Iraqi president praises Shi’ite and Kurdish militias

IRAQ’S president publicly praised Shi’ite and Kurdish militias Wednesday in a statement that could further antagonise Sunni Arabs and fuel fears of sectarian strife.

The divide between Iraq’s Sunni and Shi’ite Arabs further widened when Sunni Arab leaders threatened to boycott a constitutional committee, a move which would deal a blow to the Shi’ite-led government’s efforts to include them in the political process.

Attacks killed at least nine Iraqis as the Sunni-dominated insurgency pressed on with its campaign against the Shi’ite-led government. The bodies of six others also were found.

Four US soldiers were killed in three separate attacks north of Baghdad, the military said Wednesday.

One was killed in a roadside bombing Wednesday near Adwar, 16 kilometres south of Tikrit. Two more died in an indirect fire attack on their base in Tikrit late Tuesday, while a fourth was fatally wounded in another bomb attack north of the capital.

At least 1,680 US military members have died since the war began in 2003.

At least 10 insurgents also were killed yesterday during an offensive by US and Iraqi troops that began the day before in the northern town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, police Capt. Amjad Hashim said.

A wave of violence broke out after the April 28 announcement of Iraq’s new Shi’ite and Kurdish dominated government, killing at least 889 people. The dead include more than 10 Sunni and Shi’ite clerics, killed in apparent retaliatory slayings that raised fears the country was verging on a civil war.

The Sunni leaders have demanded it be disarmed and complained it provides intelligence and support for some Shi’ite-dominated special security units.

Sunni leaders also threatened to boycott a committee drafting Iraq’s constitution unless they are given more seats on the panel.

The demands came yesterday at a meeting of two of Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab organisations, the Iraqi Islamic Party and the Sunni Endowment, a body that runs the sect’s mosques and seminaries in Iraq. The influential Association of Muslim Scholars did not attend.

The constitution must be drafted by mid-August and approved two months later in a referendum. Sunni Arab approval is needed for the charter to take effect and new elections to be held in December.