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Carbomb in fruit market { December 9 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/12/09/international0533EST0463.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/12/09/international0533EST0463.DTL
Baghdad mortar barrage, Mosul car bomb kills three Iraqis, injures seven
- PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, December 9, 2004
(12-09) 04:44 PST BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --
A car bomb in a busy Mosul market and mortar rounds in Baghdad killed three Iraqis and wounded seven Thursday, and the nation's leading Shiites moved closer to finalizing the makeup of a coalition to run next month's elections.
Allies of spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani were expected to make an announcement later Thursday about the composition of a group of powerful Shiite political parties and independents, to be known as the United Iraqi Alliance, an official said.
The coalition was expected to include Iraq's two main Shiite parties, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution and the Dawa party, plus members of the movement of anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress also was expected to take part.
In renewed violence, two Iraqis were wounded after a car bomb exploded in eastern Mosul, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Paul Hastings said. Iraqi policeman Hassan Ahmed said the blast happened in a fruit and vegetable market.
The city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad has been the scene of regular attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces by insurgents aimed at derailing the country's reconstruction ahead of the Jan. 30 elections.
The bombing came a day after clashes in the city between police and insurgents killed four militants.
Militants also fired multiple mortar rounds toward an Iraqi National Guard base and the nearby Italian Embassy in Baghdad's Waziriyah neighborhood. Police Lt. Hussein Ali said three civilians were killed and five wounded.
"I heard an explosion and went to see what caused it and then another mortar came in and hit me," Bassem Mal-allah said from a nearby hospital.
Hussain al-Shahristani, a member of the six-member committee drawing up the Shiite candidates list, said this week that half the slots were expected to go to independents and include members of "main Sunni tribes from northern Iraq and Mosul."
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi was expected to be absent from the ticket, which some fear risked dividing the Shiite vote. Al-Shahristani said Allawi's party "had been invited to take part in this alliance ... but they preferred to be on another list."
Shiites comprise 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million population, but they've had little political power, particularly under deposed leader Saddam Hussein, who belonged to the country's minority Sunni community.
Farid Ayar, spokesman of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said the party of Sunni politician Adnan Pachachi, who supported the call for postponing the elections, was among the first to register after the sign-up process began Nov. 1.
He added, however, that the party -- the Independent Democratic Movement -- has yet to submit a candidates' list. Pachachi was not immediately available for comment.
Rebels launched a series of attacks against U.S. and Iraqi government troops in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, leaving five Iraqis dead and several more wounded.
Samarra's police chief Maj. Gen. Talib Shamel al-Samarrai announced his resignation, saying he was unable to do his job properly.
The violence has raised concerns about the feasibility of the balloting to choose a 275-seat assembly, whose primary task will be drafting a permanent constitution for this overwhelmingly Muslim nation.
Al-Sistani has been working to unite Iraq's majority Shiites ahead of the vote to ensure victory, plus include representatives from Iraq's other diverse communities. The Iranian-born cleric is overseeing the work of top aides seeking to compile a 165-candidate list, which would be put to the voters nationwide.
In another play for post-election power, a senior Kurdish official said a Kurd should be made either president or prime minister following the polls.
"We have the right to ask for one of the (two) top positions in the government after the elections and we insist on taking one of them," Arsalan Biez, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's political bureau, said from the northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah, 162 miles northeast of Baghdad. "We are as a nation like other world's nations, and we must receive our rights and demands."
Kurds are estimated to number between 15 percent and 20 percent of the population and have enjoyed regional self-rule in the north since 1991. Kurdish statehood aspirations have alarmed neighboring Turkey, Syria and Iran, which fear that granting Iraqi Kurds an ethnic enclave could incite separatist sentiments among Kurdish minorities within their own borders.
Iran, meanwhile, rejected accusations that it was trying to influence the vote in neighboring Iraq, saying the Iraqi people have made clear they won't take orders from abroad, state media reported.
"The Iraqi people have a shining record in fighting foreign exploitation and occupation and have proven that they won't accept foreign domination," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza was quoted by the official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying.
He was reacting to comments Wednesday by interim Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer and Jordan's King Abdullah II, both Sunni Muslims, in which they accused overwhelmingly Shiite Iran of trying to influence the outcome of the election.
"Unfortunately, some political currents in Iraq seek to tarnish the trend of elections there and cause concern in the public opinion," Asefi said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. general directing Iraq's reconstruction said the military is working as fast as possible to return tens of thousands of people displaced by recent fighting in Fallujah.
"We want to make sure conditions are safe, healthy and will allow the people to move back in quickly," said Brig. Gen. Thomas Bostick, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Gulf Region.
In a move sure to gladden U.S.-led military commanders, Japan extended the deployment of its troops in Iraq.
Japan's Cabinet on Thursday approved a plan to keep its 550 non-combat troops in southern Iraq for another year. The current mission, focussing on water purification and other reconstruction projects, had been scheduled to expire Dec. 14.
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