Iraqi Sunni chiefs raise warnings of civil war
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-05 09:39

Sunni politicians warned of civil war Saturday after the bullet-riddled bodies of 14 Sunni Arab men were found in Baghdad — apparently the latest victims of sectarian death squads.

One person was killed and 12 injured when a mortar shell exploded near a Shiite mosque north of the capital.

Sunni leaders claimed the 14 men were seized last week by Shiite-led security forces. There was no confirmation from the Shiite-led Interior Ministry that government troops were responsible.

A top ministry official, Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal, said the bodies were shot multiple times and dumped in the back of a truck in northern Baghdad late Friday. He denounced the killings as a "criminal" act and said "we have nothing so far" to indicate government forces were to blame.

Leaders of several major Sunni Arab political organizations insisted the Interior Ministry was responsible for the killings.

Khalaf al-Ilyan, head of the National Dialogue Council, said the men were arrested by Interior Ministry troops at a Sunni mosque in Baghdad and killed in an unknown location.

"The government is pushing hard toward a civil war," al-Ilyan told reporters.

Dr. Salman al-Jumaili, a senior member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, part of the largest Sunni bloc in the new parliament, threatened to carry through with a threat by his party's leader Wednesday to launch a "civil disobedience" campaign if attacks against Sunnis do not stop.

"There is an escalation in organized assassinations by parties belonging to government security forces," al-Jumaili said. "There is an organized and well-trained force at the Interior Ministry conducting this sectarian cleansing against us."

The 14 bodies were taken to a morgue to be collected by their families, the Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni clerical group, said in a statement. The bodies of a father and son were taken to the headquarters of the National Dialogue Council, another Sunni political group, and displayed to reporters.

Shiites, an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 27 million people, also have been the victims of sectarian killings and often have been targeted in suicide bombings.

Long oppressed under Saddam Hussein, Shiites insist they must maintain control of the security forces to defend themselves and to prevent the return of Saddam-style dictatorship.

Late Saturday, a mortar shell exploded a few yards from a Shiite shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. One person was killed and 12 injured, including three children, police Capt. Layth Mohammed said.

Top Sunni political leaders have demanded that Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, a member of the biggest Shiite party, be dismissed and that the post in the new government go to someone without close ties to Shiite religious parties.

U.S. and United Nations diplomats have also called for control of the key security ministries to taken out of the hands of sectarian groups. The issue is expected to hinder quick agreement on a new government when talks among Iraq's parties begin in earnest this month.

Voters chose a new parliament in elections Dec. 15 but no government has been formed because major parties have been awaiting final certification of results, expected in the coming week.

Shiite religious parties, who dominate the outgoing government, won the biggest number of seats — 128 out of 275 — in the new parliament. That's not enough to govern without partners, and U.S. officials have been pressing hard for a major role for Sunni Arabs as well as Kurds.

Sunni Arab parties won 55 seats, a threefold increase over representation in the outgoing parliament. The U.S. hopes that an inclusive government will encourage many Sunni insurgents to lay down their arms and join the political process. Mainstream Sunni politicians warn that killings of Sunni civilians will undermine that goal.

Elsewhere, gunmen killed a former official of Saddam's Baath Party as he left his home in the northern city of Mosul on Friday, police Capt. Ahmed Khalil said.

U.S. troops also found a large weapons cache west of Fallujah, the 11th such discovery in 13 days, the military said Saturday.

Also Saturday, protests continued in Iraq against caricatures of the prophet Muhammad that were originally published in a Danish newspaper.