Al-Maliki blames "politicians" as Iraq attacks kill 71
Authors: Nehal El-Sherif and Pol O Gradaigh
May 20, 2013
Baghdad (dpa) – A series of attacks that included nine car bombings killed 71 people Monday in Iraq, mostly in Shiite areas, as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed politicians' "calls for violence."
The bloody day started with two car bombs that killed 14 people and wounded 40 in the mainly Shiite southern port city of Basra, according to a final toll given by health officials.
Six further car bombings took place in mainly Shiite areas of the capital, Baghdad, killing 29 people and injuring about 100, police said.
Attacks on checkpoints of the pro-government Sunni Sahwa militia in Baghdad, Balad and Samarra north of Baghdad killed six members of the force and wounded 12.
In Hilla, a mainly Shiite city on the Euphrates River, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off, followed by a suicide bomber attack on two mosques, killed six people and injured 70.
Eight pilgrims, six of them Iranian, according to the independent al-Sumaria television, were killed when a car bomb blew up as their coach was passing near Balad. Eighteen were injured.
In Sunni-dominated Anbar province, 120 kilometres west of Baghdad, eight policemen were killed when gunmen opened fire on two patrols.
The bodies of 14 people kidnapped in Anbar were also found.
Iraq has witnessed a rise in Sunni-Shiite retaliatory attacks in recent weeks, raising fears of a return to the sectarian tensions that drove the country to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007.
The rising violence came as protests have been taking place in Sunni areas since December.
The Sunni demonstrators have been calling for the release of security detainees and the repeal of laws that they claim al-Maliki's Shiite-dominated government uses to discriminate against them.
“The politicians bear the responsibility for the sectarian escalation because of their statements, calls for violence and sectarian positions,” al-Maliki said.
“Ignorant people pick up on that and go out bearing weapons and calling for fighting,” the Shiite prime minister said.
The Iraqi leader called on lawmakers to stay away from a Tuesday emergency session called by one of his political rivals, Sunni parliamentary speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, to discuss the country's worsening security situation.
“The Chamber of Deputies is one of the main players in the current disturbances in the country,” al-Maliki said, accusing some lawmakers of having set up armed groups.
But al-Maliki said he would be willing to contemplate the establishment of an autonomous region in the Sunni-dominated western provinces, al-Sumaria reported, provided it came about through the correct legal procedures.
The pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported that Sunni protest leaders had called for "armed confrontation or the declaration of an [autonomous] region" after clashes in recent days with security forces.
Al-Nujaifi, who on Saturday called on security chiefs to attend the emergency parliamentary session, in turn demanded “a clear position from the international community on what is taking place in Iraq.”
The United Nations said April was the deadliest month in Iraq since June 2008 with more than 700 people killed and 1,600 wounded.
On Friday, bombings killed at least 90 people and wounded more than 180.
