Truemors
One of Iraq’s southern provincial governors was assassinated yesterday by a roadside bomb. The second such assassination in merely 9 days could be a sneak preview of what is on the horizon as rivalry within Shiite factions in Iraq heats up. Rival members of Shiite militias, including split off branches of the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, seem to be positioning themselves to make a power grab for some of Iraq's oil rich regions. This is just one more example of a sectarian strife monkey wrench being thrown into the already strife riddled Iraqi political progress, just weeks ahead of U.S. commander Gen David Petraeus' scheduled report to congress. Petraeus' report while expected to show both progress and failure, is largely viewed as a make or break moment for the Bush administrations Iraq policy. President Bush has already vetoed a congressional bill mandating troop withdraws from Iraq, and Democratic leaders like senate majority leader Harry Reid, and speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi have promised renewed efforts to mandate retreat after Petraeus' September 15 report.
Meanwhile amidst the political bickering and posturing in Washington, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner concluded the second day of his landmark, surprise fact finding mission to Iraq. His visit marks the first such visit by senior French officials since the Iraq war's onset in 2003 and also signals a warming of relations between the administration of newly elected French President Nicholas Sarkozy and the Bush Administration. Relations between the two nations had been strained since 2003 when the French President Chirac vehemently opposed the Iraq Invasion and threatened vetoes in the UN on U.S. led efforts to pass resolutions mandating the use of force. Koucher's visit comes just ahead of a regional security conference in Baghdad where leaders from neighboring nations will meet for the first time to discuss regional security and ways to bring an end to the bloodshed that has plagued Iraq in recent years. The upcoming summit was one of the key recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton commission report released in March of 2006 and is seen as a forum where productive dialogue might bring about more regional cooperation in bringing an end to the conflict.
BAGHDAD (AP) - A roadside bomb killed a governor in southern Iraq on Monday, the second provincial boss assassinated in nine days and a likely prelude to an even more brutal contest among rival Shiite militias battling for control of some of Iraq's main oil regions.Iraqi police blamed the attack on the powerful Mahdi Army, whose fighters are nominally loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr but have recently splintered as breakaway factions set their own course.
The showdowns in southern Iraq—pitting Mahdi groups against the mainstream Shiite group in parliament—could intensify as the British forces overseeing the south gradually withdraw in the coming months.
Meanwhile, a range of initiatives, both political and diplomatic, reached a near dizzying pace as the Sept. 15 deadline approached for the Bush administration to report to Congress on its Iraq policies.
During the second day of a groundbreaking fact-finding tour, the French foreign minister warned Iraqi officials against complacency in the face of violence.
And Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, sought improved relations and help in the immediate neighborhood at the start of a three-day mission to Syria. Iran said its firebrand president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would soon pay a first-ever call on the Iraqi leader in Baghdad.
An equally intense round of political meetings was held in Baghdad as al-Maliki and his Shiite and Kurdish allies have sought to entice moderate Sunnis into a new alliance formed last week to try to save the government from collapse.
Monday's roadside bomb assassination killed Gov. Mohammed Ali al- Hassani as he drove to his office in the provincial capital of Samawah, about 230 miles southeast of Baghdad. Al-Hassani, his driver and a guard were killed. His office manager and two other guards were seriously wounded, police said.
Authorities clamped a curfew on Samawah. New checkpoints were erected.
On Aug. 11, a roadside bombing killed the governor and police chief of Qadasiyah, another southern province. Gov. Khalil Jalil Hamza and Maj. Gen. Khalid Hassan were returning to the provincial capital of Diwaniyah from a funeral for a tribal sheik.
Both governors were members of a powerhouse among Shiite political organizations, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC, led by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. His loyalists, who dominate the police in the south of Iraq, have been fighting Mahdi Army militiamen for dominance in the oil-rich south—which may hold 70 percent or more of Iraq's oil reserves, according to various estimates.
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