Baghdad, Iraq – Iraq’s prime minister insisted Thursday that there will be “no safe place in Iraq for terrorists,” hours before a suicide car bombing killed at least 26 people in the Shiite neighborhood of Karradah and two rockets slammed into the heavy fortified Green Zone not far from the U.S. Embassy.
Angry Karradah residents took to the streets chanting “We want the Sunnis out!” after the blast, the second suicide bombing in three days in the neighborhood. The explosion destroyed three minivans, 11 cars and dozens of shops, as well as the local post office, according to a resident.
The attacks came on a day that police reported 61 killed in sectarian violence nationwide, including the bodies of 22 torture victims dumped in Baghdad, and a parliamentary debate was suspended briefly after arguments broke out between Sunnis and Shiites over security.
Parliament held yet another raucous session, this time witnessing a heated exchange between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Sunni legislator and cleric Abdul-Nasser al-Janabi, who accused the Shiite-dominated government of carrying out purges against Sunnis, the minority sect in Iraq.
The prime minister was seeking support for his and President Bush’s plan to crush sectarian violence in Baghdad. Al-Maliki vowed to go after those behind Baghdad’s rampant violence no matter where they try to hide and regardless of sectarian beliefs, promising at the same time to ensure the human rights of innocent Iraqis.
“We are full of hope. We have no other choice but to use force and any place where we receive fire will not be safe even if it is a school, a mosque, a political party office or home,” he said. “There will be no safe place in Iraq for terrorists.”
But al-Janabi took the floor and said al-Maliki’s government had gratuitously and summarily fired former members of Sad dam Hussein’s ousted Baath Party from government jobs, sentenced people to death for political reasons and detained without reason Sunni pilgrims returning from the hajj in Saudi Arabia this month.
He also accused al-Maliki of running a sham program to reconcile Sunni-Shiite differences.
“Stop sentencing innocent people to death, because such sentences are politically motivated,” al-Janabi implored, adding that Sunnis do not trust the government.
Al-Maliki countered by implying al-Janabi was responsible for the kidnapping of 150 people in Anbar province, the Sunni stronghold west of Baghdad.
Legislators believed to be Shiites applauded the remark.
Angry and insulting exchanges have become normal in Iraq’s 275-member parliament, but the involvement of the nation’s leader heightened the tension. Parliamentary sessions previously were broadcast live, but the government has since ordered them to be aired with a 30-minute delay to allow editing.
In his address, al-Maliki also called on lawmakers to pass laws on distribution of the country’s oil wealth and reverse measures that have excluded many Sunnis from jobs and government positions because of Baath Party membership.
