Sporadic fire in Baghdad, Saddam due back in court

By Alastair Macdonald and Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Mortar and gunfire kept Baghdad on edge
overnight on Wednesday after a bloody day of sectarian attacks
when U.S. President George W. Bush told Iraqis to choose
between “chaos and unity” but dismissed talk of civil war.

Saddam Hussein was due to return to court for a second day
of prosecution evidence; prosecutors presented on Tuesday what
they said was a death warrant signed by Saddam for 148 Shi’ite
men. The former leader, who staged a hunger strike during the
two-week recess, was subdued. The judge ruled out some
evidence.

There were no immediate reports of casualties but residents
heard sporadic explosions and firing across the city.

In the week since explosives demolished the Golden Mosque
in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shi’ite Islam,
sectarian violence has killed over 400 people by government
reckoning, pitching Iraq toward a civil war that would inflame
the Middle East and might thwart Bush’s hopes of withdrawing
U.S. troops.

As Saddam was about to appear on Tuesday, three bombs in
quick succession killed 32 people. Later, a car bomb killed at
least 23 near the Shi’ite mosque. In all, over 60 died in the
city, where some have fled hostile neighborhoods and others
have thrown up barricades and mounted guards on their streets.

“The choice is chaos or unity,” said Bush. The ruling
Shi’ites warned sectarian bloodshed could mean months of delay
to bringing Sunnis into the national unity government that
Washington is pushing hard as a solution to the violence.

GOVERNMENT TENSIONS

Among other complicating factors, discontent among other
parties with the Shi’ites’ choice of Ibrahim al-Jaafari to stay
on as prime minister in any coalition, is becoming apparent.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, openly criticized Jaafari
on Tuesday for making a visit to Turkey. And complaints have
surfaced from fellow Shi’ite officials about the government’s
failure to prevent the Samarra attack, blamed on al Qaeda.

A senior security official confirmed he had warned of such
attacks and senior government sources criticized Jaafari’s
cabinet for, they said, ignoring the threat in Samarra; four of
the shrine guards are being held as suspects.

Security chiefs say they are puzzled why Sunni extremists
from al Qaeda would spare the lives of all the mosque guards,
who were tied up for hours while explosives were meticulously
planted before the dawn blast last Wednesday.

Militant groups have accused Shi’ite leaders of setting the
explosion to justify reprisal attacks on Sunnis.

BUSH POLLS

Bush, hit by polls showing domestic support for the war at
an all-time low, denied Iraq was sliding into civil war,
despite the worst crisis since the U.S. invasion three years
ago.

Asked what Washington would do if civil war broke out in
Iraq, he told ABC television: “I don’t buy your premise that
there’s going to be a civil war.”

His job performance rating fell to 34 percent, the lowest
CBS News poll numbers of his presidency, eight months before
congressional elections. The same CBS poll showed public
approval for Bush’s handling of Iraq, once among his strongest
suits, falling to 30 percent from 37 percent in January.

Sixty-two percent of Americans said they thought U.S.
efforts to bring order to Iraq were going badly, up from 54
percent in January, compared with 36 percent who said things
were going well, a drop from 45 percent.

Raising questions about Bush’s vow to keep troops in Iraq
as long as they are needed, a Le Moyne College/Zogby poll
showed 72 percent of U.S. troops serving there think the United
States should exit within the next year.

Nearly one in four said the troops should leave
immediately.

A U.S. military intelligence chief called the situation
“very tenuous” but not yet civil war: “I believe that the
underlying conditions are present, but that we are not involved
in a civil war at this time,” Defense Intelligence Agency head
Lieutenant General Michael Maples told a Senate committee.

Bush has made withdrawal of 136,000 U.S. troops conditional
on the stability he says a non-sectarian government can bring.
For now, the heavily armed Americans are holding the line
behind untested, U.S.-trained Iraqi forces against sectarian
militias.

Though Iraqis across the sectarian divided are largely
united in resenting the U.S. troop presence, many recognize the
forces are helping keep a lid on violence.

Washington has assured Iraqis of support for as long as it
is needed.

U.S. officials said on Tuesday, however, that the State
Department is winding down its $20 billion reconstruction
program, one of several U.S. engagements in Iraq; the only new
rebuilding money in its latest budget request is for prisons.

(Additional reporting by Lutfi Abu Oun)