http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/23/africa/web.0323iraq.html
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq
U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a suspected guerrilla training camp and
killed 85 fighters, the single biggest one-day death toll for
militants in months and the latest in a series of blows to the
insurgency, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.
.
Politicians helping shape a postelection government expected within
days said negotiators are considering a Sunni Arab as defense minister
in a move aimed at bringing them into the political process � and
perhaps deflate the insurgency they lead.
.
The U.S. military announced late Tuesday that its air and ground
forces backed Iraqi commandos during a noontime raid on the suspected
training camp near Lake Tharthar in central Iraq. Seven commandos died
in fighting, the U.S. military said. It did not give a death toll for
the militants.
.
Iraqi officials said Wednesday 85 insurgents died in the clash � the
largest number killed in a single battle since the U.S. Marine-led
November attack on the former militant stronghold of Fallujah left
more than 1,000 dead. On Sunday, U.S. forces killed 26 attackers after
an ambush south of Baghdad.
.
Also Wednesday, a mortar shell or rocket struck an elementary school
in western Baghdad, killing at least one child and injuring three
others, according to a police official who asked not to be identified
out of fear of retribution by attackers.
.
Children fled the schoolhouse, abandoning backpacks and books on desks
littered with glass shards. One teacher wept outside as parents rushed
to the scene.
.
Hours later, a policeman trying to defuse a roadside bomb in Baghdad
died and another officer was wounded when the device exploded, police
Capt. Talib Thamir said.
.
On the political front, Abbas Hassan Mousa al-Bayati, a top member of
the United Iraqi Alliance, said negotiators from his Shiite-dominated
bloc and a Kurdish coalition could tap a Sunni Arab to head the
ministry of defense, which oversees the Iraqi army battling the
insurgency.
.
``The Defense Ministry will go to a Sunni Arab because we do not want
Arab Sunnis to feel that they are marginalized,'' al-Bayati told The
Associated Press. ``They will be given one of the four major posts
because we want them to feel that they are part of the political
formula.''
.
Sunni Arabs, dominant under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, largely
stayed away from the Jan. 30 balloting amid calls for them to boycott
and threats against voters by the Sunni-led insurgency.
.
Political leaders have in the past announced plans on filling Cabinet
positions, only to reverse themselves later.
.
Al-Bayati said his group and the Kurdish coalition, which together won
215 seats in the new 275-seat National Assembly, were expected to name
a president Saturday, the next step toward forming a new government.
Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani is expected to fill the post.
.
Fuad Masoum, a member of the Kurdish negotiating team, said no
definitive decisions on the 32-member Cabinet have been made. He
declined to confirm that a Sunni Arab will be named defense minister
but said that was one option under consideration.
.
Handing the post to a Sunni Arab could help undermine support for the
insurgency, while assuaging Sunni fears that the Shiites will dominate
all aspect's of the country's upcoming government.
.
The army chief of staff could be a Shiite, al-Bayati said. He added
that his bloc was pressing for a Shiite to head the Interior Ministry,
which oversees the police � Iraq's other main security force � and
that a Kurd could become foreign minister.
.
Amid the political wrangling, top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani had been scheduled to talk with Talabani on Wednesday. But
the meeting was canceled due to ``security concerns,'' said Meithemn
Faisal, an official from al-Sistani's office.
.
Kurds are thought to number between 15 percent and 20 percent of
Iraq's 25 million people, with Sunni Arabs roughly equivalent. Shiite
Arabs make up 60 percent of the population.
.
.
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