Iraq PM says timely elections the solution as suicide bombers strike
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said pressing ahead with elections later this month would help quell the violence plaguing the country as three suicide bombings killed 17 people, most of them policemen.
Allawi on Wednesday sounded a warning to those calling for the January 30 polls to be delayed, saying any postponement would only worsen the security situation.
The US-backed premier promised an increase in the strength of Iraq (news - web sites)'s fledgling security forces saying they would be better trained and equipped to "defeat the terrorists once and for all."
He said "significant new numbers" would graduate Thursday and reiterated plans to integrate the paramilitary national guard into the army.
"Our new tanks and armoured forces will appear for the first time next week to assure stability and security," he said.
The security forces took the brunt of Wednesday's latest violence.
At least 10 policemen were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police academy in the Shiite city of Hilla, south of the capital. There were also 40 policemen among the 44 wounded, an interior ministry official said.
"A suicide car bomber blew himself up outside the Babil Sports Club, which is just across the street from the police academy," General Qais Abud told AFP.
Six policemen were also killed in a second suicide bombing when a suicide attacker rammed his vehicle into a police checkpoint in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, police and medics said. Another 13 people were wounded.
A third bomber targeted a US convoy west of Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding four.
The Al-Qaeda linked Army of Ansar Al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in an Internet statement.
Since late Tuesday, a total of 48 people have been killed in attacks in Iraq as insurgents have made good their threats to try to derail this month's election with a campaign of nonstop violence.
In Mosul the bodies of 18 Iraqis lured by promises of lucrative work from a Baghdad Shiite neighbourhood were found Wednesday in the northern city, an interior ministry source said Thursday.
"The men, all from the northern Khadimiya district of Baghdad, were promised lucrative jobs at US bases in Mosul and taken there on December 8," said the source.
He said the bodies were brought back from Mosul to the Khadimiya hospital.
Mosul, a predominantly Sunni Arab city, has seen intensified violence and clashes between Iraqi and US forces and insurgents since mid-November when insurgents overran police stations there, prompting the force to quit en masse.
Since early December more than 60 bodies, mostly Iraqi security forces personnel, have been found in the Mosul area after being executed and dumped by insurgents.
The fledgling security forces, which have lost more than 100 personnel since the new year, are expected to take the lead role in securing polling stations with US-led troops staying in the background and intervening only if called upon. The prime minister called on all of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups to take part in the election and said he was in talks with groups that had announced boycotts to try to secure a change of heart. "The Iraqi government and myself personally urge Iraqis to vote and participate in the political process," Allawi said. "Elections will play a big role in calming the situation and enable the next government to face the upcoming challenges in a decisive manner." He sought to calm concerns that a boycott by the Sunni Arab former elite would further disenfrachise the community and aggravate the insurgency raging in Sunni areas north and west of the capital. "For any reason if some would not participate in the elections ... it is not the end of the process," he said in English. The appeal was shared by Iran and its main Arab ally Syria, who urged Iraqis to vote. "Iran's message is that this meeting with neighbouring countries of Iraq is to try to help the Iraqi people to chose their own future," the director general of the Iranian foreign ministry Zamani Nia told reporters. "We are gathering here to promote integrity and cohesion among the Iraqi people ... to promote peace and security in Iraq and to try to help the Iraqi people to decide on their own," Nia said. Syria, too, wants to see a massive turnout in the January 30 election, a top aide to Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara told reporters. "Our message to the Iraqi people is that we wish to strive in order that all the Iraqis will take part in deciding their future," said Walid al-Moallem. But an Iraqi minister backed the postponement of the January 30 vote to enable the "intolerable" security situation to improve and as many people as possible to take part. "If it is January 30 or six months later, if that really makes a difference in the improvement" of the situation, "why not?", Displacement and Migration Minister Pascale Warda told a French radio station. burs/mk/jjc | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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