*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting long piece summing up all the leaked memo's re the invasion of Iraq. Worth a read.

In the spring of 2002, two weeks before British Prime Minister Tony Blair journeyed to Crawford, Tex., to meet with President Bush at his ranch about the escalating confrontation with Iraq, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sounded a prescient warning.

"The rewards from your visit to Crawford will be few," Straw wrote in a March 25 memo to Blair stamped "Secret and Personal." "The risks are high, both for you and for the Government."

In public, British officials were declaring their solidarity with the Bush administration's calls for elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. But Straw's memo and seven other secret documents disclosed in recent months by British journalist Michael Smith together reveal a much different picture. Behind the scenes, British officials believed the U.S. administration was already committed to a war that they feared was ill-conceived and illegal and could lead to disaster.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8380392/

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interview with an Iraqi suicide bomber

One day soon, this somber young man plans to offer up a final prayer and then blow himself up along with as many U.S. or Iraqi soldiers as he can reach. Marwan Abu Ubeida says he has been training for months to carry out a suicide mission. He doesn't know when or where he will be ordered to climb into a bomb-laden vehicle or strap on an explosives-filled vest but says he is eager for the moment to come. While he waits, he spends much of his time rehearsing that last prayer. "First I will ask Allah to bless my mission with a high rate of casualties among the Americans," he says, speaking softly in a matter-of-fact monotone, as if dictating a shopping list. "Then I will ask him to purify my soul so I am fit to see him, and I will ask to see my mujahedin brothers who are already with him." He pauses to run the list through his mind again, then resumes: "The most important thing is that he should let me kill many Americans."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Minimum Iraqi dead this month 809

 

[Barking_Mad]

hmmm....

Iraqi insurgents set conditions for peace talks

BAGHDAD, June 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraqi former Electricity Minister Ayham al-Samaray announced Wednesday that insurgents have set conditions for opening negotiations with the government and the US troops.

"The Iraqi national resistance sets several conditions for starting talks with the US troops. First is to set a timetable for the US withdrawal from Iraq, ranging between one to three years, depending on the time needed to rebuild the Iraqi army," Samaray said in a news conference.

"The second condition is to dissolve all parties' militias. Thethird is to halt all military offensives on the Iraqi cities which targeted the civilians such as Operation Lightning and Sword," he added.

Another condition was to "cancel all decisions by the former US administrator Paul Bremer and remove all their impacts such as the dissolving of the army and information ministry," he went on.

Other conditions included releasing all detainees in the Iraqi and US prisons except for those proved guilty and annulling the sectarian quotas in the political process, said Samaray.

The United States and the rest of the world should also take workable steps to prevent the neighboring countries from intervening in Iraq's internal affairs, Samaray said, adding that the insurgents' representatives called on the United Nations and Europe for more involvement in Iraq's reconstruction.

Finally, Washington should show its willingness to hold talks with the Iraqi resistance and guarantee their safety, he added.

Samaray also announced the forming of a new Iraqi political body, named "The National Council for Unity and rebuilding Iraq", which included the resistance force.

The new council is aimed at ensuring that "all Iraqis have the right to liberate their country by all means," he said.

"The council acknowledges the legitimacy of the Iraqi resistancewhich should be distinguished from all kinds of terrorism," he added.

 

[extra dry]

Warning

This reports contain images that should only be viewed by adults.
http://snipurl.com/fu04

Well did they plant that stuff, it is hard to tell from those pictures. They could be a group of kids caught in the cross fire. But then why go to the trouble of planting weapons, taking pictures, then saying well these guys are the terroists. It is a bit strange.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq's oil-rich south calls for autonomy

BASRA, Iraq - With the Aug. 15 deadline for writing a new constitution bearing down, a cadre of powerful, mostly secular Shiite politicians is pushing for the creation of an autonomous region in the oil-rich south of Iraq, posing a direct challenge to the country's central authority. The politicians argue that the long-impoverished south has never gotten its fair share of the nation's oil money, even though the bulk of Iraqi oil reserves lie near Basra, at the head of the Persian Gulf. They also say they cannot trust anyone holding power in Baghdad because of the decades of harsh oppression under the Sunni Arab government of Saddam Hussein.

