BAGHDAD, 7 September 2005 — Iraq’s main Shiite and Sunni Muslim sects abandoned efforts to amend a draft constitution yesterday and a version rejected by many Sunnis will be printed. “The talks have ended. We did not reach any agreement on making changes to the draft. It will be printed in the form it was read to the National Assembly last week,” Bahaa Al-Araji, a member of the parliamentary drafting committee, told Reuters.

“No changes will be made,” he said, adding that five million copies will be printed, starting tomorrow. The constitution, due to be voted on in a referendum by Oct. 15, has been a source of tension in Iraq as Sunnis, long the dominant political force, fear losing influence to majority Shiites, who were oppressed under Saddam Hussein.

The government is largely composed of southern Shiites and Kurds from the north, and, backed by US troops, faces a Sunni insurgency. The Sunni minority could also kill the constitutional draft at the referendum if it can muster a two-thirds majority of no votes in three of Iraq’s 18 provinces.

The northern town of Tal Afar was on edge yesterday after doctors said at least seven civilians were killed during an operation by Iraqi and US troops against insurgents there. A further 13 have been wounded in Tal Afar, a hospital source told Reuters; the US military said one US soldier died when his vehicle was struck by a bomb there on Monday.

Iraqi police and troops backed by US forces launched the operation some days ago in Tal Afar, which they say is a conduit for foreign fighters slipping into the country. Iraqi forces have now begun evacuating the town’s central Saray district. “Around 100 families have been evacuated in the last few days,” an Iraqi army captain told Reuters.

Television footage showed Iraqi soldiers bursting into houses in Tal Afar searching for weapons, pictures of captured former president Saddam Hussein and video cassettes before leading suspects away.

Sunnis have felt increasingly marginalized since a US-led war ousted Saddam in 2003 and a Shiite- and Kurdish-led government came to power. Most Sunnis did not vote in a January election, though many are now registering for the constitutional referendum and another parliamentary election expected in December. Many Sunni leaders have vowed to ensure the draft constitution is rejected in its present form.