Bomb kills 22 as Iraqi leader shuns US calls for unity

A CAR BOMB killed at least 22 people in Baghdad yesterday, hours after Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari angrily dismissed US warnings to shun sectarianism in the country’s new government.

The blast in the southern Dora district, the bloodiest in about six weeks, also wounded at least 27 people, one day after three bombings killed 19 people, breaking a relative lull in guerrilla violence.

Iraq was counting mass casualties again as US and British officials pressed its leaders to form a national unity government that can ease sectarian violence.

Speaking after talks with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who echoed the US call for a government of national unity in Iraq, the normally calm and diplomatic Mr Jaafari, a Shi’ite Islamist, said Iraq knew its own best interests.

“When someone asks us whether we want a sectarian government the answer is ‘no we do not want a sectarian government’ - not because the US ambassador says so or issues a warning,” he told a news conference.

“We do not need anybody to remind us, thank you.”

US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said on Monday the United States, which invaded in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein, was investing billions of dollars in Iraq and did not want to see that money go to support sectarian politics.

His comments were echoed less bluntly yesterday by Mr Straw, who said after a meeting with Iraq’s Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, that Iraq’s parliamentary elections in December showed that no single group can dominate Iraq’s new political landscape.

“This therefore gives further impetus to what Iraqis tell us they want, which is a government of national unity bringing together all the different elements of Iraqi society,” Mr Straw said.

He met minority Sunni leaders and praised the new willingness of Sunni Arabs to join in the political process. While Arab Sunni participation in the polls raised hopes that peaceful politics could defuse the Sunni insurgency, voting patterns suggested many cast their ballots on the basis of their sectarian or ethnic background, not political and economic programs offered by candidates.

Rising sectarian tension is increasingly evident on streets, where bodies are routinely dumped with bullet holes to the head.

Sunni accusations that Mr Jaafari’s Shi’ite-led government has sanctioned death squads have tarnished the image of post-war Iraq.