BAGHDAD, 19 August 2005 — Iraq yesterday said the rush-hour bombings that rocked Baghdad sought to create a sectarian crisis in the war-torn country as fresh rebel violence killed 12, including four US soldiers. At the same time, Russian Vladimir Putin called for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops and the holding of an international conference on Iraq.
At least 43 people were killed Wednesday when three car bombs ripped through a central Baghdad bus station and a nearby hospital, shattering the capital’s relative calm of recent weeks.
Insurgents continued their attacks yesterday, killing four US soldiers and eight other Iraqis, including a child, elsewhere in the country.
The soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the northern town of Samarra, the US military said, taking to around 50 the US military deaths across Iraq in August, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.
Another US military convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad early yesterday with Iraqi officials reporting some American casualties in the blast although the US military had no immediate comment.
“Our troops have seen American soldiers evacuating some of their wounded colleagues from the humvee after it hit the bomb,” a Defense Ministry source said.
The total US military deaths in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion touched 1,856 yesterday, according to Pentagon figures.
“We consider that holding an international conference this year would give a new impulse to the normalization of the situation” in Iraq, Putin told reporters following talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Pochi, Russia.
The latest attack on US forces came just 24 hours after the deadliest bombings in the Iraqi capital this year.
Two of the car bombs exploded 10 minutes apart at the bus station in the central district of Al-Nahda, leaving behind a sea of broken bodies, followed by a third near Al-Kindi hospital in the same neighborhood.
The government said the bombings were aimed at triggering a civil war.
“The bombs exploded in a Shiite dominated area of Baghdad, and the message that they (rebels) wanted to send was that the government is incapable of protecting you (Shiites) from them,” government spokesman Leith Kubba said.
“Such a criminal act will definitely arouse passion among Shiites — they (insurgents) want the Shiites to attack the Sunnis and that will serve the insurgents’ purpose. They want to trigger sectarian crisis.” Iraq’s ousted Sunni Arab elite is believed to form the backbone of the raging insurgency that has ravaged Iraq since the ousting of Saddam Hussein.
Wednesday’s bombings came two days after Iraqi leaders failed to draft a new constitution.
The drafting of the constitution, due to be put to a referendum in October, is a key phase in Iraq’s political transition which the United States and its allies hope could pave the way to a pullout of foreign troops.
A top Western diplomat closely involved with the constitution drafting process said the deadline could be extended again.
“It’s technically possible for them (Iraqi leaders) to repeat what happened last week,” he said on condition of anonymity.
He said another deadline extension was “a possible scenario,” although “a three-quarters majority is still required in the national assembly” to approve the crucial document.
The bombings drew condemnation from world leaders, and Iraqi panelists said the international community has become more active in helping to secure agreement on a constitution since the deadline extension to Aug. 22.
Kurdish constitution panelist Mahmud Othman said that officials from the United Nations and Britain were now pitching in toa help Iraq complete the draft, in addition to the Americans.
“It has now become a question of who is stronger — the politicians or the insurgents,” Othman said.
“The bombings have increased global pressure on Iraq and it is now seen as a test for the politicians to wrap up the charter before the new deadline and not fall into the hands of the insurgents.” But he said intractable differences on the issues of federalism, the role of Islam and sharing national oil wealth persisted between various groups, with Sunnis fearing that autonomy for Kurds and Shiites would rob them of oil revenues.
Iraq’s vast oil reserves are in the north where the Kurds are seeking to consolidate their autonomy and in the south where the majority Shiites also want a federal system.
A US congressional delegation to Baghdad said the rebuilding of Iraq depended on the constitution.
“You can’t attract capital investment from outside Iraq unless you have a constitution in place, a rule of law and a defined system that can guarantee property rights,” delegation leader Republican Steve King said.
“That’s the key: get the constitution in place. Get rule of law in place, capital will come, electricity will follow.” A US defense official in Washington said another 700 US troops were being sent to Iraq to strengthen forces guarding the country’s US-run prisons.
Meanwhile, rebels killed eight Iraqis in separate attacks across Iraq.
Three Iraqi soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle blew himself up at an Iraqi army checkpoint near the northern town of Balad.