"We want to destroy the central system that connects the entire country to the capital," said Bakr al-Yasseen, a former foe of Saddam who spent years in exile in Syria. He is one of the chief organizers of the autonomy campaign, which is supported by Ahmad Chalabi, the one-time Pentagon favorite and scion of a prominent Shiite family from the south, among others. advertisement

Yasseen, who has ties to Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president and a Kurd, is demanding for the south the same broad powers that the Kurds now have, including an independent parliament, ministries and regional military force. The Kurds have long demanded a strong measure of autonomy in any future Iraqi state. But the issue of an autonomous south is new, and complicates the already heated discussions on federalism in the new constitution. The religious Shiite parties and the Sunni Arabs have generally opposed Kurdish autonomy, but the emergence of a southern drive for greater regional independence could lend important support to the Kurds' quest.

Mayor of Baghdad says city crumbling

BAGHDAD -- Baghdad's mayor decried the capital's crumbling infrastructure and its inability to supply enough clean water to residents, threatening Thursday to resign if the government won't provide more money. Mayor Alaa Mahmoud al-Timimi's statement was an indication of the daily misery that Baghdad's 6.45 million people still endure more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion. They are wracked not only by unrelenting bombings and kidnappings, but by shortages of water, electricity and fuel.

"It's useless for any official to stay in office without the means to accomplish his job," Al-Timimi told reporters. He is seeking $1.5 billion for Baghdad in 2005 but so far has received only $85 million, said his spokesman, Ameer Ali Hasson.

Efforts to expand Baghdad's water projects were set back earlier this month when insurgents sabotaged a pipeline. Hasson said that in some areas the water gets mixed with sewage. The pipeline has been repaired and water levels are expected to return to normal in the coming days, the mayor said. According to City Hall, Baghdad produces about 544 million gallons of water per day, nearly 370 million gallons short of its required amount. About 55 percent of the water reportedly is lost through leakage in the pipes. Electrical shortfalls were common during Saddam Hussein's regime and attributed to a poor distribution network, but the situation has worsened due to sabotage and poor maintenance.

Before the invasion, Baghdad residents had about 20 hours of electricity a day. Today, they get about 10, usually broken into two-hour chunks. In addition, Iraq is not able to refine enough oil, so gasoline must be imported. Fuel convoys often are attacked by insurgents and the ensuing shortage has led to a black market in Baghdad. Meanwhile, three militant groups on Thursday vowed to kill former Cabinet member Ayham al-Samarie, a Sunni politician who formed a group to bring insurgents into the political process, according to a statement on an Islamic website.

"We have been too patient with his lies," said the statement issued by the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Army of Mujahedeen. It could not be verified.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Minimum number of Iraqi deaths in June - 843

Recorded minimum deaths from previous months

Jan - 556
Feb - 853
Mar - 688
Apr - 529
May - 843

Minimum number of Iraqis deaths this year - 4,292

 

[Barking_Mad]

8,000 Iraqis dead in last 6 months - Iraqi Interior Minister

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgent attacks in the last six months have killed more than 8,000 Iraqi civilians, police and troops, according to Iraq's interior minister. Meanwhile Thursday, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad said the insurgency's reliance on car bombs is due to their "high payoffs."

In an interview with CNN, Iraqi Interior Minister Baqir Jabbur said "terrorists" had killed 8,175 people and wounded another 12,000 since January 2005. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, there have been 307 U.S. fatalities in combat during the same period. Jabbur said he was optimistic about the recent strides made by Iraqi security forces and predicted victory in the war against insurgents.

.............

