Iraqis blame al-Qaida for Sunni killing

Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 7:23 AM Posted by Beijing News


BAGHDAD – The Interior Ministry on Saturday blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for the killing of a prominent Sunni lawmaker as the country's leading political figures from all sects attended his funeral service in a show of solidarity against violence.

The memorial for Harith al-Obeidi, the leader of the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, was held at Baghdad's Convention Center a day after he and a bodyguard were gunned down while leaving a mosque after delivering a sermon.

Shiite and Sunni politicians said the killing was the latest bid to stoke sectarian violence ahead of national elections scheduled for early next year.

The brazen daylight shooting in a heavily guarded area also raised fresh concerns about the ability of Iraqi forces to maintain security with U.S. forces withdrawing from cities by the end of the month. The attack took place in a western Baghdad neighborhood that was once a Sunni insurgent stronghold until local tribal leaders turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.

Shiite lawmaker Jalaluddin al-Saghir called on Iraqis to unite against a resurgence of violence, which has fallen sharply over the past two years.

"They think they can mess with the political process and those supporting it when the American forces leave," he said during a special parliamentary session after the funeral.

"We have to improve the security forces and work on strengthening security to make it impossible for such killers and criminals to bring us back to square one of civil and sectarian wars," he added.

The 47-year-old lawmaker had been a champion of prisoners' rights and was at the center of a stormy parliamentary debate over claims of torture in Iraqi jails. He was known for his advocacy of both Sunni and Shiite detainees.

Colleagues said that the day before his death, he had called on parliament to summon officials from the interior and defense ministries that oversee the jails to respond to the allegations. That raised suspicion that his slaying may have been linked to his campaign on behalf of detainees.

But Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said the evidence so far indicates al-Qaida in Iraq was behind the attack. He declined to elaborate while the investigation is ongoing.

During the funeral, which was broadcast on all of Iraq's television stations, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, and lawmakers from all sects vowed the killing would not set back security gains in Iraq.

Two caskets holding al-Obeidi and his bodyguard were carried outside by an Iraqi military honor guard. Hundreds of people later gathered for his burial in the main Sunni cemetery near the Abu Hanifa mosque in northern Baghdad.

"His assassination is an attempt to embarrass al-Maliki's government, the reconciliation project and renew the chaos and turmoil of the past," said Sheik Kheir-Allah al-Basri, a Shiite lawmaker.

Sunni lawmaker Dhafir al-Ani applauded al-Obeidi's political moderation.

"Al-Obeidi established a school of moderation inside the parliament. He expressed his position with courage and without any fear," he said.

Al-Obeidi took the helm of the Iraqi Accordance Front — which holds 44 seats in the 275-member parliament — in May after his predecessor Ayad al-Samarraie became the parliamentary speaker. He was the fourth Iraqi member of parliament to be killed since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

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Associated Press Writers Saad Abdul-Kadir, Hamid Ahmed and Muhieddin Rashad contributed to this report.





Schalit

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