Suicide car bomb kills 13 elite Iraqi commandos

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber attacked an elite
Iraqi police unit in Baghdad on Sunday and killed 13 people in
the worst of several outbursts of violence to hit the country.

Iraqi police said the car bomber targeted a patrol of
specialist police commandos as they were traveling on a highway
in the east of the capital. All those killed were from the
commando unit and 10 others were wounded, police said.

The bomb followed clashes overnight between U.S. troops and
Shi’ite militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the
eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City. Police said eight
militia fighters were killed and five wounded in the fighting.

South of the capital, in the city of Hilla, a bomber on a
bicycle rode into a crowded fruit and vegetable market and blew
himself up, killing four, including a woman and child, and
wounding 48, police said.

The string of attacks comes three weeks before Iraq holds a
referendum on a new draft constitution and amid a general
increase in unrest both in central areas and in the southern
city of Basra, where Shi’ite militia have fought British
troops.

The U.S. military has said it expects a surge in violence
in the run-up to the referendum, set for October 15, with
Iraqis strongly divided over a document that was supposed to
unite them and lay the foundations for a more stable future.

In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, more than 1,000 people marched
to protest against the constitution, which they say will divide
Iraq along sectarian lines by giving too much autonomy to Kurds
in the north and pro-Iranian Shi’ites in the south.

The crowd in Ramadi was largely made up of Sunni Arabs,
whose leaders are strongly opposed to the constitution, but
also included Shi’ite supporters of Sadr, a nationalist young
cleric who heads a militia called the Mehdi Army.

The march followed a rally in Basra on Saturday at which
several thousand Shi’ites gathered in support of the
constitution, which was largely drawn up by the Shi’ite- and
Kurdish-led government over Sunni Arab objections.

CONSTITUTION DIVISIONS

Sunni Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of Iraq’s
population but who dominated the country under Saddam Hussein
and before, fear the new charter will allow Shi’ites and Kurds
to form breakaway regions in the north and the south, where
Iraq’s vast oil reserves lie, leaving Sunnis with no resources.

More broadly, they fear the break-up of the entire Iraqi
nation, with its religious Shi’ite leaders increasingly allied
to Iran and independence-minded Kurds in the north ultimately
longing for the creation of a separate Kurdish state.

Politicking ahead of the referendum has picked up in recent
days. On Thursday, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shi’ite
cleric who holds wide influence among the 60 percent Shi’ite
majority, urged followers to vote “Yes” in the referendum.

At the same time, Sunni religious and political leaders
have been urging their community to register to vote — since
most boycotted elections in January and are therefore not on
the electoral register — and to vote “No” come October 15.

If two-thirds of voters in three or more of Iraq’s 18
provinces vote “No” then the referendum is defeated.

While Sunnis are unlikely to be able to muster enough votes
on their own, they are hoping to secure the support of Sadr and
his followers, whose nationalist principles oppose the federal
structure laid out in the constitution.

Foreign militants, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian
who heads a group called al Qaeda in Iraq, have threatened an
increase in attacks, and have waged violent campaigns around
key dates in the past, including the January election.

Sunni Arab nationalists, who form the bulk of the
insurgency, are also expected to step up attacks around the
same time in an effort to destabilize the country.

Tensions will also be running high as the referendum will
be held just four days before Saddam is due in court on charges
of crimes against humanity in connection with the deaths of
around 150 Shi’ite men in the village of Dujail, north of
Baghdad, in 1982 after a failed assassination.

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Mussab al-Khairalla,
Waleed Ibrahim and Mohammed Ramahi in Baghdad, Sami al-Jumaili
in Kerbala and Habib al-Zubadi in Hilla)