1 600 gefallene US-Soldaten im Iraq
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The seven were among a group of people traveling to work in a minibus near the city northeast of Baghdad when they spotted the car with the corpses inside by the side of the road, police said.
A policeman was among six people wounded in the blast.
The head of the Baquba morgue, Ahmed Fuad, said it had received a total of 11 bodies from the incident. The victims killed in the blast were employees of an electrical equipment factory on the outskirts of Baquba.
The discovery of bodies dumped by the side of the road and in other places is a common occurrence in Iraq, where sectarian violence has increased in recent months.
Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, 40 miles from Baghdad, has seen considerable violence on the part of Sunni Arab guerrillas in the past year.
Also in Baquba on Wednesday, gunmen killed a detective lieutenant-colonel and his two bodyguards, police said. Kanan Hasan, a deputy of the head of criminal intelligence in Baquba, and his bodyguards were shot dead on their way to work.
Der Anwalt und frühere US-Justizminister Clark kritisiert das Gerichtsverfahren gegen seinen Mandanten Saddam Hussein als Farce. Es handele sich um einen von der US-Regierung finanzierten Schauprozess, um den gestürzten irakischen Staatschef als Symbol des Widerstands auszuschalten.
Washington - Dies sei eine Fortsetzung der Kriegsstrategie nach dem Motto "Shock and Awe" (Furcht und Ehrfurcht einflößen), sagte Ramsey Clark gestern vor Journalisten in Washington. Ziel sei es, nach dem Krieg den Besatzungszustand zu rechtfertigen und die entmachtete Staatsführung zu dämonisieren, fügte er hinzu. Clark war unter dem demokratischen Präsidenten Lyndon B. Johnson in den sechziger Jahren Justizminister der USA.
Zugleich zweifelte er die generelle Rechtmäßigkeit des Gerichts in Bagdad an. Den amerikanischen Präsidenten George W. Bush beschuldigte er zumindest indirekt, Einfluss auf das Verfahren zu nehmen und damit das Prinzip der Unabhängigkeit der Justiz mit Füßen zu treten.
Mehr als tausend Iraker sind im April aus religiösen Motiven in Bagdad getötet worden. Laut einem entsprechenden Bericht der Leichenschauhäuser seien vom 1. bis zum 30. April mindestens 1.091 Menschen getötet worden, sagte Präsident Dschalal Talabani heute in Bagdad.
"Wir sind schockiert und wütend über die Berichte von unidentifizierten Leichen, die gefunden werden, und von Menschen, die aufgrund ihrer Konfession getötet werden", sagte Talabani.
Im Irak werden täglich dutzende Leichen von erschossenen oder enthaupteten Menschen gefunden. Seit dem Bombenanschlag auf die Goldene Moschee in Samarra, einem schiitischen Heiligtum, am 22. Februar haben die religiös motivierten Gewalttaten im Irak noch zugenommen.
Elf Tote in Bakuba
Unbekannte überfielen heute in Bakuba einen Kleinbus überfallen und erschossen elf Zivilisten erschossen. Die bewaffneten Männer hielten das Fahrzeug nahe der Stadt an, zwangen die Insassen aus dem Bus und töteten dann die Männer unter ihnen, wie die Polizei mitteilte.
Häftlinge aus Gefängnissen entlassen
Eine amerikanisch-irakische Kommission beschloss indes die Entlassung von mehr als 1.000 Häftlingen aus den Militärgefängnissen im Irak.
Justizminister Abdel Hussein Schandal sagte der irakischen Zeitung "Al-Sabah" (Mittwochausgabe), 153 Gefangene seien bereits in den vergangenen Tagen aus Camp Bucca in Basra und dem berüchtigten Gefängnis Abu Ghoraib im Westen von Bagdad entlassen worden.
Die Freilassung weiterer 900 "Unschuldiger" sei für die kommenden Wochen geplant.
The bombing took place in the Mansour neighborhood of west-central Baghdad around 9:30 a.m. (1:30 a.m. ET)
Also in Mansour, gunmen killed an attorney with the Civil Investigation Unit of Karkh Court.
According to police, Siras Mohammed was gunned down as he was driving in his car near the courthouse Thursday morning.
Also Thursday, a U.S. soldier was killed when his patrol was hit by a roadside bomb in southwestern Baghdad, a military statement said.
The attack took place around 6:30 a.m.
The name of the soldier, with Multi-National Division-Baghdad, is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Since the start of the war, there have been 2,426 U.S. military fatalities in Iraq.
Baghdad's morgue reported that 1,091 people were killed in the city's daily violence in April, the Iraqi president's office said in a statement Wednesday.
In the upsurge in sectarian violence after the February 22 attack on a Shiite shrine in Samarra, slain bodies have been found almost daily in the capital, many showing signs of being tortured.
The mosque attack inflamed tensions between Sunni Muslims, the Muslim sect that controlled Iraq during Saddam Hussein's reign, and Shiite Muslims, who make up 60 percent of the population.
"We feel shocked, saddened and angered," President Jalal Talabani said about the violence.
Talabani said these killings are no less dangerous to Iraqis than terror strikes. He called for all Iraqi security forces and political leaders to take immediate and forceful action to end the bloodshed.
Gunmen kill 11 workers
Gunmen killed 11 people riding a bus to work at a state-run electric company in Baquba on Wednesday morning, police said.
The attackers riddled the bus with bullets after pulling alongside in two vehicles, a police official said. Three other people were wounded.
Meanwhile, the toll from Tuesday night's suicide car bombing in a Shiite neighborhood in Tal Afar rose Wednesday to 20 dead and 37 wounded.
Tal Afar is near the Syrian border, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city.
Other developments
Five detainees escaped Tuesday from a prison in a rugged and mountainous part of northeastern Iraq. "The detainees left their jump suits behind, and are believed to be wearing dark-colored underwear," a U.S. military spokesman said. Fort Suse in Sulaimaniya houses about 1,300 inmates.
Mohammed Musshab Talal, director of public relations for the Defense Ministry, and a Finance Ministry employee were shot dead Wednesday in separate incidents in Baghdad, police said.
At the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, minutes or even seconds can mean life or death for gravely wounded soldiers. "It's life and death, every day," says one of the doctors there. (Full story)
Two soldiers died around midmorning when a bomb hit their vehicle while they were on patrol, the military said.
Earlier, another soldier was killed while also on patrol.
