Baghdad, Iraq – President Jalal Talabani reached out today to Sunni Muslims who are angry over parts of the draft constitution, saying the charter must be for all Iraqis.
In western Baghdad, insurgents attacked Iraqi police patrols with three car bombs and small arms fire, killing at least six people and wounding 21, police said.
Two of the car bombs piloted by suicide drivers exploded near the western neighborhood of Khadra, police Capt. Taleb Thamer said.
Among the dead were three policemen, he said.
Following the explosions, dozens of gunmen attacked police with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, police and witnesses said. Police sealed off nearby streets.
At least one police car was set ablaze. Gunmen wearing black uniforms and masks brandished automatic weapons and a rocket launcher and stood in the street, apparently ignoring the two U.S. Apache attack helicopters flying overhead. The U.S. military said no American troops were involved in the fighting.
The insurgents may have filmed their attack, a witness said. Two young men were seen driving slowly among the insurgents on the streets, apparently recording the scenes with a TV camera.
At nearby Yarmouk Hospital, one woman dressed in a full black veil screamed as a body covered with a sheet was brought in.
Also today, deputy justice minister Awshoo Ibrahim escaped a second assassination attempt in two days when gunmen fired at his convoy, killing four of his bodyguards and wounding five, police said.
Talabani said the country’s stability cannot be achieved without consensus among Iraq’s Shiites, Sunnis Arabs and Kurds.
“The constitution will be to serve everybody and not only one community of the Iraqi society,” he said, speaking after a meeting with parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani. “We hope that all the pending disagreements be solved in what guarantees consensus between the three (main) communities in Iraq and in what guarantees the satisfaction and approval of our Sunni brothers in this important matter.” Sunni members of the constitutional drafting committee oppose several parts of the document, which was handed to parliament Monday. Their opposition forced parliament to delay a vote for at least three days to give Shiite and Kurdish negotiators time to win over the Sunnis.
The Sunni objections include federalism, references to Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-led Baath Party and the description of Iraq as an Islamic – but not Arab – country.
Abdul-Salam al-Kubaisi, spokesman for the major Sunni clerical organization, the Association of Muslim Scholars, reiterated that that any political process under U.S. occupation “would not serve the interests of Iraq.” “This week’s constitutional process has paved the way to the partition of Iraq and wiping out it is identity and it has failed to gain a national acceptance,” al-Kubaisi said. “We call upon the United States to end its arrogance and not impose useless political processes on the Iraqi people, and to put a timetable for its withdrawal from Iraq.” The leader of the largest Shiite party has called for a federal region in Shiite-dominated areas of central and southern Iraq. The Kurds demand that Iraq be transformed into a federal state as a way to protect their self-rule in three northern provinces.
“We will stand, with all our wisdom and strength, against anyone who wants to divide Iraq and fulfill this grand plot against the country,” a major Sunni figure, Adnan al-Dulaimi, told reporters. “We are determined to safeguard the unity of Iraq. We call on all Iraqis to work on keeping the unity of the country.” “We reject federalism in the center and south because it would stand only on a sectarian basis,” he added. “All Iraqis should stand against any one who want to deepen sectarianism in Iraq. Iraq will stay united with Baghdad as the capital.” Parliament speaker al-Hassani, a Sunni Arab, said discussions over the draft will continue until Thursday, adding that Sunnis are not against the principle of federalism but “they prefer that its approval and adoption come in stages.”
Talabani, who is Kurdish, said there is unanimity among all groups that the constitution should exclude Baath Party members who committed crimes against the people from government positions and politics.
“Its measures should not include simple Baathists who belonged to the Baath for job necessities,” Talabani said in a statement released by his office.
During his news conference, al-Dulaimi called for U.N. and Arab League help to ease the crisis in Iraq.
“We want them to raise their voices to demand the release of the detainees before the election, so that they can participate in it,” he said.
Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, head of the government’s Sunni Endowments, alleged that “some elements” in the Shiite-controlled Interior Ministry had begun an arrest campaign in the Madain, a predominantly Sunni Arab community about 12 miles southeast of Baghdad.
Al-Samarrai said the campaign was to keep them from meeting the Sept. 1 deadline to register to vote in the planned Oct. 15 referendum on the new constitution.
“Those elements and militia are loyal to sides from outside the country and they are trying hinder the Sunnis’ march toward taking part in the referendum,” al-Samarrai told reporters.
The Interior Ministry initially denied – but later confirmed – the arrests in Madain. The ministry said 132 people had been detained but did not say when.
Other Sunnis said the arrests began Tuesday and were continuing.
Many Sunni Arabs boycotted the Jan. 30 election, enabling Shiites and Kurds to win an overwhelming majority in the 275-member National Assembly. But now Sunni clerics are urging their followers to register and take part in the October referendum to reject a constitution if the final version is unfavorable to their interests.
Al-Samarrai, head of the organization that administers Sunni mosques and shrines, said that if the constitution appears to follow “our Islamic principles, then we will say ‘Yes.”‘ About 400 Sunni Arabs and Shiite followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied today in the town of Hawija southwest of Kirkuk to protest the draft constitution and plans for federalism.
Banners read “Yes to Unity, No to Partition,” and “All Iraq is for all Iraqis.” “We are here to say that we totally reject the draft, and we will go to the polling stations to say a big loud ‘No,”‘ Sunni tribal leader Sheik Abdul-Rahman Mizher said.
Many Arabs in the Hawija area oppose federalism because they consider it a tactic by the Kurds to expand the borders of their self-ruled region in the north.
In the latest attack on the deputy justice minister, gunmen fired on Ibrahim’s motorcade today in western Baghdad, said police Capt. Mohammed Khayoun. The Justice Ministry said Ibrahim escaped an attack in a nearby area a day earlier but four of his bodyguards were injured.
A witness who did not give his name told Associated Press Television News that the motorcade was attacked by gunmen. The five wounded bodyguards claimed they were shot at by U.S. troops today. A spokesman for Task Force Baghdad said it had no information on the incident.
