World
  |
|
Shiite Iraqi PM in violent Sunni province to build ties
By Dave Clark
AFP
RAMADI, Iraq
Petroleumworld.com 03 14 07Iraq's embattled Shiite premier flew Tuesday into Ramadi, a hotbed of Sunni insurgency, as four people were savagely gunned down in a Baghdad mosque and other attacks killed seven more Iraqis.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's unannounced visit to the western city to build ties between the country's bitterly divided sects came as the Pentagon said Washington is considering pulling US troops out of Iraq if its current "surge" strategy fails to quell raging sectarian violence engulfing Baghdad.
"I haven't been to Ramadi since 1976," said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, on his first visit to Anbar province since his election last year. His trip was hailed by US commanders as a vital step towards peace.
"I love this province and I'm proud that it's part of Iraq," he said, after meeting Anbar governor Maamun Sami Rashid in a Saddam-era palace now inside a joint US and Iraqi military base.Maliki -- accompanied by his defence and interior ministers -- and his host the governor vowed to work together to combat Al-Qaeda insurgents who have been fighting in Anbar since the US-led invasion of March 2003.
US commanders said they were delighted that Maliki had made the trip, seeing it as a concrete sign that his Shiite-led government is serious about making peace with Anbar's Sunni leaders, many of whom have turned against the insurgency.
"It's very exciting to have the prime minister in Anbar," said US Brigadier General John Allen. "It shows that nothing's impossible."
Maliki's party arrived from a nearby airbase on US army Blackhawk choppers, escorted by Apache gunships, and held a day of meetings with Anbari leaders and tribal sheikhs, including some of those now fighting Al-Qaeda.
Many Sunnis distrust or oppose Maliki's government, feeding support for the insurgency, and a US diplomat dubbed the talks as "historic".
The new US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, was also in Ramadi on Tuesday, touring US and Iraqi units fighting Al-Qaeda in almost daily street battles in the city, much of which lies in ruins.
Ramadi has been a symbol of the failure of the US military and the Iraqi government to assert their will among the fiercely-independent Sunni tribes living in the deserts west of Baghdad.
US and Iraqi troops, meanwhile, pushed on with an intensive drive to secure Baghdad as the White House confirmed a possible pullout of US soldiers from Iraq if its "surge" strategy fails.
The US military is deploying additional troops in support of the new security plan called Operation Fardh al-Qanoon (Imposing Law), which has already seen the deployment of about 90,000 Iraqi and US soldiers in Baghdad.
US President George W. Bush at the weekend approved the sending of another 2,400 soldiers and 2,200 military police, who he said would support the 21,500 extra troops he has already announced.
On Tuesday, the US military sent more troops from the Stryker Brigade to the volatile, ethnically divided Diyala province. It did not give numbers, however.
Last week, Petraeus said that 4,000 of the US troop reinforcements pouring into Baghdad would go on to Diyala province.
Violence again flared in the Iraqi capital when gunmen shot dead four civilians they had cornered in a mosque after chasing them through the streets, a security official said.
The group fled for protection to the Okbah bin Nafae mosque in Baghdad's southwest Al-Risala district after they came under attack by the gunmen.
"The gunmen stormed the mosque and opened fire, killing four of them," he said.
Three policemen were killed when gunmen attacked their patrol in central Baghdad's Zayuna district and two industry ministry employees were killed when a roadside bomb hit their bus in east Baghdad's Waziriyah district.Elsewhere, a senior company official in the central town of Iskandariyah was killed by gunmen while in the northern oil city of Kirkuk a policeman was killed and three others wounded in an attack by gunmen on their checkpoint.
AFP 131454 GMT 03 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels