

Jawad al-Maliki is working on choosing a cabinet, which
will share power among Shi’ite Muslims, Sunni Arabs and Kurds
in a bid to end a Sunni insurgency and sectarian violence.

Maliki told CNN television healing the divisions wracking
postwar Iraq was his biggest job as its first permanent
premier.

“The main challenge that I see is the existence of a torn
relationship in the Iraqi community with all the sectarian and
ethnic backgrounds,” said the tough-talking Shi’ite politician.

“So I have to work first on uniting all of these elements
together and work on a national reconciliation on the basis of
national dialogue and common interests.”

The 32 bodies were found in two places, Interior Ministry
sources said. All the victims were from the rebel stronghold of
Ramadi, 110 km (70 miles) west of the capital.

Two car bombs near Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University killed
at least five people and wounded 25, officials said. A car bomb
near the Health Ministry killed three people and wounded 25.
Four other bombings in the city wounded at least 27 people.

Guerrillas attacked a police station near Saddam Hussein’s
home town of Tikrit, killing four policemen. Rebels draw
support from the Sunni minority once dominant under Saddam.

Maliki has four weeks to choose a new cabinet and form a
government of national unity, widely seen as the only way to
halt the sectarian violence.

The cabinet and Maliki’s own appointment, made by President
Jalal Talabani on Saturday, must be ratified by parliament.

RIDE WITHOUT FEAR

A key test of his ability to lead and to unite will be his
choice of interior minister, perhaps the most sensitive post
given the brutal past many Iraqis endured under Saddam’s rule
and a present racked by relentless instability and violence.

“We want nothing but security and a safe community in which
we can live and raise our children safely,” said Wael Khamis, a
44-year-old businessman.

“All we have now is a hope and a dream of a better life.
The coming government is our last chance. My wish is to take my
family on a car ride without fear.”

With Maliki in the process of forming a coalition and
ending four months of political paralysis, Shi’ite neighbor
Iran said there was no longer any need for talks with the
United States to discuss Iraq’s problems.

“By God’s will we think that right now, because of the
presence of a permanent government of Iraq, there is no need,”
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters in Tehran.

During the impasse among Iraqi leaders over the shape of a
new government that followed December elections, Iran and the
United States had agreed to discuss how to stabilize Iraq.

But while the political deadlock appears to be over, the
bloodshed goes on.

Yarub Yassin, 22, was due have married this week but was
one of seven people killed in a rocket attack in Baghdad on
Sunday.

He was buried on Monday with his body wrapped in the thin
mattress and covers he had bought for his wedding night. The
horns and drums that were to have celebrated his wedding
sounded as mourners wailed.

SADDAM TRIAL

In Baghdad’s heavily fortified so-called Green Zone, the
court trying Saddam for crimes against humanity heard that
signatures of the former leader and six co-accused on documents
linking them to the killing of 148 Shi’ites in the 1980s were
genuine.

The prosecution had demanded the court commission a team of
criminal experts to authenticate signatures and handwriting of
the defendants.

Saddam and his half brother Barzan al-Tikriti have refused
to give samples of their writing but both have said there was
no crime in prosecuting the 148 from the village of Dujail
because they were accused of trying to kill the former Iraqi
president.

The defendants could face death by hanging if found guilty.

The trial was adjourned until May 15 to give the defense
time to present their witnesses in the next session.

Saddam sat in a dark suit and white shirt in his metal pen,
unusually quiet for a man who has dominated the court with
tirades calling for Iraqis to revolt against U.S. occupation.