By Liz Sly
Chicago Tribune, 25 July 2005
A truck packed with explosives plowed into a police station in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, killing up to 40 people, as Iraq's insurgency pressed its campaign to undermine the government and disrupt progress toward a new constitution.
The blast came as recalcitrant Sunnis said they are ready to return to the constitutional negotiations, something considered crucial if there is to be a chance of turning the tide of Sunni opinion against the Sunni-dominated insurgency.
The Iraqi police said 26 people were killed in the huge explosion, which also ignited more than 20 cars and blasted some bodies onto the roofs of nearby buildings in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Mashtal. The U.S. military put the toll at 40, most of them said to be civilians. There was no explanation for the discrepancy.
In other violence, a U.S. Marine and a soldier were killed in separate weekend incidents, The Associated Press reported, citing the U.S. military. The Marine was killed Saturday by a roadside bomb near Rutbah, 220 miles west of Baghdad, while the soldier died Sunday in a mortar attack near Balad north of Baghdad.
The truck blast was the latest in a series of large attacks by what appears to be an increasingly well-coordinated insurgency that is targeting symbols and institutions associated with the 3-month-old government.
Many recent insurgent attacks also have been aimed at the civilian Shiites, who largely cast votes in the January elections that brought the government to power. Eight days ago more than 100 civilians were killed in the mostly Shiite town of Mussayib, south of Baghdad. Though Sunday's attack was aimed at a police station, like so many others it occurred in a mostly Shiite neighborhood, not far from the site of a deadly bombing earlier this month in which at least 28 children gathered around a U.S. Humvee were killed.
Iraqis are growing frustrated with the government's inability to halt the violence, despite a series of well-publicized security campaigns that have netted hundreds of terrorist suspects. In a statement Sunday, the government announced that it has a new security plan aimed at addressing the worsening violence, but it gave no details.
U.S. officials are hoping that the drafting of Iraq's constitution will give new momentum to the democratic process and wean Sunnis away from supporting the insurgency by convincing members of the Sunni minority that they have a stake in their country's future.
But with just three weeks before the document is to be completed, hopes are fading that a consensus can be secured that will satisfy the widely conflicting demands of Shiites, Kurds and Sunnis.
The Sunni bloc invited to participate in the constitutional committee walked out last week to protest the assassinations Tuesday by unknown gunmen of a Sunni committee member and an adviser to the talks--jeopardizing chances that an agreement acceptable to Sunnis can be reached before the Aug. 15 deadline.
"It's going to be difficult, very difficult," said Saleh Mutlaq, a leading member of the Sunni group in the talks. "It's all being done in a big rush of time, but we are going to do our best."
The committee charged with drafting the document suspended its deliberations to allow time to persuade the Sunnis to return.
The effort appeared to pay off. The 12 Sunni Arab members of the committee announced they would meet with the Shiite chairman over breakfast Monday. Mutlaq told The Associated Press that he and his colleagues had received assurances that the conditions they requested, including better security for the Sunni group, would be addressed.
"We put in writing our demands to return, and we got a promise that those demands will be fulfilled," Ayad al-Samarraie, one of the Sunni politicians, told The New York Times.
As a first step, the Sunnis have formed a commission of legal experts to review the latest draft of the constitution and recommend changes, al-Samarraie said.
Adding some momentum to the stalled process, Iraq's National Assembly on Sunday passed a law setting Oct. 15 as the date for Iraqis to vote on the constitution in a referendum.
But the group led by former Premier Ayad Allawi threatened Sunday to walk out of constitutional talks to protest a growing perception that Shiites and Kurds who dominate the National Assembly are preparing to finalize the constitution without Sunni consultation.
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Citation: Liz Sly. "Up to 40 killed in Iraq blast," Chicago Tribune, 25 July 2005.
Original URL: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0507250178jul25,1,3775959,print.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
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