Baghdad, Iraq – Iraq’s prime minister unveiled a 24-point national reconciliation initiative Sunday, offering amnesty to insurgents who renounce violence and have not committed terrorist attacks.
Nouri al-Maliki’s much-anticipated plan lacked important details but issued specific instructions to Iraqi security forces to rapidly take control of the country so U.S. and other foreign troops can leave eventually. It did not include a deadline for their withdrawal.
Al-Maliki said Iraq also must deal with the problem of militias, which are blamed for a surge of sectarian bloodshed that has worsened violence in Iraq – where at least 29 people were killed Sunday.
The new government is reaching out to Iraq’s disenchanted Sunni Arab minority, which is at the heart of the insurgency, in hopes of enticing Sunnis into taking a place in the new Iraq and giving up the rebellion.
Hours after al-Maliki’s speech, the terrorist umbrella organization that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq posted an Internet video showing the purported killing of three of the four Russian Embassy workers kidnapped June 3. A statement said the fourth also was slain.
“God’s verdict has been carried out on the Russian diplomats … in revenge for the torture, killing and expulsion of our brothers and sisters by the infidel Russian government,” the Mujahedeen Shura Council statement said.
The kidnappers had demanded that the Kremlin pull its troops out of Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim region in southern Russia where separatists have been fighting for independence for nearly 15 years.
While al-Maliki set no timetable for an American troop pullout, officials in Washington reported that Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top commander in Iraq, had drafted a plan for drawing down the American presence by two combat brigades in late summer or early fall.
The New York Times said officials indicated the reduction could involve the 1st Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, which patrols a swath of west Baghdad, and the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, in troublesome Diyala and Sala huddin provinces.
Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman in Baghdad, said any reduction in forces would be made in consultation with the Iraqi government.
Al-Maliki, while calling for amnesty for some insurgents and opposition figures who have not been involved in terrorist activities, declared that insurgent killers would not escape justice.
“The launch of this national reconciliation initiative should not be read as a reward for the killers and criminals or acceptance of their actions. No, a thousand times no. There can be no agreement with them unless they face the justice,” he said.
The U.S. military reported that an American soldier was killed in a roadside bombing south of Baqubah on Saturday.
Japan moved some of its 600 soldiers into Kuwait as it began the withdrawal of all its forces that were based in Samawah.
