ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Press Writer
AP Worldstream
04-16-2005
Dateline: BAGHDAD, Iraq
Masked Sunni militants cruised a town south of Baghdad on Saturday, threatening to kill a number of Shiite hostages unless all Shiites leave, residents and government officials said.
The claimed abductions in Madain threatened to enflame sectarian divides as tortuous negotiations dragged on about the composition of a new government more than two months after historic elections.
Elsewhere, 11 detainees angry about their treatment by U.S. captors broke out of the military's largest detention center in Iraq. Ten were recaptured, and authorities were searching for the remaining escapee, the U.S. military and Iraqi forces said.
The jail break capped a weak of stepped up violence in Iraq. At least 14 Iraqis were killed Saturday in scattered attacks, including a suicide car explosion near a civilian convoy on the road to Baghdad's airport that police said also killed two foreign civilians. Two U.S. soldiers were reported killed in separate attacks.
Sunni insurgents have repeatedly sparred with Iraq's security forces in Madain and its outlying districts, populated by a near equal mix of Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
The latest crisis began Thursday when Sunni militants severely damaged a Shiite mosque with explosives in the town 20 kilometers (14 miles) southeast of Baghdad, said Haitham Husseini, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's largest Shiite group.
The next day, about 100 masked militants drove through down, grabbing Shiite youth and old men, he said. Estimates of the number captured ranged between 35 and 70, Husseini and central government officials said.
A resident reached by telephone said militants returned early Saturday, shouting through loud speakers that all Shiites must leave or the hostages would be killed. Later in the day, the town appeared calm and there was no sign of insurgents.
Husseini accused the militants of trying to stir up religious strife, but said Shiites would not retaliate. Iraqi security forces were deployed around the town to contain the situation, a Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
However, Sheikh Abdul Hadi al-Darraji, an aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, told al-Jazeera satellite television he did not believe any abductions took place.
Sunnis make up 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, but the minority was the country's dominant group under Saddam Hussein. Since coalition forces drove him out of power in 2003, the Sunnis are believed to be the backbone of the insurgency. Many Sunnis boycotted Iraq's Jan. 30 national elections or stayed home for fear of attacks at the polls.
Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite leader, is now trying to put together a Cabinet that includes Sunnis, but talks have stalled over how to
do this. The National Assembly was scheduled to meet Sunday, but al-Jaafari said a new government would only be announced later in the week.
"We insist on including all national forces in this government, but we don't expect to please all forces," he said in an interview with the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.
The 11 detainees escaped early Saturday from Camp Bucca, which holds some 6,000 prisoners, nearly two-thirds of all those in Iraq. Police were holding 10 of them until they could be sent back to the facility in southeastern Iraq.
One of the 10 said the group escaped by cutting through a wire fence.
"We decided to flee the prison because of the bad treatment and delay in investigations," 24-year-old Hussein Nima said. Detention centers have come under criticism for holding prisoners indefinitely.
Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, a U.S. military spokesman, denied the allegations of mistreatment, saying the inmates get three meals a day, access to shower facilities, prayer rugs and a copy of the Quran.
"We provide them with every humane type of care," said Rudisill. He declined to say why the 11 were being held.
The escape came two days after a melee among prisoners left one detainee dead and injured dozens of others, the U.S. military said. Nima said the fight was between U.S. soldiers and prisoners.
In Baghdad, an attack by a suicide car bomber on a convoy on the road to the airport killed the assailant and at least three civilians, including one Iraqi and two foreigners, police said. Three other Iraqi civilians and three foreigners were wounded, they said. The U.S. military confirmed it was a civilian convoy, but had no further details.
In Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of the capital, a bomb exploded inside a restaurant often used by Iraqi police, killing nine people, most of them policemen, police and hospital officials said. Twelve people were hospitalized in the blast.
One U.S. soldier from the 42nd Military Police Brigade was wounded and died when his convoy was hit Saturday by an explosive device near Taji, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baghdad. Another died of injuries sustained when a coalition military base was attacked Friday near Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad.
In other violence Saturday:
_ Insurgents killed three members of Iraq's security forces in the northern city of Kirkuk, firing from speeding vehicles on soldiers and policemen, police said.
_ In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb damaged one vehicle in a U.S. military convoy, wounding six soldiers lightly, said Sgt. John H. Franzen. The attack came as Iraqi and U.S. forces were completing two days of raids that netted 27 suspected insurgents, a military statement said.
_ Insurgents shot and killed a police officer in the center of Kut, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said.
_ Two Filipino workers were lightly wounded in an attack while traveling on a road near Baghdad's airport, a Philippine official said.
