Baghdad, Iraq – The Iraqi government is negotiating with one of the most powerful Shiite Muslim militias in an attempt to secure the release of a kidnapped Sunni Arab parliament member, another Sunni legislator said Monday.
Amar Jubouri said government officials have held discussions with followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who leads the thousands-strong Mahdi Army militia, with the goal of securing freedom for Tayseer al-Mashhadani. Al-Sadr has been an outspoken opponent of the U.S. presence in Iraq, and his militia members are frequently accused by Sunnis of playing a major role in Iraq’s continuing violence.
Al-Mashhadani was kidnapped in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Saturday. Her abduction enraged Sunni legislators, causing them to boycott parliament and threaten to withdraw their Cabinet ministers unless she is released.
Sunni legislators did not accuse the Mahdi Army of kidnapping al-Mashhadani but suggested the militia might be aware of what happened.
The Iraqi parliament held its session Monday without the 44 members of the Sunni Accord Front, who boycotted the meeting. Sunni legislators said they planned to withdraw four Cabinet ministers starting today and to call on the United Nations to intervene, unless al-Mashhadani was released.
A spokesman for al-Sadr, Abdul Daragi, denied the Mahdi Army had kidnapped al-Mashhadani and declined to comment on any discussions with the government.
On Monday, violence took the lives of at least two dozen more people. In the bloodiest attack, a car bomb in the northern city of Mosul killed seven people, including two police officers, and wounded 28 other people, according to Lt. Col. Salih Ahmad of the Mosul police.
The parked car detonated along a row of furniture shops as a police patrol passed Monday morning. The blast smashed the glass storefronts into shards and rubble.
On Monday, the U.S. military said that an American soldier was killed Sunday evening when a roadside bomb hit his vehicle during a patrol north of Baghdad. In addition, a Marine died Monday while fighting in the embattled western Anbar province, the military announced.
In June, deaths among Iraqi civilians, police and soldiers dropped slightly, but the number of wounded rose, indicating little easing of violence since the killing of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, government figures showed Monday.
Of the 1,006 Iraqis reported killed in political or sectarian violence last month, 885 were civilians, according to figures obtained by The Associated Press. The overall figure was down from the 1,053 deaths recorded by the government in May.
