Crackdown promised as emergency declared in Basra

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today promised to crack down on sectarian gangs in Basra and declared a month-long state of emergency in the southern city amid increasing violence in the restive region.

Tensions have been worsening in the Shiite-dominated area, where mostly Shiite militias have been attacking Sunnis and battling each other.

Standing at a podium with an Iraqi flag as a backdrop, Al-Maliki issued a strong denunciation of a wave of killings and kidnappings that Sunni religious leaders have blamed on Shiite death squads.

“We shall use an iron fist against the leaders of the gangs or those who threaten security,” he said, apparently referring to the militias as well as rival tribal groups.

“And we shall ask all security departments to draw up an effective and quick plan to achieve security.”

Al-Maliki was addressing about 700 tribal sheikhs, religious leaders, officials, army officers and other residents in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, 340 miles south-east of Baghdad.

Shouting broke out in the auditorium before al-Maliki delivered his speech, with several tribal leaders accusing local officials and security forces of being behind the mounting violence.

But the prime minister calmed them down from the podium, saying: “We cannot negotiate with everybody shouting.”

Al-Maliki later declared a state of emergency in the southern city of Basra, amid mounting violence, said Sayed Muhammad al-Haidari, a top Shiite official who was travelling with the prime minister.

It was the only state of emergency in effect across Iraq, according to officials.

Other cities, such as Baghdad and Ramadi, have curfews.

“The state of emergency imposed in Basra for one month is made up of a group of exceptional measures imposed for a specific time by the prime minister for dealing with some events,” Interior Ministry Under-secretary Major-General Ahmed Al-Khafaji said from Basra.

He added that “Basra is the only province in Iraq that has a state of emergency."

Violence continued elsewhere, a day after car bombs targeting Shiite areas tore through a car dealership in southern Iraq and a bustling outdoor market north of Baghdad as attacks nationwide killed 54 people and wounded 120.

A parked car packed with explosives hit a police patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul today, killing at least five policemen and wounding 14, including a senior officer.

Gunmen ambushed a minibus north-east of Baghdad, killing at least five people and wounding three, police said.

The attack occurred in Baqouba, 35 miles north-east of Baghdad, according to the joint co-ordination centre of the police in the Diyala province, a mixed area where sectarian tensions run high.

Jamal Kadhim Hassoun al-Zamili, former governor of Diwaniyah city south of Baghdad, was killed in a drive-by shooting last night that also wounded two of his guards, police Captain Ali Hussein said.

A bomb hidden in an air conditioner exploded in the mayor’s office in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, killing the mayor, Sheikh Allaywi Farhan al-Dulaimi, a member of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, and wounding three of his guards, police said.

Provincial Governor Raad Rashid al-Mula Jawad imposed a curfew on the city and deployed Iraqi army forces there.

Gunmen killed a Shiite muazzin, the man who calls for the five daily prayers, as he was leaving his house to go to the Imam Ali Mosque in south-western Baghdad, Hussein said.

A 25-year-old sportscaster for al-Iraqiya TV, Ali Jaafar, also was gunned down in a drive-by shooting near his house in south-western Baghdad, police Lieutenant Colonel Falah al-Mohammedawi said.

His death came two days after CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier was seriously wounded and two crew members were killed in a bombing in Baghdad. Dozens of journalists have been killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

A roadside bomb also hit a joint US-Iraqi patrol on the highway near the Dora Refinery in southern Baghdad and the area was blocked off, police Captain Firas Geiti said. No casualties were immediately reported.

Another roadside bomb exploded near a convoy of Australian and Japanese troops in Samawa, about 230 miles south-east of Baghdad, wounding an Iraqi bystander and damaging an Australian military vehicle, according to Japanese news reports.

At least 19 bodies were found in separate locations in Baghdad, many blindfolded and handcuffed, apparent victims of sectarian killings often blamed on militias.

The Shiite prime minister travelled to Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city with his Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi.

Both leaders said security must be restored before prosperity could be restored to the port city strategically located on the Persian Gulf.

“There are future plans to improve Basra,” al-Hashimi said. “But to prepare suitable circumstances, security must be restored and that is why we are here.”

Iran’s hand also is rumoured to be behind Shiite militias in Basra, although little evidence of a direct link has been made public.

Nevertheless, US officials have long accused the Iranians, though not necessarily the Tehran government, of smuggling weapons to Shiite militias in Basra and perhaps also selling roadside bomb technology to Sunni militants, charges Iran denies.

“Basra is not exception from what is taking place in Baghdad, Anbar, Nineveh and Diyala,” al-Hashimi said, referring to other volatile provinces.

“There are malignant campaigns and malignant intentions and there are malignant agendas to deepen divisions among Iraqis,” he said. “They intend to divide the country.”

In the months after the 2003 invasion, British troops enjoyed relative peace in southern Iraq compared with the restive Sunni regions further north.

But violence in the region has escalated. Nearly 140 people, most Sunnis but also Shiites and policemen, were killed in Basra this month alone, police Captain Mushtaq Kadhim said.

Police in northern Mosul said gunmen killed two civilians and wounded another.

Clashes erupted between gunmen and Iraqi police near a Sunni mosque in northern Baghdad.

Nobody was injured, police Lieutenant Mohammed Khyoun said.

Police found six bodies blindfolded and handcuffed in separate locations in the al-Sadr Shiite slum in Baghdad.

The bodies of four men who were blindfolded, handcuffed and shot in the head were dumped near a cigarette factory in Habibiyah in eastern Baghdad.

The bodies of two other men were found shot in the head near a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad.

Police found the bodies of two men shot in the head and dumped in the volatile Dora neighbourhood and the bodies of a driver and a policeman who were kidnapped and killed were found in western Baghdad.

The body of a policewoman also was found on the highway in western Baghdad. She was identified as Nadiya Hassan and police said she had been kidnapped two days ago.

Police found the bullet-riddled bodies of two bound and blindfolded men, including one wearing a sports uniform, who were dumped in eastern Baghdad.

Police also found four unidentified bodies of men who had been seized by gunmen and shot in the head in the volatile Baghdad neighbourhood of Dora last night.