Sectarian Killings ‘Destabilize’ Iraq Unity

BAGHDAD â€”  The city morgue here received 1,091 homicide victims in April, most of them the result of sectarian killings that have become “no less dangerous than terrorism,â€� Iraq’s president said Wednesday.

“These daily crimes will create an environment of mutual suspicion between the nation’s sons and destabilize our national unity,� President Jalal Talabani warned in a statement issued by his office. Each victim leaves behind “an orphan, weeping mother, a suffering father or a suffering wife,� he said.

Talabani acknowledged that the morgue statistics only accounted for bodies discovered in and around Baghdad and that the total number of civilian deaths was probably far higher.

During the first three months of the year, at least 3,800 civilians were killed in Baghdad, according to statistics compiled by the Los Angeles Times based on information from the morgue and police and hospital officials. That is the highest level of slain civilians since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein more than three years ago.

The majority of the victims in recent months appear to have been Sunni Arabs. Community leaders allege that death squads linked to Shiite militias have been carrying out kidnappings and assassinations in their neighborhoods.

The urgency of Talabani’s warning was underscored by continuing violence Tuesday and Wednesday and sectarian tensions that reached into the Iraqi parliament.

The Council of Representatives, which meets in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, has been struggling to reach agreement on appointments to key government ministries, the last stage in forming a unity government that politicians hope will help stabilize the country.

Lawmakers were distracted this week after a fracas sparked by a cellphone ring tone demonstrated simmering tensions between the Sunni and Shiite blocs.

A fight broke out Monday in the lobby of the parliament building after the cellphone of a female Shiite lawmaker began ringing with a Shiite prayer chant. It apparently interrupted a broadcast interview being given by the speaker of the parliament, Mahmoud Mashadani, who is Sunni. A bodyguard he sent to get the phone turned off allegedly attacked the legislator’s aide who was holding the phone.

The incident set off two days of recriminations, which culminated Wednesday in an angry exchange between the lawmaker, Ghufran Saidi, and Mashadani, who briefly suspended the parliamentary session, drawing the ire of Shiite lawmakers.

The speaker later revealed that one of his bodyguards had been attacked Tuesday, setting off speculation that it was retaliation for the scuffle a day earlier. But lawmakers played down that theory.

Saidi on Wednesday lashed out at Mashadani and his bodyguards, whose behavior she said “reminded me of the former regime when they were violating the dignity of our houses.�

Meanwhile, violence continued across Iraq.

Workers at an electrical plant in Baqubah discovered four bodies inside a parked car Wednesday, Police Lt. Mohammed Hadi said. When police arrived to investigate, the car exploded, killing six electrical workers and a police officer.

Just north of the city, gunmen ambushed and killed an Interior Ministry intelligence officer and his two bodyguards, Hadi said.

In Mosul, two car bombings targeted U.S. military convoys; one Iraqi bystander was killed.

In Ramadi, a center of the Sunni-led insurgency in western Iraq, four off-duty police officers were killed Wednesday. Off-duty officers, who are not allowed to carry weapons, are frequent targets.

In Baghdad, a prominent former Baath Party member was assassinated in Sadr City, a massive Shiite neighborhood under control of Muqtada Sadr’s Al Mahdi militia.

In east Baghdad, a bomb targeted an Iraqi police commando convoy, killing one officer.

And in the northeastern neighborhood of Shaab, authorities discovered an unidentified body that had been blindfolded, handcuffed and shot in the head.

Kurdish officials in Sulaymaniya announced Wednesday the escape of five terrorism suspects from a heavily guarded prison complex. The prison is managed by the U.S. military and guarded by Iraqi and U.S. forces.

A Kurdish government spokesman said the escapees were three Iraqis, one Palestinian and a Syrian.

The Susa Castle prison fortress, about 15 miles northwest of Sulaymaniya, is isolated by five security belts. U.S. and Iraqi officials said they were investigating the escape.

*

Times staff writers Caesar Ahmed, Shamil Aziz and Saif Rasheed in Baghdad and special correspondents in Baghdad, Mosul, Baqubah and Sulaymaniya contributed to this report.