Three killed in rebel attacks on Baghdad police

Insurgents targeted Iraqi security forces today in Baghdad, gunning down a neighbourhood police chief and hitting a patrol with a roadside bomb in attacks that left three people dead and at least five injured.

Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying police Col. Abdul Karim Fahad Abbass as he headed to work in the sprawling south-eastern Doura quarter, killing the neighbourhood station chief and his driver, said Capt. Falah al-Muhimadawi.

Across the Tigris River that bisects Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in the Hay Al-Amil area, killing one policeman and wounding five, Capt. Thalib Thamir said.

Yesterday, al Qaida in Iraq released a video claiming to show the murder of an Interior Ministry official, while debate raged about religion’s place in Iraq’s much-anticipated new government as politicians were summoned to their second session since January 30 elections.

Supporters of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi criticised the involvement of the religious authority in politics, while Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, defended the role of the clergy.

“As long as we’re alive and as long as Iraq and the believers are there, we will continue to work according to the directions and the advice of the religious authority,” al-Hakim told the US-funded Alhurra TV station, according to a transcript provided by his office.

“The religious authority does not want to intervene in the details. It just gives direction when it thinks it will be beneficial,” he added.

Secular-minded politicians have expressed concern about the influence of religion in the National Assembly in which the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance holds 140 of the 275 seats.

In a letter to the alliance, politicians who ran under an Allawi coalition warned that allowing religion to play a greater role in Iraq’s government could “lead to instability in the relations between political forces in the Iraqi arena”.

Shiite leaders repeatedly have denied they are seeking an Islamic state like that of neighbouring Iran, saying they plan to include Kurdish and Sunni Arabs in the government.

Shiites make up about 60% of Iraq’s 26 million people, while Sunni Arabs account for about 20%. Kurds, who are Sunni Muslims but mostly secular, are 15 percent to 20% of the population.

The top UN envoy in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, said Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani told him during a meeting yesterday in Najaf that the Shiite spiritual leader did not intend to involve himself in any political process, except for expressing his opinion during crises. The alliance came together under al-Sistani’s guidance.

The National Assembly was expected to hold its second session tomorrow to choose a parliament speaker and two deputies, but it was not known if they would name the country’s new president, expected to be Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani. The president will be responsible for nominating a prime minister, expected to be the alliance’s Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

The first session, on March 16, was to swear in the parliament. But officials have pushed back their second session amid negotiations over Cabinet posts.

In an interview with CNN’s Late Edition, Army Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of US Central Command, said progress had been made but it was slow. “The more uncertainty, the greater chance for escalated violence,” he said.

Attacks persisted yesterday, with gunmen killing a local official from SCIRI, a Shiite group, and two of his relatives. Police discovered their bodies yesterday in an abandoned car north of Baqouba, 35 miles north-east of Baghdad.

Militants from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s terror network posted a video on the internet showing the purported execution of a man identifying himself as Col. Ryadh Gatie Olyway.

The man displayed his Interior Ministry identification card and said he was a liaison officer with the American forces. Behind the men was the black banner of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Olyway said he provided the US military with the names “of officers of the former Iraqi army, who are Sunnis, and their addresses”. At the end of the video, Olyway was blindfolded and appeared to be shot once in the head. The authenticity of the video could not be verified.

An Interior Ministry official said Olyway worked as a liaison officer between the interior and oil ministries and was kidnapped more than a month ago. He had not seen the video and could not confirm whether the hostage was Olyway.

In Baghdad, bodyguards for Science and Technology Minister Rashad Mandan Omar opened fire on a crowd of protesters who had gathered in front of the ministry’s offices to demand their full wages, said Hamid Balasem, an engineer at the Science and Technology Ministry.

Balasem said about 50 ministry guards were demonstrating because they said they were paid only part of their wages.

“We didn’t carry any weapons or have any intention of shooting, but the minister’s bodyguards started firing on us,” said Haithem Jassim, one of three people injured in the melee.

It was unclear why the guards opened fire. No one at the ministry was available for comment.