|
Violence verges on civil war
News.com (AU)
By James Hider in Baghdad
January 7, 2006
THE wave of violence in Iraq this week that has killed more than 240 people,
making it one of the darkest periods since the US-led invasion in 2003, has
sparked real fears of a civil war.
Sectarian tensions, in particular, have been ramped up by a series of deadly
explosions in the past two days.
Suicide bombers struck in Karbala, one of Shia Islam's holiest cities, and
Ramadi, a Sunni Arab stronghold in western Anbar province and a hotbed of the
insurgency.
Iraq's main Shia religious party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution, yesterday issued a veiled threat to Sunnis supporting the
insurgency that its patience was wearing thin.
"This is a war against Shi'ites," said Rida Jawad al-Takia, a senior member
of the party. "Apparently to the terrorists, no Shi'ite child or woman should
live. We are really worried. It seems they want a civil war."
Mistrust between Shi'ites and Sunnis has been heightened by the results of
last month's elections, which some Sunni and secular leaders say were rigged to
favour the majority Shi'ites.
The bombings shattered hopes that Iraq might start this year on a more
peaceful footing than last year, allowing for a swift withdrawal of some of the
150,000 US troops in the country.
In all, violence has killed more than 240 people and wounded more than 280
in the five days since the year started. It is a death toll comparable with
some of the nation's bloodiest weeks since March 2003.
Thursday's most deadly attack was in Ramadi, the capital of the turbulent
desert province of Anbar and at the heart of the two-year insurgency.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits in the
overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim city, killing 70 would-be law enforcers and
wounding more than 100. The city is key to security in the lawless west of
Iraq. The US-backed Government has been struggling to gain a foothold there,
while US troops come under constant attack.
The suicide bomber mingled with about a thousand applicants who had shown up
for a fourth day of screening to join the police force, which is often accused
of corruption, incompetence and collaboration with insurgent groups.
Earlier in the day another bomber, strapped up with explosives, grenades and
ball bearings, walked into a crowd of pilgrims near the Imam Hussein mosque in
the Shia holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, and blew himself up, killing
at least 50 people.
The bodies of men, women and children were left in pools of blood, while
merchants ferried bloodied survivors from the scene in wooden pushcarts.
"The terrorists spare no place from their ugly deeds," said Mohammed Saheb,
a Shia pilgrim who had travelled to the city ahead of prayers on Thursday.
"This is a criminal act against faithful pilgrims. The terrorists are
targeting the Shi'ites."
Just south of Karbala, a roadside bomb killed five US soldiers on a patrol,
the US military said. The troops were not involved in the rescue effort.
Two other Americans were reported by Iraqi police to have been killed in a
second roadside bombing in Najaf, which also claimed the lives of two Iraqi
civilians. In Baghdad, car bombs and gunmen killed at least six Iraqis.
The sudden upsurge in violence mirrors a similar wave of attacks after the
elections in January last year, when hundreds of people were killed as
insurgents tried to derail the fledgling democratic process.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said this week's violence was an
attempt to thwart the political process just as the Sunni minority was being
brought into a broad-based Government that would weaken the Sunni-led
insurgency.
The Times, AP, Reuters
|