Unofficial estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths during the Iraq war range from about 22,000 -- according to the Web site iraqbodycount.net -- to about 100,000 -- from an independent survey reported in The Washington Post. The Pentagon does not give numbers for civilian deaths in Iraq. Jabbur said he believed the United States has enough troops deployed in Iraq. He said Wednesday the focus needed to remain on the training of more Iraqi troops and police.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Fire at power station leaves millions in Baghdad without water

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A fire broke out today at a power station that supplies a Baghdad waterworks, shutting it down and leaving millions of residents without drinking water, officials said. The blaze came a day after Baghdad's mayor decried the capital's crumbling infrastructure and the lack of clean water and threatened to resign if the Iraqi government won't provide more money.

Today's fire began at about 7 a.m. local time and it affected the Karkh water station in Tarmiyah, which serves northern and western Baghdad, officials said. The water project's director, Jassim Mohammed, said he believed the fire started after insurgents set off a bomb. He said it would take at least three days to get spare parts and repair the damage, which has completely halted all water distribution from the plant.

A municipal official said the blaze was still under investigation.

"It's not clear if it was an explosion (caused by insurgents) or a technical problem,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

 

[oi2002]

LRB on the 'liberation' of Iraq; well its capital at least.

An Iraqi hospital administrator told me that, as he was about to sign a contract, the American army officer representing the CPA had crossed out the original price and doubled it. The Iraqi protested that the original price was enough. The American officer explained that the increase (more than $1 million) was his retirement package. Iraqis who were close to the Americans, had access to the Green Zone, or held prominent posts in the new government ministries, were also in a position to benefit enormously. Iraqi businessmen complain endlessly that they had to offer substantial bribes to Iraqi middlemen just to be allowed to bid for CPA contracts. Iraqi ministers’ relatives got top jobs and fat contracts.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Im in Edinburgh taking photos of the G8 so I wont be able to do any updates until I get back on Thursday- that's if pc plod leave me in one piece!

check out: www.icasualties.org for news updates if you are feeling in need of some news!

 

[Barking_Mad]

11 SOUTHERN IRAQI OIL FIELDS TO GO UP FOR TENDER

Baghdad, 8 July (AKI) - Eleven oil fields in southern Iraq, capable of boosting the country's production to three million barrels a day will soon be tendered to international investors, the Iraqi oil ministry announced Friday. "The ministry needs legislation which will allow it to fix international work criteria with companies that are involved in petroleum investments," said the ministry's spokesman, Asim Jihad.

"Iraq needs capital investments to develop its petroleum industry, he said, adding that the government had estimated that some 25 billion dollars in investments were required to boost oil production to 5-6 million barrels a day. Jihad also said that the government has no intention to privatise the oil sector, but would remain under state control.

"We will seek foreign investments, that will allow us to develop our industry but without paving the way for foreign monopolies to take over," he said.

Iraq currently produces 2.2 million barrels a day - with only 1.5 million of these for export - a situation determined by the suspension of operations in the country's southern areas after sabotage attacks.

 

[oi2002]

Iran to help train Iraqi millitary.

The two ministers said that a military co-operation agreement, now in the preparation, would include Iranian help with training and upgrading Iraq's reconstituted armed forces, a process so far overseen by US and coalition advisers.

Now ain't that just so neighbourly.

 

[laptop]

Suicide Attacks Kill at Least 48 in Iraq

By FRANK GRIFFITHS, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, July 10, 2005
(07-10) 15:55 PDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --

A man strapped with explosives blew himself up Sunday at an Iraqi military recruiting center in Baghdad, one of a series of suicide attacks that killed at least 48 people and ended a relative lull in violence in recent days.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari criticized U.S. and multinational forces for shooting at Iraqi civilians who act suspiciously near patrols or military areas, but a spokesman for the U.S. command blamed the problem on the growing use of suicide car bombs as an insurgent weapon.

... http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/07/10/international/i155557D06.DTL

Worse than your average day in Iraq, but not much...