Also, a U.S. soldier from the Task Force Band of Brothers died Tuesday from noncombat-related wounds near the northern city of Mosul, the military said Thursday. An investigation into the cause of the soldier's death is under way.
Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, 2,429 U.S. military troops and civilians have died in the Iraq war.
In the capital, five garbage collectors were killed and another wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in an upscale neighborhood, Iraqi emergency police said.
The bombing took place in the Mansour neighborhood of west-central Baghdad around midmorning.
Also in Mansour, gunmen killed an attorney with the civil investigation unit of Karkh Court.
According to police, Siras Mohammed was gunned down as he was driving his car near the courthouse Thursday morning.
Morgue: Nearly 1,100 April deaths
Baghdad's morgue reported that 1,091 people were killed in the city's daily violence in April, the Iraqi president's office said Wednesday.
In the upsurge in sectarian violence after the February 22 attack on a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, bodies have been found almost daily in the capital, many showing signs of torture.
The mosque attack inflamed tensions between Sunni Muslims, the sect that controlled Iraq during Saddam Hussein's reign, and Shiite Muslims, who make up 60 percent of the population.
"We feel shocked, saddened and angered," President Jalal Talabani said about the violence.
Talabani said these killings are no less dangerous to Iraqis than terror strikes. He called for all Iraqi security forces and political leaders to take immediate and forceful action to end the bloodshed.
Gunmen kill 11 workers
Gunmen killed 11 people riding a bus to work at a state-run electric company Wednesday in Baquba, north of Baghdad, police said.
The attackers riddled the bus with bullets after pulling alongside in two vehicles, a police official said. Three other people were wounded.
Meanwhile, the toll from a Tuesday suicide car bombing in a Shiite neighborhood of Tal Afar rose Wednesday to 20 dead and 37 wounded.
Tal Afar is near the Syrian border, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Mosul.
Other developments
Five detainees escaped Tuesday from a prison in a rugged and mountainous part of northeastern Iraq. "The detainees left their jump suits behind and are believed to be wearing dark-colored underwear," a U.S. military spokesman said. Fort Suse in Sulaimaniya houses about 1,300 inmates.
Mohammed Musshab Talal, director of public relations for the Defense Ministry, and a Finance Ministry employee were shot dead Wednesday in separate incidents in Baghdad, police said.
At the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, minutes or even seconds can mean life or death for gravely wounded soldiers. "It's life and death, every day," says one of the hospital's doctors. (Full story)
It was an accident -- not a result of enemy action -- and took place near Karma in Al Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, according to the military.
The Marines were assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, the military said in a news release.
The Marines' names were withheld pending notification of their next of kin.
The U.S. military death toll in the Iraq war is now 2,434.
On Thursday, roadside bombs killed three U.S. soldiers in separate incidents southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
Two soldiers died around midmorning when a bomb hit their vehicle while they were on patrol, the military said. Earlier, another soldier was killed while also on patrol.
Also, a U.S. soldier from the Task Force Band of Brothers died Tuesday from noncombat-related wounds near the northern city of Mosul, the military said Thursday. An investigation into the cause of the soldier's death is under way.
U.S.: Al-Zarqawi steps up attacks on Iraqi civilians
Al Qaeda in Iraq is increasingly attacking civilians, a U.S. military spokesman said Thursday, blaming terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for inciting violence between Sunnis and Shiites in Baghdad.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said that attacks against civilians in the past 2 1/2 months have increased 80 percent since November.
"This is what [al-Zarqawi is] telling his people that we have to do -- 'We have to drive a wedge between the Shia population and the Sunni population inside of Baghdad.' "
The general said the group is targeting Shiites, who make up 60 percent of the Iraqi population but only came to power after Saddam Hussein's ouster. Sunnis controlled the country under Hussein's reign.
The Baghdad morgue reported that 1,091 people were killed in the city's daily violence in April, the Iraqi president's office said Wednesday.
The Jordanian-born Al-Zarqawi is trying to "move the Shias from mixed neighborhoods" and incite sectarian killings, Lynch said.
The U.S. military based its assessment on documents found in an April 16 raid in Yusufiya, south of Baghdad.
The troops also discovered the video of al-Zarqawi that the U.S. military released last week. (Full story)
"We continue to work the Iraqi security forces to increase patrols," Lynch said. "The fact that there are 32,000 patrols in the month of April in Baghdad shows you that there's more presence on the street in security forces."
He said he expected the violence to decrease if al-Zarqawi is captured or killed.
Two insurgent leaders were "taken out this past week," Lynch said. One was al Qaeda in Iraq's Abu Abd al-Rahman, who smuggled weapons from Syria and Lebanon.
Lynch said al-Rahman was expecting shoulder-fired missiles and an armored vehicle when he was captured.
A leader of the Ansar al-Sunna terrorist network also was killed in a recent U.S.-led coalition operation, according to Lynch. Ali Wali was a chemical and explosives expert for the group, loosely aligned with al Qaeda in Iraq.
Battle with insurgents
American and Iraqi soldiers battled dozens of insurgents dressed in Iraqi army uniforms Thursday near Baquba, north of Baghdad, a U.S. military source said.
The military received a tip about the insurgents' presence in Arab Jubar, a village 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Baquba. Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, has been a flash point for insurgent activity.
A man who identified himself as a village leader reported seeing Iraqi army troops conducting a raid and detaining residents, the military said.
U.S. and Iraqi forces went to investigate, and they found insurgents wearing Iraqi army uniforms and riding in trucks and sport utility vehicles painted in camouflage to look like Iraqi military vehicles, according to the military.
Some insurgents escaped in a small truck, and others were killed or captured. There were conflicting reports as to how many insurgents died. It also was unclear how many were detained.
Video from the battle's aftermath showed several blindfolded suspects still dressed as Iraqi soldiers as well as three white Nissan pickups and a white Toyota Land Cruiser SUV with amateur khaki paint jobs.
Posing as Iraqi security forces is a tactic commonly used by insurgents, who sometimes establish fake checkpoints to ambush their targets.
Others have used their disguises to stage fake raids and kidnap civilians.
Other developments
Five garbage collectors were killed and another wounded Thursday when a roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighborhood, Iraqi emergency police said. Also in Mansour, gunmen killed an attorney with the Karkh Court's civil investigation unit. Siras Mohammed was gunned down as he was driving his car near the courthouse, police said.
