Iraqi tribal leaders demand federation

21/05/2013| IslamWeb

Tribal leaders in Iraq are warning of war unless the country splits into a federation amid a deadly new wave of apparently sectarian violence.
 

Monday's attacks across Iraqi cities left at least 77 people dead and more than 248 others injured, officials say, pushing the death toll over the past week to well above 200.

On the same day, the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported that Sunni protest leaders had called for "armed confrontation or the declaration of an [autonomous] region".

In response, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, said he was willing to contemplate the establishment of an autonomous region in the Sunni-dominated western provinces, provided it came about through the correct legal procedures, according to the independent Al Sumaria television.

Maliki also said he would overhaul Iraq's security strategy. "We are about to make changes in the high and middle positions of those responsible for security, and the security strategy," he said at a news conference in Baghdad on Monday.

"We will discuss this matter in the cabinet session tomorrow [Tuesday] to take decisions," he said, without providing further details.

Police officers killed

Monday's violence across Iraq came after 24 police were killed overnight, again in Anbar.
Police Lieutenant-Colonel Majid al-Jlaybawi said police and soldiers carried out a joint raid to free kidnapped police officers, but clashes ensued.

Twelve kidnapped policemen were killed and four wounded, although it was not immediately clear if they were caught in crossfire, killed by their abductors, or a combination of the two.

Mohammed Hadi, one of the wounded policemen, told AFP news agency they had been abducted on the highway between Baghdad and Jordan on Saturday.

In Haditha, a town in Anbar, armed men attacked a police station, killing eight police, among them two officers, officials said.
And assailants killed four police and wounded three in an attack on another police station in the town of Rawa, also in Anbar.

A shop owner was killed in Mosul on Sunday.

Emergency session called

Against this backdrop, Osama al-Nujaifi, Iraq's Sunni parliamentary speaker, has called an emergency session on Tuesday to discuss the worsening security situation.

Al-Nujaifi, who asked security chiefs on Saturday to attend the session, has also demanded "a clear position from the international community on what is taking place in Iraq".

His decision drew criticism from Maliki, who urged politicians to stay away from the parliamentary session.

PHOTO CAPTION

A wrecked truck is removed from the site of a car bomb attack in front of a crowded popular restaurant in Basra, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 20, 2013.

Al-Jazeera