Baghdad, Iraq – An al- Qaeda front group threatened to assassinate Sunni leaders who support American troops in Iraq, and a Shiite bloc loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr defected Saturday from the Iraqi government’s parliament base.
The two developments cast doubt over prospects for political and military progress in Iraq as the U.S. Senate gears up for a debate this week on Democratic demands for deeper and faster troop cuts than President Bush plans.
The threat against Sunni leaders came from the Islamic State of Iraq, which claimed responsibility for the assassination Thursday of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, the mastermind of the Sunni Arab revolt against al-Qaeda in Anbar province. Bush met Abu Risha at a U.S. base in Anbar this month and praised his courage.
In a Web posting, the Islamic State said it had formed “special security committees” to track down and “assassinate the tribal figures, the traitors, who stained the reputations of the real tribes by submitting to the soldiers of the Crusade” and the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
“We will publish lists of names of the tribal figures to scandalize them in front of our blessed tribes,” the statement said.
In a second statement, the purported head of the Islamic State, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, said he was “honored to announce” a new Ramadan offensive in memory of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al-Qaeda in Iraq killed last year in a U.S. airstrike.
Hours after the announcement, a car bomb exploded late Saturday in a mostly Shiite area of southwestern Baghdad, killing at least 11 people lined up to buy bread. Two of the dead were children, police said.
The blast occurred at the start of iftar, the evening meal at which Muslims break their dawn-to-dusk Ramadan fast. The bloodshed was a blow to government hopes that a peaceful Ramadan would demonstrate a success in the capital.
Also Saturday, the U.S. military said a soldier from the Army’s Task Force Marne was killed and four were wounded the day before when a bomb exploded near their foot patrol.
At least 3,780 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war, according to an Associated Press count.
