Bomb Attacks Kill 3, Wounds 14 in Iraq

02/23/2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A car bomb killed two people and wounded 14 in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday, and a U.S. soldier was killed in a separate bomb attack north of Baghdad, officials said.

The violence came a day after Iraq’s dominant Shiite political party chose Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the head of a religious party who fought Saddam Hussein and took refuge in Iran for a decade, as its candidate for prime minister - making him the overwhelming favorite for the post.

Wednesday’s car bomb took place in western Mosul, said Essam Youssef of the city’s Jamhouri hospital, where some of the casualties were brought. It was not immediately clear what the target of the bomb was. Witnesses said no U.S. or Iraqi forces in the area where the explosion took place.

In a statement, the U.S. military said two people were killed and 14 wounded in the attack, which it blamed on insurgents who “continue to disregard the safety of their fellow citizens during their attacks.”

Also in Mosul, U.S. soldiers shot dead a civilian in a pickup truck who approached their convoy too closely as he was trying to pass it, policeman Ahmed Rashid said. Weary of car bombs, most U.S. military vehicles carry signs warning drivers to keep away.

Elsewhere, a soldier from the U.S. Task Force Liberty was killed Wednesday when assailants set off the bomb near Tuz, 105 miles north of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.

Earlier Wednesday, the military said a U.S. Marine was killed in a non-hostile vehicle accident during military operations in Anbar province west of Baghdad, the U.S. command said Wednesday.

Anbar includes the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, where U.S. forces launched a joint sweep with Iraqi troops on Sunday to crack down on insurgents in the area.

As of Tuesday, at least 1,484 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,126 died as a result of hostile action, according to the Defense Department.

Al-Jaafari’s selection on Tuesday came after former Washington ally Ahmad Chalabi dropped out of the race following three days of round-the-clock bargaining. Al-Jaafari has been seen as having close ties to Iran’s ruling clergy, though he denies any links to a government that President Bush has said is part of an “axis of evil.”

But al-Jaafari must now build a ruling coalition and win agreement from the Kurds and others on candidates for Cabinet posts and the largely ceremonial presidency before seeking the support of a majority of the National Assembly elected Jan. 30.

It may not be easy for the 58-year-old physician from the Shiite holy city of Karbala. He’ll have to meet conflicting demands from Kurds, Sunni Arabs and even Islamic hard-liners within his United Iraqi Alliance, which won about 51 percent of the seats in the assembly. A two-thirds majority is required for approval of the presidency - the first step in the process for the top positions.

“The Kurds will not ally with any nominee for the prime ministerial post unless he meets their demands,” Noshirwan Mustafa, a top Kurdish leader, told The Associated Press.

Iraq’s secular Kurds and many Sunnis worry that al-Jaafari will try to impose his Dawa Party’s brand of conservative Islam on the country, particularly because the assembly will be charged with writing a new constitution.

Al-Jaafari told the AP last week that Islam should be the official religion of Iraq “and one of the main sources for legislation, along with other sources that do not harm Muslim sensibilities.”

He skirted his party’s official position, which explicitly urges for the “Islamization” of Iraqi society and the state, including the implementation of Shariah, or Islamic law.

“Theory is different from practice,” al-Jaafari said.