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September 29, 2007
Iraq: Sectarian Violence Kills 18
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:03 a.m. ET
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians, killed in a
suicide truck bombing near Mosul, were among 18 victims of sectarian
violence across Iraq Saturday, even as the country's leaders denounced a
U.S. Senate proposal to split the country into ethnic or religious-based
regions.
Six people were killed and 17 wounded after a bomber in a pickup truck
detonated his explosives as Iraqi forces chased the speeding vehicle near
Mosul, an army officer said.
Acting on a tip, a team of Iraqi soldiers tried to intercept the suicide
driver as he was heading west from Mazra village toward Mosul, 225 miles
northwest of Baghdad. As the Iraqi Humvee neared the truck, the driver
detonated his explosive payload, according to the officer who spoke on the
condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Also Saturday, drive-by gunmen killed a Sunni sheik near his home in Mosul's
Mithaq neighborhood, said police spokesman Abdul Karim al-Jbouri. Sheik
Ghanim Qassim was a mosque preacher and member of Mosul's edict commission,
a religious rule-making body.
Al-Jbouri also said a 50-year-old journalist visiting his brother in the Bab
al-Baidh neighborhood in central Mosul was killed about 9:30 a.m. when he
was caught in a mortar attack. Abdul-Khaliq Nasir, who worked for Um
al-Rabyain, a local newspaper, until it ceased operations about six months
ago because of security concerns, was married and had three children.
In central Baghdad, gunmen opened fire at an Iraqi checkpoint, killing one
civilian and wounding four others, police said.
Late Friday, the U.S. military handed over nine decomposing bodies to a
hospital in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, according to a police
official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release
the information.
The young men were insurgents killed by U.S. forces, he said, adding that
U.S. military officials told the hospital to expect at least 15 more bodies
in the coming days.
The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier Friday, Iraq's prime minister told The Associated Press that a U.S.
Senate proposal to split the country into regions according to religious or
ethnic divisions would be a ''catastrophe.''
The Kurds in three northern Iraqi provinces are running a virtually
independent country within Iraq, while nominally maintaining relations with
Baghdad. They support a formal division. But both Sunni and Shiite Muslims
have reacted with extreme opposition to the U.S. Senate proposal.
The majority Shiites, who would retain control of major oil revenues under a
division of the country, oppose the measure because it would diminish the
territorial integrity of Iraq, which they now control. Sunnis would control
an area with few if any oil resources. Kurds have major oil reserves in
their territory.
The nonbinding Senate resolution calls for Iraq to be divided into federal
regions under control of the three communities in a power-sharing agreement
similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia. Democratic
presidential hopeful Sen. Joseph Biden was a prime sponsor of the measure.
''It is an Iraqi affair dealing with Iraqis,'' Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki told the AP Friday on a return flight to Baghdad from New York,
where he appeared at the U.N. General Assembly. ''Iraqis are eager for
Iraq's unity. ... Dividing Iraq is a problem, and a decision like that would
be a catastrophe.''
The comments were al-Maliki's first since the measure passed the Senate on
Wednesday.
Iraq's constitution lays down a federal system, allowing Shiites in the
south, Kurds in the north and Sunnis in the center and west of the country
to set up regions with considerable autonomous powers.
Nevertheless, ethnic and sectarian turmoil have snarled hopes of negotiating
such measures, especially given deep divisions on sharing the country's vast
oil resources. Oil reserves and existing fields would fall mainly into the
hands of Kurds and Shiites if such a division were to occur.
So far there has been no agreement on a broader sharing of those revenues,
one of the several U.S.-mandated benchmarks the government has failed to
push through parliament.
Iraq: Sectarian Violence Kills 18
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:03 a.m. ET
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians, killed in a
suicide truck bombing near Mosul, were among 18 victims of sectarian
violence across Iraq Saturday, even as the country's leaders denounced a
U.S. Senate proposal to split the country into ethnic or religious-based
regions.
Six people were killed and 17 wounded after a bomber in a pickup truck
detonated his explosives as Iraqi forces chased the speeding vehicle near
Mosul, an army officer said.
Acting on a tip, a team of Iraqi soldiers tried to intercept the suicide
driver as he was heading west from Mazra village toward Mosul, 225 miles
northwest of Baghdad. As the Iraqi Humvee neared the truck, the driver
detonated his explosive payload, according to the officer who spoke on the
condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Also Saturday, drive-by gunmen killed a Sunni sheik near his home in Mosul's
Mithaq neighborhood, said police spokesman Abdul Karim al-Jbouri. Sheik
Ghanim Qassim was a mosque preacher and member of Mosul's edict commission,
a religious rule-making body.
Al-Jbouri also said a 50-year-old journalist visiting his brother in the Bab
al-Baidh neighborhood in central Mosul was killed about 9:30 a.m. when he
was caught in a mortar attack. Abdul-Khaliq Nasir, who worked for Um
al-Rabyain, a local newspaper, until it ceased operations about six months
ago because of security concerns, was married and had three children.
In central Baghdad, gunmen opened fire at an Iraqi checkpoint, killing one
civilian and wounding four others, police said.
Late Friday, the U.S. military handed over nine decomposing bodies to a
hospital in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, according to a police
official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to release
the information.
The young men were insurgents killed by U.S. forces, he said, adding that
U.S. military officials told the hospital to expect at least 15 more bodies
in the coming days.
The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier Friday, Iraq's prime minister told The Associated Press that a U.S.
Senate proposal to split the country into regions according to religious or
ethnic divisions would be a ''catastrophe.''
The Kurds in three northern Iraqi provinces are running a virtually
independent country within Iraq, while nominally maintaining relations with
Baghdad. They support a formal division. But both Sunni and Shiite Muslims
have reacted with extreme opposition to the U.S. Senate proposal.
The majority Shiites, who would retain control of major oil revenues under a
division of the country, oppose the measure because it would diminish the
territorial integrity of Iraq, which they now control. Sunnis would control
an area with few if any oil resources. Kurds have major oil reserves in
their territory.
The nonbinding Senate resolution calls for Iraq to be divided into federal
regions under control of the three communities in a power-sharing agreement
similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia. Democratic
presidential hopeful Sen. Joseph Biden was a prime sponsor of the measure.
''It is an Iraqi affair dealing with Iraqis,'' Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki told the AP Friday on a return flight to Baghdad from New York,
where he appeared at the U.N. General Assembly. ''Iraqis are eager for
Iraq's unity. ... Dividing Iraq is a problem, and a decision like that would
be a catastrophe.''
The comments were al-Maliki's first since the measure passed the Senate on
Wednesday.
Iraq's constitution lays down a federal system, allowing Shiites in the
south, Kurds in the north and Sunnis in the center and west of the country
to set up regions with considerable autonomous powers.
Nevertheless, ethnic and sectarian turmoil have snarled hopes of negotiating
such measures, especially given deep divisions on sharing the country's vast
oil resources. Oil reserves and existing fields would fall mainly into the
hands of Kurds and Shiites if such a division were to occur.
So far there has been no agreement on a broader sharing of those revenues,
one of the several U.S.-mandated benchmarks the government has failed to
push through parliament.
