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Iraqi religious leaders call for peace
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-25 08:58
Appeals from religious leaders and an unusual daytime curfew Friday curbed
violence that claimed more than 140 lives across Iraq after the bombing of a
Shiite shrine. President Bush joined in calling for calm, saying "This is a
moment of choosing for the Iraqi people."
Armed Iraqi army
soldiers guard a Shiite mosque, in Baghdad, Friday, Feb. 24, 2006. Police
and soldiers blocked major roads and surrounded Baghdad's two main Sunni
mosques as streets throughout this city of nearly 7 million emptied of
people and traffic. The nation stood on the brink of civil war and the
American strategy in Iraq faced it's gravest test since the 2003
invasion.[AP] |
Prime Minister Ibrahim
al-Jaafari reached out to Sunnis and Shiites, promising to rebuild the Shiites'
Askariya shrine in Samarra and Sunni mosques damaged in two days of reprisal
attacks.
The daytime curfew kept most vehicles and pedestrians off the streets of
Baghdad, preventing many people from reaching mosques for the main Muslim prayer
service of the week but also blunting protests and preventing attacks.
People were allowed to walk to neighborhood mosques, many of which were
guarded by heavily armed Iraqi police and soldiers. Preachers at several leading
mosques urged their followers to maintain calm for the sake of the nation.
But sectarian anger remained high following Wednesday's destruction of a
famed Shiite shrine, as did the threat of more violence.
The Iraqi government announced another daytime curfew for Saturday in Baghdad
and the surrounding provinces of Salaheddin, Babil and Diyala. And the U.S.
military said it would carry out additional security patrols for another 48
hours.
Late Friday, two rockets were fired in a village southeast of Baghdad that
includes a tomb revered by Shiites. There was no damage to the tomb, U.S. and
Iraqi officials said. Two more rockets exploded in the British Embassy compound
in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, causing minor injuries to two British
workers, the U.S. military reported.
Police found at least 27 bodies Friday in Baghdad and other cities and towns.
Many were believed to have been victims of sectarian violence, including five
Shiite men killed by gunmen who burst into their home in Latifiyah south of
Baghdad.
In Samarra, a roadside bomb killed two policemen, and a husband and wife in a
passing vehicle were injured when police opened fire after the attack, police
said. An explosion set fire to an oil pipeline south of the city.
In Washington, Bush warned Americans to expect more bloodshed and more
political wrangling in Iraq.
"We can expect the coming days will be intense," the president said in a
speech to a veterans' group. "But I'm optimistic because the Iraqi people have
spoken and make their intentions clear."
"They want their freedom. They want their country to be a democracy," Bush
said.
The Shiite-Sunni confrontation threatens to scuttle U.S. hopes for a
government that will include Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties. The Bush
administration hopes such a government can win the trust of the Sunni Arab
community, the backbone of the insurgency, calming the violence so American
troops can begin heading home.
However, the biggest Sunni political bloc in parliament withdrew from talks
on a new government to protest the attacks on Sunni mosques. U.S. officials
remain hopeful the Sunnis will return to the discussions, but the crisis may
delay forming the government, which had been expected by mid-May.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad acknowledged the grave danger facing Iraq,
but said the attack on the shrine also presented the country with a "moment of
opportunity."
"I think this attack has had a major impact here, getting everyone's
attention that Iraq is in danger ... that they must lead and compromise with
each other to bring the people of Iraq together and to save this country," he
told reporters.
In an overture to the Sunnis, the country's top Shiite political leader,
Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, issued a statement expressing regret over the deaths of all
Iraqis. He said those who carried out the Samarra attack "do not represent the
Sunnis in Iraq," blaming Saddam Hussein loyalists and religious extremists from
al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"This is what al-Zarqawi is working for, that is, to ignite sectarian strife
in the country," al-Hakim said in the statement broadcast by Iraqi television
stations. "We call for self-restraint and not to be dragged down by the plots of
the enemy."
A Sunni spokesman, Dhafer al-Ani, called al-Hakim's statement "a step on the
road of healing the wounds." But he said his Iraqi Accordance Front was waiting
for an apology for failing to protect Sunni mosques from reprisal attacks.
Supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met Friday with
representatives of a Sunni clerical organization, the Association of Muslim
Scholars, to discuss a "charter of honor" prohibiting killings among Iraqis.
Al-Sadr's militiamen were responsible for at least some of the attacks on
Sunni mosques, although the cleric joined other Shiite religious leaders in
calling for calm. Both al-Sadr and the scholars association strongly oppose the
U.S. presence in Iraq.
In his statement, Prime Minister al-Jafaari announced security measures to
curb the unrest, including a ban on vehicles entering or leaving Baghdad, more
patrols in flashpoint neighborhoods, and a ban on carrying unauthorized weapons.
The vehicle ban in Baghdad was aimed at preventing people from leaving the
capital for Samarra, 60 miles to the north and was not expected to be applied
vigorously elsewhere, government officials said.
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