At the 10th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, minutes or even seconds can mean life or death for gravely wounded soldiers. "It's life and death, every day," says one of the hospital's doctors. (Full story)
Trotz US-amerikanischer Appelle für eine rasche Regierungsbildung im Irak kommt der designierte Ministerpräsident Nuri el Maliki bei seinen Koalitionsverhandlungen kaum voran.
Als erste zur Vereinigten Irakischen Allianz gehörende schiitische Partei brach heute sogar die Fadhila die Gespräche ab und kündigte an, sie werde in die Opposition gehen.
Streit um Ministerposten
Fadhila-Sprecher Sabah el Saidi kritisierte, die Posten in der künftigen Regierung würden unter amerikanischem Druck und nach selbstsüchtigen Wünschen vergeben. "Das wird nicht zur Bildung eines wahrhaft neuen Irak führen", sagte er.
Die sieben in der Vereinigten Irakischen Allianz zusammengeschlossenen Parteien verfügten mit Fadhila über 130 der 275 Parlamentssitze.
Maliki wollte sein Kabinett eigentlich Ende dieser Woche vorstellen. Aus schiitischen und sunnitischen Kreisen hieß es jedoch, die Gespräche der Politiker steckten fest. Vor kommender Woche sei keine Kabinettsliste zu erwarten. Maliki hat sich selbst eine Frist bis zum 22. Mai für den Abschluss der Regierungsbildung gesetzt.
Als Begründung nannte die kleine aber einflussreiche Partei, die auch der schiitischen Allianz angehört, unter anderem Einflussnahme der USA bei der Vergabe von Ministerämtern.
Der Rückzug der Fadhila-Partei könnte den Streit um den Posten des Ölministers beenden, da die Partei versucht hatte, ihren eigenen Kandidaten für das Amt durchzusetzen. Der Konflikt um den Posten ist eine wichtige Ursache für die anhaltende Verzögerung der Regierungsbildung.
"Wir werden nicht zum Verhandlungstisch zurück kehren", sagte Partei-Sprecher Sabah al-Saadi. Die Partei werde aber weiterhin im Parlament vertreten sein, um dem Volk eine Stimme zu verleihen. Andere Parteien hätten dem designierten Ministerpräsidenten Nuri al-Maliki Kandidaten für Ministerämter aufzwingen wollen. Außerdem habe der US-Botschafter bei den Verhandlungen Druck auf die Parteien ausgeübt.
Die USA und irakische Politiker hoffen, dass eine Regierung der nationalen Einheit aus Schiiten, Sunniten und Kurden die Gewalt im Land beenden kann. Die Regierungsbildung hat sich seit der Wahl im Dezember jedoch über fünf Monate hingezogen. Maliki bleiben der Verfassung nach nur noch zehn Tage, um sein Kabinett im Parlament vorzustellen. Die Fadhila-Partei ist eine von über dutzend Parteien der Vereinigten Allianz, die wiederum die stärkste Fraktion im Parlament ist
Extremisten wollen in Teilen von Bagdad offenbar eigene Regeln einführen - mit fatalen Konsequenzen für Frauen. Der Verzicht auf einen Gesichtsschleier soll mit dem Tod bestraft werden.
Bagdad/Falludscha/Kairo - In drei sunnitischen Vierteln der irakischen Hauptstadt Bagdad sollen Extremisten versuchen, eine Art islamischen Mini-Staat zu errichten. Die arabische Zeitung "Al-Hayat" berichtete am Freitag, in den Stadtvierteln Al-Chadra, Al-Amirija und Al-Dura breite sich der Einfluss der Anhänger der al-Qaida-Gruppe von Abu Mussab al-Sarkawi aus.
In Flugblättern, die offensichtlich von Anhängern des Terroristen verfasst wurden, wird Frauen ohne Gesichtsschleier mit dem Tod gedroht. Der Kommandeur der Staatsschutz-Einheit des Innenministeriums, General Mahdi Sobeih, sagte der Zeitung, Al-Sarkawi konzentriere sich nun auf Bagdad, weil seine Pläne in der westlichen Anbar-Provinz nicht aufgegangen seien.
Unterdessen reisst die Gewalt im Land nicht ab. In dem Ort Tel Afar erschossen irakische Polizisten nach US- Angaben zwei "Terroristen". Bei der Durchsuchung eines von den Angreifern benutzten Hauses sei ein Tunnelsystem entdeckt worden, in dem es neben Waffen auch Schlafplätze der Extremisten gegeben habe. Im Ort Chan Bani Saad fand die Polizei die Leichen von vier Angehörigen der umstrittenen Sonderkommandos des Innenministeriums. Den Kommandos wird nachgesagt, in Verbindung mit schiitischen Parteimilizen zu stehen und gezielt arabische Sunniten zu töten.
Von Mariam Lau
Die Hoffnungen auf eine Demokratisierung des Irak schmelzen dahin. Die amerikanischen Neokonservativen haben sich geirrt. Doch ärgerlich ist nicht ihr Ziel - die Demokratisierung des Mittleren Ostens. Sondern die Schönfärberei, mit der sie ihre Niederlage in einen Sieg verwandeln wollen.
Wenn hierzulande von den amerikanischen Neocons die Rede ist, dann meist mit Spott und Häme. Haben sich wohl ein bisschen verschätzt, was, die jüdischen Intellektuellen von der Ostküste, die mit ihren Think Tanks den Irak und danach die ganze islamische Welt aufrollen wollten? Demokratisierung, haha!
US-Flugzeugträger Abraham Lincoln: Hunt them down, George!
Es fällt schwer, Leuten Recht geben zu müssen, die selbst so gar keinen außenpolitischen Ehrgeiz entwickeln. Viele, die die Neocons im Namen des Völkerrechts kritisieren, interessiert es herzlich wenig, ob der Nahe Osten jemals westliche Standards bei Demokratie und Menschenrechten erreicht. "Was geht Sie die Pressefreiheit in Jordanien an", fragte mich kürzlich der amerikanische Philosoph Charles Taylor auf einer Podiumsdiskussion zum Thema Karikaturenstreit bei der Böll-Stiftung. Die Linke hat ihren viel gerühmten Internationalismus aus schierem Hass auf Bush an den Nagel gehängt.
