Baghdad, Iraq – Following the abduction a day earlier of a female legislator, the largest Sunni Arab coalition on Sunday announced a political boycott even as another lawmaker dodged a kidnapping attempt and a third politician survived an assassination attempt.
Shiite Muslim lawmaker Liqa Yaseen and her driver on Sunday managed to escape kidnappers who tried to abduct her south of Baghdad, although eight of her bodyguards were taken hostage, authorities said.
Elsewhere in the capital, Iyad Jamaluddin, a legislator from the secular Iraqiya slate, was driving to parliament when a car bomb hit his convoy. Jamaluddin escaped unharmed, but some of his bodyguards were injured in the blast, he told al-Arabiya satellite channel.
The boycott and the apparent targeting of both Sunni and Shiite politicians come at a sensitive time for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose government has sought to end sectarian bloodshed through increased security measures in Baghdad and diplomacy around the region.
However, ubiquitous checkpoints and additional security forces on the streets of the capital have failed to prevent assassinations and kidnappings that are now nearly everyday occurrences. Al-Maliki, a Shiite, was criticized for beginning a tour of the Middle East to shore up support among Sunni Arabs on Saturday – the same day a car bomb killed at least 77 people in a poor Shiite slum in Baghdad.
Kidnappers abducted Sunni lawmaker Tayseer Mashhadani and seven of her bodyguards at a checkpoint in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad on Saturday.
“We have decided, after careful consideration, to suspend participation” in parliamentary sessions “until her release,” said Adnan Dulaimi, head of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the largest Sunni Arab bloc.
Dulaimi charged that the government and U.S. troops are allowing criminal gangs to roam the streets of Baghdad “as if they are the government itself,” adding that the legislator and her bodyguards were abducted in an area rife with police.
The Muslim Scholars Association, another influential Sunni group, meanwhile condemned a group of American soldiers for allegedly raping an Iraqi woman and then killing her, along with her mother, father and younger sister. The U.S. military recently began an investigation after two American soldiers came forward with information about the deaths March 12 in Mahmudiyah, a village about 20 miles south of Baghdad. A U.S. military official said investigators believe the assault was premeditated and soldiers watched the family for a week before allegedly committing the crimes, which are punishable by death.
Sunday night, eight Iraqis were killed and 22 others were injured in the village when a car bomb exploded in a market. Shortly after, the market was shelled with mortars.
Three other bombs killed four people and injured 18 in separate attacks in Baghdad. In several neighborhoods, rebels clashed with soldiers and police, according to authorities.
