Iraq leaders struggle to reach compromise on constitution

IRAQI politicians tried to reach compromises with Sunni Arab leaders yesterday on the country’s draft constitution, one day after synchronised bombings near at a bus station and nearby hospital killed up to 43 people in the capital.

Four US soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, the US military said. The explosion occurred in the tense, religiously mixed city of Samarra, 60 miles north of the capital.

Government officials said yesterday’s bombings - two believed to have been suicide attacks and the third a stationary car bomb - were an attempt to target Shi’ites and stoke civil war between religious groups in the country.

“They targeted an area that has a population of people from southern Shi’ite provinces, and their message was that their government is unable to protect you from us,” government spokesman Laith Kubba said. “They want a reaction against Sunnis to therefore deepen the sectarian crisis in the country.”

Kubba said flyers had recently been handed out in some Baghdad neighbourhoods threatening Shi’ites if they did not leave the city. At least one person, a Sunni Arab woman married to a Shiite, had been killed after the threats, he said.

Kubba also said four suspects arrested on suspicion of being involved in the attack the prior day had been released after questioning.

Talks on the draft constitution resumed today as five Sunni Arabs on the drafting committee met with Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and discussed points of disagreement such as federalism.