Iraqi suicide bomber targets tribal leaders

A suicide bomber killed 33 people leaving a reconciliation meeting between Sunni and Shiite rivals near Baghdad today.

The attacker detonated an explosives belt as the tribal leaders were walking through the market in the town of Abu Ghraib, accompanied by security officials and journalists.

Mayor Shakir Fizaa blamed al Qaida. “This terrorist attack was aimed at stopping reconciliation and the improvement in the security situation,” he said.

“The criminal attack bears the fingerprints of al Qaida, but we will not be deterred by the acts of the vicious group against innocent civilians.”

Two Iraqi television journalists were among the dead.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but suicide operations are the hallmark of al Qaida. The military said the terror network appears to be stepping up its campaign of bombings as it tries to make a comeback after being battered by recent campaigns.

Last Sunday, a suicide attacker killed 30 people near the police academy in east Baghdad.

Abu Ghraib is a mainly Sunni district that also is the site of the prison where US soldiers were photographed abusing inmates, igniting a scandal that was one of the biggest setbacks to efforts to win the peace in Iraq.

The area was once one of the most dangerous in the country but has seen a sharp decline in violence after a decision by local Sunni tribal leaders to turn against al Qaida.

The reconciliation meeting between the Sunni and Shiite sheiks today was one of many the Iraqi government has been encouraging to heal the rifts between the Muslim sects after years of sectarian violence that pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, last week went so far as to call on Iraqis to reconcile with former supporters of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime who have been shunned by the Shiite government that rose to power after the invasion.

The speech appeared aimed at making political inroads into Sunni areas ahead of national parliamentary elections expected later this year. The prime minister’s allies gained little support in Sunni areas in the January 31 provincial elections.