Aber es stimmt, die Neocons haben sich ziemlich verschätzt. Es läuft überhaupt nicht gut im Irak. Man kann inzwischen von einem Bürgerkrieg sprechen, Iraker gegen Iraker, Sunniten gegen Schiiten, Habenichtse gegen Ingenieure, Straßengangs gegen Polizisten; alle leben in Angst. Die Hoffnungen auf einen säkularen, föderalen Irak schmelzen dahin; die Schiiten, auf deren quietistische Tradition man gesetzt hatte, unterhalten in den Gebäuden des Innenministeriums eigene Folterkeller, in denen Milizen ihren sunnitischen Gefangenen die Haut vom Leib ziehen.
Nobles Scheitern zum Erfolg umgelogen
Das Problem mit den Neocons ist aber nicht, dass sie sich geirrt haben: es hat durchaus etwas Nobles, an einer großen Hoffnung wie der Demokratisierung der arabischen Welt zu scheitern. Das Problem ist die permanente Schönfärberei, der geradezu Orwellsche Umgang mit diesem Irrtum. Und wo man gar nicht mehr um die Anerkennung eines Problems herumkommt, ohne wunderlich zu wirken, wird man hegelianisch und erklärt alles, was ist, für den steinigen Weg zum Fortschritt.
Man lese Charles Krauthammer, einen der eloquentesten Autoren der Neocons, in seiner Kolumne in der "Washington Post" neulich: "Jetzt tun plötzlich alle so schockiert, dass Iraker auf Iraker losgehen. Aber war das nicht genau unsere Strategie, die Iraker, die einen neuen Irak wollen, diejenigen Landsleute bekämpfen zu lassen, die das Baath-Regime wiederaufbauen oder eine Art Taliban-Regime installieren wollen? Unterstützt nicht jeder Wohlmeinende die Stärkung der Iraker, so dass wir uns zurückziehen können? Und bedeutet das nicht genau, dass die Iraker ihren Bürgerkrieg allein führen?"
Nein, Mr. Krauthammer, das war nicht der Plan. Der Plan war, dass die Iraker am Straßenrand stehen und den Sturz des Saddam-Regimes mit fliegenden Fahnen bejubeln würden. Der Plan war, dass nach den Wahlen eine neue Regierung, in der alle großen Volksgruppen vertreten sind, den Irak in Einheit und Freiheit führen. Der Plan war, dass neue Polizeitruppen und gut ausgebildete Militärs längst selbst dafür sorgen, dass Eltern ihre Kinder zur Schule schicken, ohne Angst vor Entführung, Selbstmordanschlag oder schlichtem Straßenraub zu haben.
Alles nur Missgunst der Medien
Die Wirklichkeit ist, dass an vielen dieser Verbrechen Polizisten oder Soldaten beteiligt sind, dass viele Militärs sowohl für die Armee als auch für die Milizen arbeiten, dass der Irak dem Afghanistan der neunziger Jahre als Terror-Trainingscamp den Rang abgelaufen hat, und dass weder Schiiten noch Sunniten noch Kurden ein Nationalbewusstsein als Iraker in den Vordergrund ihres Handelns stellen mögen.
Eine andere beliebte Schönrechnungsformel lautet, die Medien im Westen konzentrierten sich aus schierer Missgunst auf Anschläge, Blut und Scheitern, anstatt auch mal die Orte in den Blick zu nehmen, an denen Krankenhäuser gebaut, Zeitungen gedruckt und Obsthändler beliefert werden. Eckhard Fuhr hat sich in der "Welt" über diese Kritik lustig gemacht: "So war das auch im Jahre 1945. Die Schlacht um die deutsche Hauptstadt Berlin ist bei Siegern und Besiegten zum Mythos geworden. Aber was geschah eigentlich zur gleichen Zeit im Thüringer Wald, was geschah im Knüllgebirge und im Allgäu? So gut wie nichts geschah. Journalistische Sorgfaltspflicht geböte es eigentlich, all diejenigen irakischen Städte zu nennen, in denen keine Selbstmordanschläge stattgefunden haben. Auch den Opferzahlen sollte man immer die Zahl derjenigen hinzufügen, die noch am Leben sind. Bei diesen Menschen handelt es sich um die deutliche Mehrheit. Deshalb kann keine Rede sein von einem amerikanischen Misserfolg im Irak."
Francis Fukuyama, Vordenker der Neocons, hat in seinem letzten Buch, "America at the Crossroads" die Fehler analysiert, die zu diesem Scheitern geführt haben. Welche langfristigen Folgen die Verabschiedung aus dem internationalen Gefüge und der weitgehende Verzicht auf die diplomatischen Traditionen haben wird, die frühere amerikanische Regierungen wie die von Harry S. Truman so groß gemacht haben, ist noch gar nicht ausgemacht. Aber den wichtigsten Schwachpunkt im Denken der Neocons hat auch Fukuyama nicht erhellen können: Wie Leute, die sich in der Innenpolitik sich so gegen Eingriffe des Staates ins gesellschaftliche Leben wenden ("social engineering"), so große Hoffnungen in die Implementierung einer Demokratie von oben setzen können, wenn es um fremde Völker geht.
Sollte es mit ihrer romantischen Begeisterung für das zu tun haben, was Paul Berman in seiner Rezension des Fukuyama-Buchs "Romantisierung von Rücksichtslosigkeit" genannt hat: "Die neokonservative Außenpolitik", so schreibt Berman in der "New York Times", "hatte schon immer ein Faible für die Idee, dass eine kleine, erlesene Gruppe von Leuten eine entscheidende Rolle bei großen Ereignissen in der Welt haben könnte. Deshalb haben sie in den 70er Jahren die gruseligsten antikommunistischen Guerillas in Angola unterstützt, und im Jahrzehnt darauf ein paar nicht sehr sympathische antikommunistische Guerillas in Lateinamerika. Erklärt das nicht den seltsamen Umstand, dass die Bush-Administration heute gleichzeitig so eine fabelhafte demokratische Rhetorik und eine Serie von grotesken Folter-Skandalen auf einen Nenner bringen konnte? Diese verrückte und selbstschädigende Kombination von Idealismus und Schlagringen?"
Dem sollte man nachgehen. Das Traurige ist nur, dass all dem auf der Gegenseite, ob bei den Demokraten Amerikas oder den Sozialdemokraten Europas, so herzlich wenig außenpolitischer Ehrgeiz gegenübersteht, der sich auf die Internationalisierung Demokratie und Menschenrechten erstreckt.