 

[Pickman's model]

Nine building workers have died in Iraq after being arrested on suspicion of insurgent activity and then left in a closed metal container.
Three men survived the ordeal, police sources said, despite being left for 14 hours in the burning Iraqi summer heat.

They had apparently been caught up in a firefight between US troops and Iraqi gunmen, and were detained after taking an injured colleague to hospital.

Police commandos face numerous claims that they abuse and torture detainees.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4672433.stm

 

[Barking_Mad]

Tortured bodies of 11 Sunni Arabs found in Baghdad

Meanwhile, a Sunni Muslim religious official said the tortured bodies of 11 Sunni Arabs, who had been killed execution-style with a bullet to the head, were found in Baghdad Tuesday after having been arrested by police commandos two days earlier. The latest twist in growing tensions between Sunnis and the majority Shiite community comes as the top US general announced that a key aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leading Al-Qaeda operative in Iraq and a fanatic anti-Shiite, has been captured by US forces.

The Sunnis, including an imam prayer leader, were arrested in a police commando raid at their homes in northern Baghdad early Sunday, said the official of the Waqf religious organisation who did not want to be identified. Their bodies were found dumped in the north of the city on Tuesday, he added and "all bore torture marks and bullet wounds to the back of the head."

Hussein Ali Kamal, deputy minister for intelligence at the interior ministry, told AFP it was not known who was responsible for the killings.

"The minister has issued orders that nobody be arrested without a warrant," he said.

"Every day we find innocent people killed and their bodies dumped in the streets. We don't know who's responsible. The minister has ordered that a special committee be set up to look into this very explosive issue.

"There are people who dress up in police or commandos uniforms to carry out, even at night, horrible attacks which are then blamed on police," he said. The head of the Waqf, Adnan al-Dulaimi, called Wednesday for an official investigation into the case and asked that its results be made public.

"This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened," Dulaimi said in a statement. "We want to know who is responsible for such horrible crimes."

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Baghdad suicide bomb kills 27, mostly children aged 6 - 15.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/07/13/iraq.main/

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting article on Fallujah, isit returning to how it was before the US flattened it?

8 Months After U.S.-Led Siege, Insurgents Rise Again in Falluja

FALLUJA, Iraq, July 12 - Transformed into a police state after last winter's siege, this should be the safest city in all of Iraq.

Thousands of American and Iraqi troops live in crumbling buildings here and patrol streets laced with concertina wire. Any Iraqi entering the city must show a badge and undergo a search at one of six checkpoints. There is a 10 p.m. curfew. Iraqi troops patrolled Falluja on Sunday. Despite their efforts, a 10 p.m. curfew and other security measures, the insurgents have been rebounding.


But the insurgency is rising from the rubble nevertheless, eight months after the American military killed as many as 1,500 Iraqis in a costly invasion that fanned anti-American passions across Iraq and the Arab world.

Somewhere in the bowels of Falluja, the former guerrilla stronghold 35 miles west of Baghdad, where four American contractors were killed in an ambush, and the bodies of two were hanged from a bridge, in March 2004, insurgents are building suicide car bombs again.

At least four have exploded in recent weeks, one of them killing six American troops, including four women. Two of five police forts being erected have been firebombed. Three members of the nascent, 21-seat city council have suddenly quit and another member has stopped attending meetings, presumably because they have been threatened.

Just as disturbing, even Falluja residents who favored purging the streets of insurgents last November are beginning to chafe under the occupation.

"Some preferred the city quiet, purified of the gunmen and any militant aspect," said Abdul Jabbar Kadhim al-Alwani, 40, the owner of an automotive repair shop, expressing a widely held sentiment. "But after the unfairness and injustice with which the city's residents have been treated by the American and Iraqi forces, they now prefer the resistance, just so they won't be humiliated."

 

[ska invita]

welcome back BM.

