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Suicide bomber kills at least 5 in Iraq
A suicide bomber detonated hidden explosives on a small bus in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least five people, and two American soldiers died in separate attacks, authorities said. One of the Americans died in a roadside bombing between the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, while the other was killed by small arms fire in Ramadi, the U.S. military said. The deaths raised to 1,912 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. President Bush, briefed at the Pentagon on Thursday, acknowledged the loss of American lives and said, "We'll honor their sacrifice by completing the mission and winning the war on terrorism." He added that withdrawing American forces from Iraq would make the world more dangerous and allow terrorists "to claim an historic victory over the United States." In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister said if U.S. troops pulled out now, Iraq would dissolve into civil war. Prince Saud al-Faisal also said he was worried that divisions among Iraq's Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni factions were too great. "We have not seen a move inside Iraq that would satisfy us that the national unity of Iraq, and therefore the territorial unity of Iraq, will be assured," Saud said. "I don't think that a constitution by itself will resolve the issues, or an election by itself will solve the difficult problems." In Baghdad, the suicide bomber struck while on the public bus in a bustling, open-air bus terminal, killing five people and wounding eight, police said. Also in Baghdad, gunmen killed two members of the commission charged with ensuring former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime were banned from the Iraqi hierarchy, police said. Their deaths raised to 14 the number of commission members killed since the 323-member Supreme National Commission for de-Baathification was created two years ago. Less than a month before a national referendum on Iraq's new constitution, the government's campaign to win support for the charter has won the critical backing of the most influential Shiite religious leader. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, meeting with aides Thursday in the holy city of Najaf, urged his followers to vote "yes," according to two top officials in his organization, who refused to be identified because they were not authorized to speak for the reclusive cleric. He only issues statements through his office and makes no public appearances. In January, millions of Shiites followed al-Sistani's call to vote in Iraq's first democratic elections in nearly half a century, and the ballot gave the Muslim sect a majority in the new parliament and government. If two-thirds of the voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject the constitution during the Oct. 15 national referendum, a new government must be formed and the process of writing the document would start again. Days after the draft constitution was approved by Iraq's National Assembly and sent to the United Nations for printing and distribution, the government released fliers and posters, with the banner headline stating: "Read the constitution, it was written for your freedom." But copies of the document have not been distributed publicly yet. Most Sunni Muslim clerics and politicians have urged their followers to veto the charter, complaining they did not have adequate representation in drafting it. Sunnis, the favored group under Saddam, are estimated to make up nearly 20 percent of the population and form the majority in four of the country's 18 provinces. In Amman, Jordan, about 150 Iraqi Sunni clerics and tribal leaders called for its rejection, warning that the constitution would lead to Iraq's fragmentation. The leaders from insurgency-torn Anbar province, the country's Sunni heartland, met for a three-day conference in the Jordanian capital for security reasons. Two other popular leaders in Iraq's majority Shiite sect, Muqtada al-Sadr and Ayatollah Mohammed al-Yaqoubi, also oppose the constitution, and their stand — representing a potentially serious rift in the Shiite monolith — has been reflected in the recent violence in the southern city of Basra. Violence erupted there after the detention of two British soldiers and their rescue by forces that battered down prison walls with armored vehicles. The violence has produced an angry standoff between the British force and some members of the government. Anthony Cordesman of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Affairs said the escalation of those tensions underscored the simmering rift among Shiite factions ahead of the referendum and parliamentary elections in December. "In large part, this is a reaction to a struggle between hard-liners and more moderate religious elements," he said. Cordesman said the more moderate stance of the largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was not accepted in southern Iraq, where "a relatively hard-line religious takeover in Basra, one linked closer to Iran," has created animosity toward the British. Rioting broke out in Basra on Monday after British armored vehicles and troops encircled a jail where the two soldiers were taken after their arrests by police. Rioters threw firebombs and stones at British forces, and TV cameras caught images of soldiers, some with their clothes on fire, jumping from burning vehicles and running from mobs. Five Iraqis reportedly died, but British soldiers suffered only minor injuries. Later that night, British armored vehicles broke through exterior walls of the jail compound, smashed cars and demolished buildings in a rescue operation that freed the two, who the British said were then in the hands of Shiite militiamen at a nearby house. Iraqi security forces in the south have largely fallen under the authority of militias — the military wings of Iraq's various Shiite factions. Basra authorities accused the British of violating Iraqi sovereignty, and the provincial governor ordered all Iraqis to stop cooperating with them. On Thursday, Gov. Mohammed al-Waili said violators would face unspecified punishment. But later, he said he was negotiating with the British and the dispute was "about to be solved and the crisis ended." Iraqi and British officials have sought to play down the difficulties between Basra authorities and the 8,500-soldier British force. "I do not think that this will be an obstacle that cannot be overcome," Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said after meeting with British officials in London. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, in an interview with the AP at the United Nations, called the incident "a local flare-up." "The people in the southern provinces have no interest whatsoever to see British forces leave because they're providing security, stability, structure, and relations have always been good ... really between the British forces and the local Iraqis in this area," Zebari said. A committee created by Iraq's government to investigate the violence was to arrive.
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