The report may reflect ethnic and sectarian tension dividing the new U.S.-trained army that Washington hopes will replace American troops and prevent civil war.
But Iraqi police and military officers flatly denied it.
A senior Iraqi officer coordinating activities with the U.S. military in the region as well as police said the reported incident never took place.
Instead, they said a civilian was killed by a mostly ethnic Kurdish unit of the Iraqi army in a mainly Shi'ite Arab area just north of Baghdad. The Kurds fired to clear traffic as they rushed to take fellow soldiers wounded in an earlier insurgent attack to hospital in the town of Balad.
An angry crowd gathered outside Balad's hospital, pelting the Kurdish soldiers with stones, and police helped them leave and restored calm, the Iraqi officials added.
"There were no clashes between soldiers," Lieutenant Colonel Jasim al-Jibouri of the Iraqi army said from the Joint Coordination Center in the regional capital Tikrit, which liaises among Iraqi and U.S. troops across the province.
Captain Ahmed Khalaf of Balad police gave the same version of events: "Furious people gathered outside the hospital and threw stones at the soldiers because of the killing of a civilian. Police intervened and calmed them down."
A Reuters reporter in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of the capital, said there was heavy exchange of machinegun fire. No more details were immediately available.
Police and hospital sources said one policeman was killed and three wounded.
Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, has a volatile mix of mostly Sunnis Arabs on the west bank of the Tigris and ethnic Kurds on the east. It has also seen Sunni insurgent violence against U.S. forces and the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government.
One of the troops died in a battle between Iraqi army units, a U.S. military spokesman said.
A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier early Saturday in the Iraqi capital, the military said. The attack occurred as the soldier was driving in southern Baghdad, the military said.
The number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war stands at 2,435, including 1,920 deaths in hostile incidents.
In other violence Saturday, a roadside bomb hit an Iraqi police patrol in southeast Baghdad's Zafaraniya neighborhood, wounding three Iraqi police officers, police said.
A mortar round also landed near a bus station in central Baghdad, police said. An Iraqi civilian was wounded.
Two bodies were found Saturday showing signs of torture in the eastern part of the capital. They could not immediately be identified, police said.
Political struggle over Cabinet
The violence continued as Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki tried to put together his Cabinet and establish a new national unity government.
Al-Maliki is working to meet a May 22 deadline to present a government to parliament, which must approve his Cabinet list.
According to The Associated Press, the process has slowed because of rivalries among Iraq's political parties, which represent mostly religious or ethnic groups.
The Fadhila party -- a small but influential group in the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance -- said Friday it was withdrawing from talks because of U.S. involvement.
The party had been pushing its candidate for oil minister.
Fadhila said the party's 15 legislators will form an opposition bloc in parliament, according to the AP.
Infighting over top posts such as the oil, defense and interior ministries may push government formation talks down to the wire, the AP reported.
According to the AP, some lawmakers have indicated that al-Maliki could unveil some of his Cabinet on Sunday and then take the defense ministry and the interior portfolio -- which oversees Iraqi police -- for himself until there is an agreement about who should head them.
Quelle: CNN
HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) -- U.S. military troops with severe psychological problems have been sent to Iraq or kept in combat, even when superiors have been aware of signs of mental illness, a newspaper reported in its Sunday editions.
The Hartford Courant, citing records obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act and more than 100 interviews of families and military personnel, reported numerous cases in which the military failed to follow its own regulations in screening, treating and evacuating mentally unfit troops from Iraq.
In 1997, Congress ordered the military to assess the mental health of all deploying troops. The newspaper, citing Pentagon statistics, said fewer than 1 in 300 service members were referred to a mental health professional before shipping out for Iraq as of October 2005.
Twenty-two U.S. troops committed suicide in Iraq last year. That number accounts for nearly one in five of all noncombat deaths and was the highest suicide rate since the war started, the newspaper said.
The paper reported that some service members who committed suicide in 2004 or 2005 were kept on duty despite clear signs of mental distress, sometimes after being prescribed antidepressants with little or no mental health counseling or monitoring. Those findings conflict with regulations adopted last year by the Army that caution against the use of antidepressants for "extended deployments."
Although Defense Department standards for enlistment disqualify recruits who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, the military also is redeploying service members to Iraq who fit that criteria, the newspaper said.
"I can't imagine something more irresponsible than putting a soldier suffering from stress on (antidepressants), when you know these drugs can cause people to become suicidal and homicidal," said Vera Sharav, president of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, a New York-based advocacy group. "You're creating chemically activated time bombs."
Commanders, not medical professionals, have final say over whether a troubled soldier is retained in a war zone. Col. Elspeth Ritchie, the Army's top mental health expert, and other military officials said they believe most commanders are alert to mental health problems and are open to referring troubled soldiers for treatment.
Ritchie acknowledged that some deployment practices, such as sending service members diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome back into combat, have been driven in part by a troop shortage.
"The challenge for us ... is that the Army has a mission to fight. And, as you know, recruiting has been a challenge," she said. "And so we have to weigh the needs of the Army, the needs of the mission, with the soldiers' personal needs."
Ritchie insisted the military works hard to prevent suicides, but it is a challenge because every soldier has access to a weapon.
"I'm concerned that people who are symptomatic are being sent back. That has not happened before in our country," said Arthur S. Blank Jr., a Yale-trained psychiatrist who helped get post-traumatic stress disorder recognized as a diagnosis after the Vietnam War.
Maj. Andrew Efaw, a judge advocate general officer in the Army Reserves who handled trial defenses for soldiers in northern Iraq last year, said commanders don't want to send mentally ill soldiers into combat.
"But on the other hand, [the com mender] doesn't want to send a message to his troops that if you act up, he's willing to send you home," Efaw said.
Bei insgesamt sieben Bombenanschlägen in Bagdad sind heute zwölf Menschen getötet und 37 verletzt worden. Die Angriffe richteten sich zumeist gegen die irakische Polizei, getroffen wurden aber vielfach einfache Bewohner.
In fünf Fällen explodierten Sprengsätze, die am Straßenrand deponiert wurden. Außerdem sprengten sich zwei Selbstmordattentäter auf der Straße zum Flughafen in Autos in die Luft.
Separately, prosecutors said they had completed preparing a second trial, for genocide against the Kurds, and had passed it to the court. Hearings could start within a couple of months.
