Iraq's new president urged to free suspected rebels

An important Sunni cleric has urged Iraq’s new president to resist US pressure and free thousands of suspected rebels, a sign the religious group most often associated with the Iraqi insurgency might be willing to work with the new government.

But there was no letup in violence yesterday, as militants set off four bombs that killed at least two civilians and wounded 14 in Baghdad, capping a bloody week of attacks and clashes.

Also yesterday, Ukraine began withdrawing some its 1,462 soldiers from Iraq amid plans to have them all out by the end of the year, the US military said.

Regarding the suspected rebels, Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, a cleric in the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, urged President Jalal Talabani to refuse to “obey and kneel to pressure from” US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The US has opposed freeing prisoners or pardoning insurgents.

It remains unclear how much say Talabani will have in his largely ceremonial post. Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari is putting together a Cabinet and it isn’t known if the new government backs a pardon.

Al-Samarrai’s comments came three days after Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Iraq and urged the emerging government to avoid politicising the Iraqi military.

After he was sworn in as president this month, Talabani appealed to Iraq’s homegrown militants to work with the newly elected leadership, and suggested they could be pardoned, although he said the Iraqi government would continue to fight foreign insurgents.

“We must find political and peaceful solutions with those duped Iraqis who have been involved in terrorism and pardon them, and invite them to join the democratic process,” Talabani said after his inauguration. “But we must firmly counter and isolate the criminal terrorism that’s imported from abroad.”

Most of the 10,500 detainees are held by the US military, and some lawmakers have said the new president is just expressing his personal opinion.

Nevertheless, Talabani and other members of the new government are reaching out to Iraq’s Sunni minority, which was the dominant group under Saddam Hussein and is believed to be the backbone of the insurgency.

Al-Samarrai’s comment was the latest sign that his organisation, which has been alleged to have links to insurgents, is responding to the new government. Two weeks ago, he instructed his followers to begin joining Iraqi security forces.