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| Sunday, 25 April 2004 |
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Iraq cleric threatens suicide attacks, UN firm on power transfer April 24 (AFP), Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr threatened US-led troops with suicide attacks if they attacked in Iraq's holy cities, while the UN special envoy to Iraq said a June 30 handover deadline could be met. Sadr's militiamen killed a Bulgarian soldier in an ambush, as the United States sought additional international troops. Sadr said his supporters would "resort to suicide operations" in a Friday sermon as his militia attacked a Bulgarian troop convoy, sparking a clash that left 10 people wounded, officials said. A prominent Sunni leader in Baghdad, Sheikh Ahmad Abdel Ghafur Samarrai, warned US forces that their offensive on Fallujah could spark a national uprising. Meanwhile, UN special envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi said an interim government could be formed in Iraq by the scheduled June 30 handover of power by the US-led coalition, and that the deadline should not be extended. "I think it is doable if we have, as I think and hope we will, the cooperation of everyone. I think it's doable," Brahimi said in the advance text of an interview with ABC television's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" program, to be broadcast in the United States on Sunday. Brahimi insisted the United States should not put back the June 30 handover of sovereignty to the Iraqi people. The former Algerian foreign minister conceded that, between now and June 30, "We are not pretending that we are going to form a government that is fully representative of the will of the Iraqi people. "That will happen in the (Iraqi national) election in January 2005," he said. Amid the worst violence since the invasion more than a year ago, US overseer for Iraq Paul Bremer announced the army of former dictator Saddam Hussein would be largely reformed to counter the country's security crisis amid coalition disquiet over the performance of new US-trained security forces. "More of these officers with honorable records - from the former army and elsewhere - will serve in the months ahead as your new army grows," said Bremer. Bremer also said that more than 2,500 detainees had been released since a special review board was established two months ago. Human rights groups have decried secrecy surrounding the fates of some 10,000 people held since the invasion. US forces have promised to capture or kill Sadr over the murder of a rival, pro-US cleric last year. Nonetheless, he ramped up his threat against the coalition Friday, even as US-led soldiers massed outside the holy city of Najaf where he has been holed up for the last two weeks. "If we are forced to defend our cities, we will resort to suicide operations and we will be human time-bombs which would explode in their faces," he said. He said there were enough people prepared to carry them out. "Until now we had refused to do this," he said. "But if we are forced to do it, we will," he said in Kufa, just outside Najaf. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the coalition's deputy director of military operations, said Friday the US-led coalition would "respect all religious structures" in their attempt to bring Sadr before a judge. "We have all the time in the world if he wants to hole up inside that city," he told CNN. The Bulgarian soldier was fatally wounded in the ambush at about 12:10 pm (0810 GMT) near the Karbala city hall, while an Iranian pilgrim, four civilians and five militiamen were injured in the fighting which lasted about 30 minutes, witnesses and hospital staff said. The city hall in Karbala, 110 kilometers (65 miles) south of Baghdad, is near the office of a Sadr religious foundation and the al-Mokhayam mosque controlled by Sadr loyalists. A US soldier was also killed in a roadside bomb attack on his convoy near the Sunni Muslim city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, the coalition said. |
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