Saddam, 69, who faces a death sentence if found guilty of crimes against humanity in the first trial, is not expected to take the stand when witnesses for a local Baath party official begin testifying in the heavily fortified Baghdad courtroom, defense counsel said.
Khamis al-Obeidi, one of Saddam's lawyers, told Reuters dozens of witnesses, some from the town of Dujail, are ready to testify to the innocence of Saddam, his half-brother Barzan al- Tikriti and the six other defendants.
The 148 Shi'ite men and youths were killed or executed after an attempt on Saddam's life in 1982 in Dujail, north of Baghdad.
"Hundreds of people asked the defense team to attend the court and testify on behalf of our clients, but we decided that only witnesses whose testimonies are effective and legally productive could take the stand in court," Obeidi said.
Witnesses are expected to be called for each of the eight defendants in an order in which witnesses for Saddam will appear last. Officials expect three days of hearings this week.
The trial, the first of a dozen or more Saddam may face, has been marred since it started in October by the killing of defense lawyers, Saddam's diatribes and the resignation of the initial chief judge, who complained of government interference.
In the deadliest attack, 14 Iraqi civilians were killed and six others were wounded in a suicide car bombing near the main checkpoint on the road that leads to Baghdad International Airport, according to an Iraqi security source and the U.S. military.
The attackers detonated the explosives in a parking lot adjacent to Victory Base Complex in western Baghdad, a statement from the Multi-National Division said. The terrorists were targeting Iraqis who had congregated in the parking lot, the military said.
Two British soldiers were among those killed this weekend in a roadside bomb attack just north of the southern city of Basra, a British military source said, adding that a British soldier was wounded.
Also Sunday, two U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in east Baghdad, according to a U.S. military news release.
Since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, 2,439 U.S. troops and military civilians have died in the Iraq war.
A total of 106 British troops have been killed.
The latest attacks came as Iraq's new parliament met Sunday. Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki has eight days left to submit his list of Cabinet nominees.
In other violence in Baghdad on Sunday:
Five civilians were killed and eight people were wounded, including one policeman, when a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol exploded at 9:45 a.m. local time on Palestine Street, according to a police official.
Seven civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police commando patrol exploded around 9:55 a.m. in Tayaran Square in central Baghdad, a police official said.
An Iraqi policeman was killed and five civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb hit an Iraqi police patrol in northern Baghdad's al-Mughrab street around 10 a.m., according to an official with Iraq's Interior Ministry.
Two bakers were killed and two others were wounded when gunmen opened fire on a bakery around 10:40 a.m. in the northwestern neighborhood of Saydiya, the official said.
Three people were killed and 15 others wounded when a roadside bomb detonated in a crowded marketplace at 11:15 a.m. in the southeast district of Jisr Diyala, an official with Zafaraniya police station told CNN.
Two foreign ministry guards were killed in a roadside bomb explosion about 50 miles north of Baghdad, as they were returning to the capital, a foreign ministry source said. The guards were traveling alone and the foreign minister was not with them, the source said.
In violence outside Baghdad on Sunday:
Five Iraqi police were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their patrol in southern Kirkuk around 1 a.m., the city's police chief said. Kirkuk is about 150 miles north of Baghdad.
One Iraqi police officer was killed and four others wounded -- three police, one insurgent -- in a 20-minute gun battle in Mosul around 12:00 p.m., according to Col. Abdul Karim Khalaf. Mosul is about 250 miles north of Baghdad.
Two civilians were killed and nine other civilians were wounded when a car bomb detonated near a U.S. military convoy in Mosul around 1:30 p.m., Khalaf said.
Shrines destroyed
An official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center told CNN that gunmen planted bombs around four Shiite shrines in Wajihiya, about 8 miles southeast of Baquba, around 10 p.m. Saturday night.
The shrines destroyed were the Imam Jaber Bin Ali al-Hadi Shiite shrine, the Imam Abdullah Bin Ali al-Hadi shrine, the Shimiyar shrine and Imam Abu Habib shrine.
In Balad Ruz, east of Baquba, a Shiite shrine called the Fityan shrine was blown up late Saturday when bombs planted by gunmen exploded, the official said.
In Kanan, about 6 miles east of Baquba, the Tamim Shiite shrine was destroyed by bombs planted by gunmen on Saturday morning around 8 a.m., the official said.
No one was hurt in the shrine explosions, the official said.
A February 22 attack on the Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, the third holiest Shiite Islam shrine in Iraq, sparked sectarian violence in Iraq that claimed more than 1,000 lives in Baghdad in April alone.
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| Kinder attackieren britische Soldaten im Irak | |
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| Amara (dpa) - Ein Gruppe von irakischen Kindern hat britische Soldaten mit Steinen und Flaschen attackiert, als diese eine Polizeistation in der Stadt Amara besuchten. Irakische Augenzeugen berichteten, ein Soldat sei im Gesicht verletzt worden. Die Briten seien nicht gegen die Kinder vorgegangen, sondern hätten nach dem Angriff schnell den Ort verlassen. Gestern waren bei einem Sprengstoffangriff in der Nähe von Basra zwei britische Soldaten getötet und ein dritter verletzt worden. |
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The teachers were traveling to work in a minibus when the gunmen stopped their vehicle around 8:10 a.m. Monday, the official said.
The gunmen forced the seven teachers and the minibus driver from the vehicle and shot four of the teachers. The other three teachers and the driver were allowed to leave, the official said.
Balad Ruz is about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Four British soldiers were wounded in a mortar attack on a military outpost in southern Iraq early Monday, a British military source in Basra said.
The mortar barrage hit Camp Naji in Amara around 4:20 a.m.
One of the soldiers was airlifted to a military hospital for treatment. The other three soldiers received minor wounds, the source said.
Amara is located about 190 miles (305 km) southeast of Baghdad.
Two U.S. Marines with Regimental Combat Team 7 were killed "due to enemy action" in Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, on Sunday, a military statement said.
Since the start of the war, 2,441 U.S. troops have died in Iraq.
Weekend violence leaves 34 dead
A spate of weekend violence, concentrated near the Iraqi capital, claimed 34 lives -- most of them civilians -- and leveled six Shiite shrines, evidence that sectarian tensions are still strong.
