Al-Qaida ‘planned to start Iraqi civil war’

A UN team assessing the feasibility of early elections in Iraq met with local politicians yesterday, amid reports that a suspected al-Qaida operative proposed provoking sectarian conflict between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims to disrupt the scheduled power transfer to Iraqis.

The US military, meanwhile, placed new bounties on the heads of suspected key insurgents, as two US soldiers were killed and six wounded in an explosion as they tried to dispose of weaponry in northern Iraq yesterday.

The nine-member election UN mission met with the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Jalal Talabani.

UN delegation member Ahmad Fawzi said the delegation was holding separate meetings with members of the US-appointed interim Governing Council and other politicians.

“We are discussing the elections and what are the chances to hold them; we are listening only, not expressing any kind of opinion,” said Mr Fawzi.

“We are here on a fact-finding mission to see whether early elections can be held before the transfer of power,” which the coalition plans to complete by June 30, and “what are the mechanisms that would allow the elections to be held.

“If not, what can be the alternatives in the eyes of the Iraqis themselves?”

But the spiritual leader of the majority Shi’ite community, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has undermined their plans for a transitional assembly selected by regional caucuses, calling for elections instead.

Meanwhile, US officials believe Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian with suspected ties to al-Qaida, wrote a 17-page document proposing a Sunni-Shi’ite conflict in Iraq, where he is believed to be operating.

The document laments al-Qaida’s inability to rid Iraq of US troops, and suggests an attack on the Shi’ites could rescue the movement by prompting a backlash against the Sunni minority.

The memo says a war against the Shi’ites must start before sovereignty is scheduled to be handed over to an interim Iraqi government.

The US army distributed a poster offering a total $16.5 million for the capture of the five most wanted men suspected of leading the insurgency.

Saddam Hussein’s right-hand man Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri tops the list with a $10m bounty, followed by Zarqawi, with $5m.

Zarqawi, whose real name is Fadel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, is alleged by the coalition to be a key link between al-Qaida and Ansar al-Islam, a militant group operating in Iraq.

In northern Iraq, US Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt confirmed that two US soldiers were killed in a non-hostile blast near Mosul.

“We have reports that two US soldiers were killed in action, and six wounded in the vicinity of Sinjar while conducting ordnance disposal operations,” said Brig Gen Kimmitt, the deputy director of coalition military operations.

The latest US military deaths take to more than 530 the number of American soldiers killed in combat, by accident or suicide since the US-led invasion of Iraq last March.