BAGHDAD, 15 August 2007 — Leaders from Iraq’s divided communities held talks yesterday to pave the way for a crisis summit called by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki in a bid to salvage his crumbling unity government. Vice President Tariq Al-Hashemi, the senior Sunni Arab in the government, met Masoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq, and was set to meet other Kurdish leaders today.
“The presence of Masoud Barzani is necessary to reach a common vision on the disputed issues,” Hashemi’s office quoting the vice president, a critic of Maliki’s alleged sectarian bias, as saying during the meeting. Hashemi said members of his Iraqi Islamic Party, part of the Sunni political bloc that quit the government, would also hold meetings with leaders from regional Kurdish parties on Wednesday before a summit later this week.
Meanwhile, a suicide truck bomber destroyed a key bridge outside Baghdad yesterday, as US and Iraqi troops swept through flash points seeking to rein in militants ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.
The blast shattered the concrete bridge linking Baghdad to northern provinces and sent three civilian cars plunging into the river below, killing eight people, security officials said.
In other violence, the pregnant wife of a police chief was gunned down while four people were shot dead while they lay sleeping on a rooftop. The US military, meanwhile, reported another five American soldiers killed. The insurgent attacks come despite a massive operation — code named Phantom Strike — launched on Monday targeting Shiite extremist networks and insurgents affiliated to Al-Qaeda.
The US military said four suspected Shiite militants were killed in a raid on Baghdad’s volatile slum of Sadr City yesterday while dozens of others were arrested during crackdowns in other parts of the country.
Some 16,000 troops, meanwhile, have surged into restive Diyala province in an attempt to crack down on Sunni insurgents and “capture or kill Al-Qaeda responsible for the violence against Iraqi civilians,” the military said.
Operation Lightning Hammer was launched late Monday in the province, the second most dangerous after Baghdad, with an “air assault into targeted locations,” it added.