In the deadliest attack, 14 Iraqi civilians were killed and six others were wounded Sunday in a suicide car bombing near the main checkpoint on the road that leads to Baghdad International Airport, according to an Iraqi security source and the U.S. military.
The attackers detonated the explosives in a parking lot adjacent to Victory Base Complex in western Baghdad, a statement from the Multi-National Division said. The terrorists were targeting Iraqis who had congregated in the parking lot, the military said.
The latest attacks came as Iraq's new parliament met Sunday. Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki has eight days left to submit his list of Cabinet nominees.
Shrines destroyed
An official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center told CNN that gunmen planted bombs around four Shiite shrines in Wajihiya, about 8 miles southeast of Baquba, around 10 p.m. Saturday night.
The shrines destroyed were the Imam Jaber Bin Ali al-Hadi Shiite shrine, the Imam Abdullah Bin Ali al-Hadi shrine, the Shimiyar shrine and Imam Abu Habib shrine.
In Balad Ruz, a Shiite shrine called the Fityan shrine was blown up late Saturday when bombs planted by gunmen exploded, the official said.
In Kanan, about 6 miles east of Baquba, the Tamim Shiite shrine was destroyed by bombs planted by gunmen on Saturday morning around 8 a.m., the official said.
No one was hurt in the shrine explosions, the official said.
A February 22 attack on the Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, the third holiest Shiite Islam shrine in Iraq, sparked sectarian violence in Iraq that claimed more than 1,000 lives in Baghdad in April alone.
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Hussein, who sat alone in the defendants' pen on Monday as the charges were read, refused to enter a plea when chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman asked him if he were guilty or not.
"I can't just say yes or no to this. You read all this for the sake of public consumption, and I can't answer it in brief," Hussein replied. "This will never shake one hair of my head."
"You are before Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq. I am the president of Iraq according to the will of the Iraqis and I am still the president up to this moment," he said. Abdel-Rahman entered a "not guilty" plea on Hussein's behalf.
Hussein and seven former members of his regime have been on trial for nearly seven months over the crackdown against residents of the town of Dujail.
But under the Iraqi trial system, the court first hears plaintiffs outline their complaint against the defendants and the prosecutions' evidence against them. Then the judges decide on specific charges, and the defense begins making its case.
Security forces arrested hundreds of Dujail residents, including entire families, in the wake of a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the town. Witnesses, including women, have recounted being tortured while in prison, farmlands were razed in retaliation and 148 Shiites were sentenced to death in connection to the shooting attack on Hussein. All 148 were killed, either dying under interrogation or executed.
The charges against Hussein read by Abdel-Rahman included the arrest of 399 people, the torture of women and children, ordering the razing of farmlands.
He was also charged in the deaths of nine people who Abdel-Rahman said were killed in the first days of the crackdown. Hussein was not charged in the deaths of the 148 who were sentenced to death by his Revolutionary Court.
"After allegations of coming under an assassination attempt, you issued orders to security forces and the army to arrest residents and use all weapons against them," Abdel-Rahman told Hussein.
"As a result for your orders to use force against Dujail residents, nine people were killed in the first two days ... and 399 others were arrested," he said.
After Hussein refused to enter a plea, Abdel-Rahman called in the next defendant, Hussein's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim, former head of the Mukhabarat intelligence agency. He read the same charges against Ibrahim, adding a charge of murder for the killing of the 148 Shiites sentenced to death.
"All you said are lies, everything you mentioned is a lie," Ibrahim replied when Abdel-Rahman asked him for his plea.
Abdel-Rahman then proceeded to call in each of the remaining defendants one by one to read the charges against them.
Bagdad (Reuters) - Das US-Militär hat nach eigenen Angaben bei Gefechten südlich von Bagdad mehr als 40 irakische Aufständische getötet.
Bei den Kämpfen am Wochenende nahe Latifija und Jusufija sei ein US-Kampfhubschrauber abgeschlossen worden, hieß es am Montag. Dabei seien zwei Soldaten getötet worden. Eine Gruppe von Aufständischen erklärte dagegen, sie habe vier Hubschrauber abgeschossen. Ein Verband sunnitischer Kleriker warf den US-Truppen vor, für den Tod von 25 Zivilisten verantwortlich zu sein. Die USA haben die Region südlich von Bagdad als Ausgangspunkt für Selbstmordanschläge auf Ziele in der Hauptstadt bezeichnet.
Das US-Militär sprach von 41 Menschen, die bei den Gefechten getötet worden seien. Es handle sich ausschließlich um Aufständische. Der Verlust des Hubschraubers sei der zweite derartige Vorfall innerhalb von sechs Wochen. Die Gruppe Mudschahedin-Rat erklärte auf einer Internet-Seite dagegen: "Am Sonntag haben Eure Brüder vier Hubschrauber der Kreuzritter im Gebiet von Jusifija südlich von Bagdad abgeschossen." Der Rat hat Verbindungen zur Al-Kaida. Die Angaben konnten zunächst nicht von unabhängiger Seite bestätigt werden.
Nach US-Angaben wurden bei den Einsätzen mehrere Frauen und Kinder "versehentlich durch Schrapnelle verletzt". Sie seien vor Ort behandelt oder ausgeflogen worden. Über getötete Zivilisten wurden keine Angaben gemacht. Der Verband Moslemischer Kleriker erklärte dagegen, 25 Zivilisten seien ums Leben gekommen. "Wir machen die irakische Regierung und die Besatzer für diese brutale Gräueltat verantwortlich", hieß es. Die Gruppe hat in der Vergangenheit häufig die Besatzungstruppen kritisiert.
Die anhaltende Gewalt zwischen den Religionsgruppen der Sunniten und der Schiiten droht den Irak in einen Bürgerkrieg zu stürzen. Ministerpräsident Nuri al-Maliki bemüht sich, eine Regierung der nationalen Einigung aufzustellen. Insbesondere die Ministerposten für Inneres, Verteidigung und Öl sind noch umstritten. - von Ibon Villelabeitia -
The sequence of explosions at dawn in the Karrada shopping district wrecked the stores' frontages and, in one case, an advertising display for beer.
Police said no one was hurt as the streets were largely deserted at that hour, just before 6 a.m. (0200 GMT).
They had no immediate comment on the motive. Violence driven by business rivalry is also not unknown in Baghdad.
