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More bombings as Iraq PM seeks support for peace

Posted on: Monday, 3 July 2006, 11:23 CDT

By Ross Colvin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister visited Gulf Arab leaders on Monday to win support for his plan to end communal bloodshed, but new bombings and a boycott of parliament by Sunni Arab lawmakers underlined the difficulty of his task.

Eleven people were killed when bombs exploded in crowded markets north and south of Baghdad, while mortar rounds landed in a market in the capital itself, wounding 10.

Iraq's main Sunni political bloc boycotted parliament for a second day and said the walkout would last until a colleague was freed by gunmen who seized her in a Shi'ite area of Baghdad on Saturday -- seemingly accusing pro-government Shi'ite militias.

No one has claimed responsibility for kidnapping Taiseer Najah al-Mashhadani and her seven bodyguards, but Sunni leaders have long accused Shi'ite militias of targeting Sunnis.

"We are suspending our participation until the release of Mashhadani," Sunni leader Adnan al-Dulaimi told Reuters.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki reached out to Sunnis in his national reconciliation plan unveiled last week, which seeks to end the three-year-old Sunni insurgency and sectarian violence that has pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war.

In his first foreign trip since being sworn in on May 20, Maliki flew to Saudi Arabia on Saturday and was in the United Arab Emirates on Monday to win backing for the plan and new investment for his country's economy. He heads to Kuwait next.

Analysts say any deepening of the civil conflict in Iraq could draw in neighboring states on opposing sides, with Iran tending to line up behind the majority Shi'ites and Arab states like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states backing fellow Sunnis.

MARKET BLASTS

In his talks with Maliki, Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan called on Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni communities "to rise above all the differences for the sake of the greater interest of Iraq."

While Maliki was in Abu Dhabi, the Sunni Arab speaker of Iraq's parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, was in Tehran telling officials of the Shi'ite Islamic Republic that Iraq needed "the support and help of its friends and neighbors."

Washington has accused Tehran of meddling in Iraq's affairs and of giving material support to Shi'ite militias who have become increasingly powerful and analysts say pose a growing threat to the stability of Maliki's new government.

The deadliest of Monday's market blasts was in Mahmudiya, a town south of Baghdad, where a bomb killed six people and wounded 18, police said. It was the second attack there in as many days.

In Iraq's third city, Mosul, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed five people and wounded 28 in a crowded market, police said.

Insurgents often launch attacks against U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces in their campaign to oust the Shi'ite-led government that is struggling to end the relentless violence.

In the security vacuum, some militia groups have stepped in to execute their own brand of justice. Gunmen killed two alcohol traders in the southern Shi'ite city of Diwaniya, police said.

In the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, a group of gunmen killed two women and a teenage girl when they stormed a house they said was a brothel, local security sources said.

Residents say militias have often threatened people selling alcohol or drugs in a bid to impose strict Islamic order.

The sensitivities of conservative Muslim culture pose a particular problem for U.S. military investigators looking into whether soldiers raped and murdered a young woman in Mahmudiya.

The mayor told Reuters on Monday that the woman was aged only 16 when she was killed in March along with her parents and younger sister. U.S. military officials, who put the woman's age at 20, are considering charges against at least three soldiers.

After a series of other murder charges against soldiers by commanders anxious to restore the army's image in Iraq, the element of rape in the case revealed by the military last week is a potentially explosive one for local public opinion.

Source: REUTERS

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