___
Associated Press writers Abbas Fayadh in Basra and Qasim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Copyright 2005, AP News All Rights Reserved
Sunni militants threaten to kill Shiite hostages, enflame sectarian divides in IraqALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Press Writer
AP Worldstream
04-16-2005
Dateline: BAGHDAD, Iraq
Masked Sunni militants cruised a town south of Baghdad on Saturday, threatening to kill a number of Shiite hostages unless all Shiites leave, residents and government officials said.
The claimed abductions in Madain threatened to enflame sectarian divides as tortuous negotiations dragged on about the composition of a new government more than two months after historic elections.
Elsewhere, 11 detainees angry about their treatment by U.S. captors broke out of the military's largest detention center in Iraq. Ten were recaptured, and authorities were searching for the remaining escapee, the U.S. military and Iraqi forces said.
The jail break capped a weak of stepped up violence in Iraq. At least 14 Iraqis were killed Saturday in scattered attacks, including a suicide car explosion near a civilian convoy on the road to Baghdad's airport that police said also killed two foreign civilians. Two U.S. soldiers were reported killed in separate attacks.
Sunni insurgents have repeatedly sparred with Iraq's security forces in Madain and its outlying districts, populated by a near equal mix of Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
The latest crisis began Thursday when Sunni militants severely damaged a Shiite mosque with explosives in the town 20 kilometers (14 miles) southeast of Baghdad, said Haitham Husseini, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's largest Shiite group.
The next day, about 100 masked militants drove through down, grabbing Shiite youth and old men, he said. Estimates of the number captured ranged between 35 and 70, Husseini and central government officials said.
A resident reached by telephone said militants returned early Saturday, shouting through loud speakers that all Shiites must leave or the hostages would be killed. Later in the day, the town appeared calm and there was no sign of insurgents.
Husseini accused the militants of trying to stir up religious strife, but said Shiites would not retaliate. Iraqi security forces were deployed around the town to contain the situation, a Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
However, Sheikh Abdul Hadi al-Darraji, an aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, told al-Jazeera satellite television he did not believe any abductions took place.
Sunnis make up 15 percent to 20 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, but the minority was the country's dominant group under Saddam Hussein. Since coalition forces drove him out of power in 2003, the Sunnis are believed to be the backbone of the insurgency. Many Sunnis boycotted Iraq's Jan. 30 national elections or stayed home for fear of attacks at the polls.
Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite leader, is now trying to put together a Cabinet that includes Sunnis, but talks have stalled over how to
do this. The National Assembly was scheduled to meet Sunday, but al-Jaafari said a new government would only be announced later in the week.
"We insist on including all national forces in this government, but we don't expect to please all forces," he said in an interview with the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.
The 11 detainees escaped early Saturday from Camp Bucca, which holds some 6,000 prisoners, nearly two-thirds of all those in Iraq. Police were holding 10 of them until they could be sent back to the facility in southeastern Iraq.
One of the 10 said the group escaped by cutting through a wire fence.
"We decided to flee the prison because of the bad treatment and delay in investigations," 24-year-old Hussein Nima said. Detention centers have come under criticism for holding prisoners indefinitely.
Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, a U.S. military spokesman, denied the allegations of mistreatment, saying the inmates get three meals a day, access to shower facilities, prayer rugs and a copy of the Quran.
"We provide them with every humane type of care," said Rudisill. He declined to say why the 11 were being held.
The escape came two days after a melee among prisoners left one detainee dead and injured dozens of others, the U.S. military said. Nima said the fight was between U.S. soldiers and prisoners.
In Baghdad, an attack by a suicide car bomber on a convoy on the road to the airport killed the assailant and at least three civilians, including one Iraqi and two foreigners, police said. Three other Iraqi civilians and three foreigners were wounded, they said. The U.S. military confirmed it was a civilian convoy, but had no further details.
In Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of the capital, a bomb exploded inside a restaurant often used by Iraqi police, killing nine people, most of them policemen, police and hospital officials said. Twelve people were hospitalized in the blast.
One U.S. soldier from the 42nd Military Police Brigade was wounded and died when his convoy was hit Saturday by an explosive device near Taji, 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Baghdad. Another died of injuries sustained when a coalition military base was attacked Friday near Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad.
In other violence Saturday:
_ Insurgents killed three members of Iraq's security forces in the northern city of Kirkuk, firing from speeding vehicles on soldiers and policemen, police said.
_ In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb damaged one vehicle in a U.S. military convoy, wounding six soldiers lightly, said Sgt. John H. Franzen. The attack came as Iraqi and U.S. forces were completing two days of raids that netted 27 suspected insurgents, a military statement said.
_ Insurgents shot and killed a police officer in the center of Kut, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said.
_ Two Filipino workers were lightly wounded in an attack while traveling on a road near Baghdad's airport, a Philippine official said.
___
Associated Press writers Abbas Fayadh in Basra and Qasim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Copyright 2005, AP News All Rights Reserved