 

[ska invita]

Police Torture, Killings http://www.politinfo.com/articles/article_2005_07_13_1514.html

Iraq's Interior Ministry has launched a probe into the deaths of 11 men allegedly tortured and killed by government security forces.

The men were among a group of 13 people arrested Sunday by police commandos during a raid in northern Baghdad.

The head of a Sunni group - called Waqf - Adnan al-Dulaimi, says 11 bodies were found dumped on a road in the Iraqi capital. He says the bodies, including one of a Sunni cleric, showed signs of torture.

Some Sunni leaders have accused the Shi'ite-led government of targeting their community.

Iraqi officials also are probing reports that 10 people died of suffocation after being detained in a police van this week.

 

[Barking_Mad]

3 UK soldiers killed in Iraq

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4688521.stm

At least 28 people died and more than 100 were wounded, including seven US soldiers, as 12 suicide bombers blew themselves up in separate attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq, Iraqi and US forces said.

http://www.bakutoday.net/afps/english/shared/int/050716015033.zrckpxtq.html

 

[jeff_leigh]

Barking i can't find any reference on the BBC link regarding 7 US Soldiers killed only mentions the 3 Brit soldiers the other link doesn't work for me, tried Yahoo news nothing there either and no mention at http://www.icasualties.org/oif/

 

[Barking_Mad]

update...

KERBALA, Iraq - The death toll from a suicide fuel truck blast south of Baghdad reached 98 with other wounded people in serious condition, a senior hospital official in the nearby provincial capital Hilla told Reuters.

The blast was the deadliest attack in Iraq since the government took power in April. The hospital official, who asked not to be named, said he had collected information from several hospitals in the area.[/quote]

 

[Barking_Mad]

Interesting shockwave graphic of the timeline of non-iraqi deaths in Iraq.

http://www.obleek.com/iraq/index.html

 

[Barking_Mad]

IS fighters launch attacks in western hospitals

BAGHDAD, July 18 (KUNA) -- US fighter jets launched on Monday air attacks on locations suspected of being hideouts of insurgents in Rawa village, western Iraq.

Both Iraqi and US forces took part in the un-named mission, launched early on Monday.

Eyewitnesses said the US military launched a wide-scale operation in a number of locations in Rawa village, in Al-Anbar constituency.

Rawa locals evacuated the village during the attacks where US tanks were seen roaming the area and stationed at the city's hospital during armed clashes, medical sources said.

The US forces did not confront any sort of resistance, but unknown gunmen planted roadside bombs and fired mortar rounds, eyewitnesses said. No human casualty was reported, they added.

An official of the Multi-National Forces (MNF) declined to clarify the reason behind the Rawa attacks, adding that the mission remains un-named.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq has massive oil supplies in West of country

BAGHDAD, July 18 (KUNA) -- Iraq has massive oil reserves in western governorates that were hidden by the former regime for sectarian reasons, said Monday MP Sheikh Jalal Al-Din Al-Saghir.

In a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Al-Saghir explained that he has extensive proofs that substantial natural resources, including western oil fields, were hidden by the former Iraqi regime.

The wells, he added, were hidden after being dug by the former regime to support its false claims that western areas are poor due to lack of natural resources.

Currently, Iraq relies on oil wells in its south and north for 95 percent of its oil products needs.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Al-Sunnah statement

The Supports of the Sunni People [Ahel al-Sunnah al-Munasera] in Iraq, recently issued a statement to the Internet announcing their group’s establishment to “defend our people in the middle and south Iraq” against alleged Shi’ite aggression and “systematic genocide” of the Sunni people. The group posits that they have heeded the call to action from women, children, and the elderly who have been “dishonored… and humiliated,” and intend to make the Shi’a the targets of their operations. The announcement concludes with a warning to the Shi’ites: “lift your hand off our people, stop your aggression, release our people from your jails or wait for destruction and punishment from Allah or by our hands.”

