BAGHDAD, 24 November 2005 — Gunmen wearing Iraqi Army uniforms burst into the home of a Sunni Arab tribal leader yesterday, killing him, three of his sons and a son-in-law in what police believe may have been aimed at discouraging Sunnis from participating in next month’s election.
Khadim Sarhid Al-Hemaiyem, who lived on the outskirts of Baghdad, was the leader of a branch of the Dulaimi tribe, one of the biggest in Iraq. His brother is a candidate in the Dec. 15 parliamentary election, three of his sons had been policemen and another son was slain last month north of the capital, police and family members said.
The brutal attack took place amid a major campaign by US and Iraqi authorities to encourage Sunni Arabs to vote in next month’s election in hopes of luring them away from the insurgency.
Some insurgent groups have declared a boycott of the election and have threatened politicians who choose to participate. Police said they suspected the tribal leader’s murder was designed as a warning to Sunni Arabs against heeding the US call.
However, the Association of Muslim Scholars, a hard-line Sunni organization believed to have links to some insurgent groups, also condemned the slayings, linking them to what many Sunnis fear is a campaign against them by the Shiite-led government security services.
“We warn the government against continuing with this tyranny,” association spokesman Abdul Salam Al-Kubaisi said.
Police Maj. Falah Al-Mohammedawi denied that government forces were involved in the deaths of the leader and his relatives and blamed the insurgents.
“Surely, they are outlaw insurgents. As for the military uniform, they can be bought from many shops in Baghdad,” he said. “Also, we have several police and army vehicles stolen and they can be used in the raids.”
The United States hopes that a big Sunni turnout next month will send more Sunni Arabs to Parliament and produce a broad-based government that can win the trust of Sunni Arabs, who form about 20 percent of Iraq’s 27 million people.
US officials believe a bigger Sunni Arab voice in government will help take the steam out of the insurgency and hasten the day when American and other international troops can go home.
At the same time, US military commanders have warned that insurgents will probably escalate attacks in hopes of undermining the election.
Despite the violence, Sen. Joseph Lieberman told reporters yesterday in Baghdad that he was encouraged by the political progress achieved so far in Iraq. Lieberman, who arrived to spend Thanksgiving with US troops, told Iraq’s prime minister that American forces will remain in Iraq until their mission is complete, despite growing unease in Congress about the conflict.
Meanwhile, under growing pressure in Iraq and at home, the United States is edging steadily toward the prospect of a drawdown of its troops from the country while resisting a fixed timetable.
So the timing may have been no accident when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went on CNN and Fox television Tuesday to venture that a reduction in force levels might be possible “fairly soon.”
She said that as Iraqi security forces were trained to face an insurgency raging 31 months after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the number of outside troops “is clearly going to come down.”
“The American forces are not going to be needed in the numbers that they are there for all that much longer,” the top US envoy told CNN.
