BAGHDAD, Iraq – Sectarian violence flared again Saturday despite an extended daytime curfew in Baghdad aimed at curbing three days of bloodshed, sustaining the sense of crisis that has gripped the country since one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines was attacked last week.
Political leaders from all factions held an emergency meeting Saturday night at the home of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, hours after President Bush personally telephoned seven Iraqi leaders to urge them to restart negotiations on forming a new government and find ways to restore calm.
It was the first time Bush had contacted Iraqi leaders since the bombing of the Askariya shrine in the town of Samarra ignited a firestorm of anti-Sunni fury among Iraq’s Shiite majority, and the intervention pointed to continued U.S. concerns that Iraq may yet disintegrate into civil war.
Nonetheless, U.S. officials said they were confident the worst of the crisis has passed. “The president has been pleased with the restraint shown,” said National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones.
After adopting a low profile in the first days of the crisis, U.S. forces stepped up their presence on the streets of the capital in response to appeals from some Sunni leaders who say their communities do not trust the Shiite-dominated Iraqi security forces.
The continued tensions prompted the government to extend until Monday morning a ban on all vehicle traffic in Baghdad, which has been under a virtually complete lockdown since Thursday night. All travel between provinces also was barred, but the curfew was lifted in areas outside Baghdad and pedestrians will be allowed to move in Baghdad on Sunday.
The Baghdad curfew was lifted for two hours at 6 p.m. Saturday, and the streets briefly filled with people rushing to buy bread and other supplies.
But the security clampdown did not prevent fresh attacks in which at least 45 people died, many of them Shiites or members of the Shiite-controlled police forces, raising fears that Sunnis are starting to strike back after the wave of retaliatory attacks against Sunnis after the bombing of the Shiite shrine.
Three police commandos died when the funeral of a prominent Iraqi television journalist killed in the violence was ambushed in western Baghdad. Gun battles erupted around a Sunni mosque in southwestern Baghdad after Interior Ministry forces dispatched to protect the mosque came under fire from gunmen inside. Later, the bodies of 14 slain police commandos were found nearby, and 11 other bodies were discovered in various locations across Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.
Elsewhere, a car bomb killed at least four people in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and 13 members of a Shiite family were massacred in the town of Baqouba.
In the 24 hours through Saturday evening, the U.S. military more than quadrupled the number of its patrols, to 268 from 65 on Wednesday, the first day of the crisis, officials said.
Gen. George Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, “has directed … an increased security presence in those areas where terrorists might attack,” said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a military spokesman.
But the increased American presence on the streets of Baghdad, at a time when the U.S. military is accelerating the transfer of authority to Iraqi security forces as a prelude to withdrawing American soldiers, seemed to acknowledge that Iraqi security forces are struggling to keep control.
U.S. officials sought to downplay the renewed violence, saying tensions have dropped noticeably since the initial outpouring of rage at the bombing of the Shiite shrine led to a rash of retaliatory attacks against Sunni mosques. Though Shiite militias defied the curfew in many Shiite areas, the attacks on Sunni targets appear to have abated.
“The situation as a whole is improving,” U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said at a news conference conducted by telephone because of the curfew. “The danger of a civil war as a result of this attack has diminished, though I don’t believe we’re out of danger yet.”
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But the brazen attack on the heavily guarded funeral procession of Al-Arabiya television correspondent Atwar Bahjat and her two colleagues, who were killed in Samarra after the attack on the shrine, illustrated how fragile the situation remains.
As the procession passed through the deserted streets of western Baghdad, it came under fire from gunmen positioned on both sides of the road, according to Al-Arabiya. Two members of the police escort guarding the procession were killed, seven others were badly injured and several others were slightly hurt.
For the next two hours, about 70 mourners, including some of Iraq’s most prominent journalists, cowered in a half-built house nearby, surrounded by gunmen and waiting for reinforcements for their bloodied police escort, said Al-Arabiya bureau chief Jawad al-Hattab.
Eventually, a 50-strong commando force arrived and escorted the funeral to the nearby cemetery. But as the procession returned, a car bomb was detonated at almost exactly the same spot as the earlier ambush, killing another policeman.
“The government has fallen. They can’t control anything, not even a five-kilometer stretch of road,” al-Hattab said. “It was a terrifying day.”
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The meeting at al-Jaafari’s home Saturday night suggested that tempers are starting to cool among the country’s political leadership, however. Leaders from the largest Sunni bloc, the Iraqi Accord Front, who last week pulled out of negotiations on forming a new government, showed up at the meeting. Earlier, the group announced that it “will not hesitate” to return to the negotiating table if its demands for improved security for Sunni areas are met.
At a separate meeting, religious leaders from the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, which wields influence over the insurgency, reached an agreement with representatives of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to work together to curb the violence. Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, is accused of carrying out most of the attacks against Sunni targets.
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(Nadeem Majeed contributed to this report.)
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AP-NY-02-25-06 2013EST
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