But alcohol sellers, many from Iraq's Christian minority, have been intimidated by Islamist militants on both sides of the Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian divide, driving many out of business or pushing the trade underground in a city once noted, under the secular rule of Saddam Hussein, for its nightlife and liberal social culture.
Among other aspects of a new emphasis on Muslim traditions are the increased wearing of veils and headscarves by women in public -- a cause of complaint among some women's rights groups -- and proclamations by militants threatening those who do not observe conservative dress and moral codes.
Though a new, U.S.-sponsored constitution introduced last year makes Islamic law a main reference for legislation, no new restrictions have been imposed on the sale of alcohol, as is common in other Muslim countries, or on other social customs.
Though Islamist parties dominate the national unity government that is in the process of formation this week, it is unclear whether the new ministers will seek to change that.
The copter was shot down near the village of Yusifiya, 15 km south of Baghdad.
"Two soldiers died ... when their helicopter was shot down during fighting in Yusifiya," a U.S. statement said, giving no further details.
Last month, a U.S. combat helicopter was presumed to have been shot down in the same area, killing its two pilots.
Earlier this month, a British military helicopter was shot down in the southern city of Basra, killing five soldiers and sparking clashes between UK forces and Iraqi fighters.
Also Sunday, a roadside bombing killed two U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, and fighters shot dead two Marines in the western Anbar province.
In Southern Iraq, many British troops were wounded when their base near al-Amara came under mortar bombardment overnight.
The United States has more than 133,000 troops in Iraq, suffering daily causalities. The latest deaths bring the total U.S. military death toll in Iraq to 2,443 since the 2003 invasion, according to Reuters news agency.
Eine Einheit des irakischen Innenministeriums hat im Westen Bagdads den Anführer einer Terrorzelle der al-Qaida-Gruppe von Abu Mussab al-Sarkawi gestellt. In einer Erklärung des Ministeriums heißt es: „Der Terrorist Omar Ahmed Saleh, genannt Abu Dschibril, einer der Anführer von Al-Tawhid wa Al-Dschihad (der frühere Name der al-Qaida-Gruppe) wurde in seinem Haus im al-Schurta Al-Chamisa Viertel verhaftet.“ Bei ihm seien Sprengstoff, Panzerfäuste sowie weitere Waffen, Munition und ein mit einer Bombe präpariertes Auto gefunden worden
Another bomb destroyed a liquor store in Baghdad in what appeared to be the third attack on the shop by militants who are determined to impose Islamic customs in Iraq by closing down establishments such as liquor stores and beauty parlors. That blast, one of three heard just past dawn, shook much of central Baghdad.
The gunbattle in Baghdad broke out at about 10:30 a.m. between suspected insurgents riding in three cars and Iraqi police in Dora, one of Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods.
At least six civilians were killed and four wounded in the crossfire, said police 1st Lt. Maithem Abdel-Razaq.
The U.S. Army soldier died when a roadside bomb exploded near Rasheed airfield, a former Iraqi air force installation in southern Baghdad, damaging a Humvee and also wounding an Iraqi civilian, said police Lt. Mohammed Hanoun.
The soldier was on a foot patrol near the convoy at the time, the U.S. command said.
The attack raised to at least 2,446 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
At 6:10 a.m. a roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad's Karradah shopping district, destroying the liquor store and damaging two nearby shops. None of the stores in the area had opened yet, and the blast caused no casualties, police said.
"This liquor shop has been targeted three times," said Falah Hassan, 50, the owner of one of the two damaged shops. "The first time it was hit by a grenade. The second time gunmen stormed it, hurt its workers and stole their money. Today, militants placed a bomb beside it," Hassan told Associated Press TV.
Some Muslim religious leaders in Iraq have tried to ban the drinking of alcohol, even though it is legal under the country's new constitution. Many of Baghdad's liquor stores are operated by Iraq's Christian minority, and some have been threatened or closed by Islamist militants, who also often demand that women wear veils while in public.
Iraq's interior ministry also announced Tuesday that it had arrested two al-Qaida in Iraq members the day before: Salah Hussein Abdul-Razzaq in Ramadi and Omar Ahmed Salah in Baghdad.
In other violence, according to police:
-Suspected insurgents attacked a police patrol at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, killing two policeman.
-A drive-by shooting killed an Iraqi man in Kut city, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad, who had served as a secret agent in Saddam Hussein's government.
-A roadside bomb exploded at 8:30 a.m. near a police patrol in western Baghdad, wounding one policeman.
-Gunmen in eastern Baghdad killed police 1st Sgt. Latif Abdullah, who worked in Interior Ministry intelligence.
-Amir Latif Ali Yahya, the Electoral Commission director in Diyala province, escaped unharmed when a roadside bomb exploded near his car in Buhriz, 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of Baghdad.
-Gunmen killed Nazar Abdel-Zahra, a manager of a local soccer team, near his home in the southern city of Basra on Monday night. Suspected insurgents also fired rockets at the Shat al-Arab Hotel, headquarters of the British army in Basra, causing no casualties.
The violence came as Iraqi lawmakers alternately - and with varying degrees of sincerity - withdrew from the Cabinet negotiations or threatened to do so, and accused each other of greed, sectarianism and self-interest.
Deputies said Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki could announce a partial Cabinet ahead of a constitutionally mandated May 22 deadline, taking for himself the disputed defense and interior ministry posts.
President Jalal Talabani, however, rejected that option.
"The presidency council does not want to see such key ministries excluded," Talabani said Monday after meeting with his Shiite and Sunni Arab vice presidents. "We think the entire Cabinet should be announced."
"The defense and interior ministries are important, and we have previously agreed that they should be taken by independents agreeable to all the main blocs in Iraq," he said.
Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a member of the Sunni Arab Accordance Front, said it had reached a deal with the main Shiite United Iraqi Alliance in which the Sunnis would nominate the defense minister. In return, the Shiite bloc would name the interior minister.
Similar deals have unraveled over the past few days.
Shiite lawmaker Ali al-Deeb, a member of al-Maliki's Dawa Party, told the AP that "the Defense Ministry is still a problem."
Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's secular Iraqi List, favored to get the defense post, accused the Sunnis of delaying the process and of stoking violence as a pressure tactic.
"The ceiling has been set too high by the Accordance Front who claim they represent the Sunnis. They still insist on the Defense Ministry," Wael Abdul-Latif, the bloc's spokesman, told the AP. "But the bombs are still playing a role in the negotiations."