 

[Barking_Mad]

11 Killed in violence across Iraq

BAGHDAD : Eleven people, including five policemen, three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians, were killed in a series of attacks across Iraq, police said.

Two police officers were gunned down in separate incidents in the northern Iraqi cities of Samarra and Mosul, while three policemen died in a shoot-out in Baghdad.

Three soldiers were killed fighting insurgents in the Iraqi capital.

Two civilians died when insurgents attacked an Iraqi army base near the northern oil refinery town of Baiji, while a Turkish trucker, was also gunned down by unidentified gunmen near Baiji.

In another violence, two suicide bombers blew themselves up separately while attacking US military convoys north of Baghdad, wounding five civillians, while seven other Iraqis were wounded in other incidents across Iraq.

Police said three suspected insurgents were also killed in gunfights with security forces north of Baghdad, while a businessman was kidnapped at gunpoint.

Iraq continues to reel under a blitz of suicide attacks since Friday in which dozens have perished and scores more wounded.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Baghdad hospital doctors on strike against soldiers

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - More than two dozen doctors walked out of one of Baghdad's busiest hospitals on Tuesday to protest what they said was abuse by Iraqi soldiers, leaving about 100 patients to fend for themselves in chaotic wards.

Physicians said the troubles started when soldiers barged into a woman's wing at Yarmouk hospital, opened curtains and conducted searches as patients lay in their beds on Monday.

A 27-year-old internal medicine specialist said a soldier began intimidating and abusing him.

"Before he left he said, 'Why are you looking in disapproval?' Then he came and punched me lightly on my arm before sticking his rifle into my stomach and loading it," the doctor, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, told Reuters.

"I stayed quiet but relatives of the patients told him to calm down before pulling him out of the room. Just then, four more soldiers came in and pointed a rifle at my head. At that point I became scared and begged them to leave me alone."

Ministry of Defense officials were not available for comment on the incident despite repeated requests.

Iraq's mayhem has spread even to hospitals, which are overwhelmed by victims of suicide bombings and shootings whose blood is mopped up off the floor after every attack.

The new Shi'ite-led government has promised Iraqis that security forces will be built up to protect them from guerrillas, who have killed thousands of people with suicide and car bombings.

Iraqis had hoped that January elections would deliver a new era of democracy, free of the abuses committed by Saddam Hussein's security forces. But some say the country's new security forces are too aggressive, randomly rounding up suspects and abusing them during detentions. The government says security forces are under strict orders to respect human rights.

About 30 doctors staged the strike, leaving around 100 bewildered patients behind, including a young boy of about 10.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Iraq's top shia cleric warns of 'genocidal war'

The slaughter of hundreds of civilians by suicide bombers shows that a "genocidal war" is threatening Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most influential Shia cleric, warned yesterday.

So far he has persuaded most of his followers not to respond in kind against the Sunni, from whom the bombers are drawn, despite repeated massacres of Shia. But sectarian divisions between Shia and Sunni are deepening across Iraq after the killing of 18 children in the district of New Baghdad last week and the death of 98 people caught by the explosion of a gas tanker in the market town of Musayyib. Many who died were visiting a Shia mosque.

There are also calls for the formation of militias to protect Baghdad neighbourhoods. Khudayr al-Khuzai, a Shia member of parliament, said the time had come to "bring back popular militias". He added: "The plans of the interior and the defence ministries to impose security in Iraq have failed to stop the terrorists."

Against the wishes of the Grand Ayatollah, who has counselled restraint, some Shia have started retaliatory killings of members of the former regime, most of whom but not all are Sunni. Some carrying out the attacks appear to belong to the 12,000-strong paramilitary police commandos. Mystery surrounds many killings. A former general in Saddam Hussein's army called Akram Ahmed Rasul al-Bayati and his two sons, Ali, a policeman, and Omar were arrested by police commandos 10 days ago. Omar was released and one of his uncles paid $7,000 for the release of the other two. But when he went to get them he saw them taken out of a car and shot dead.

Fear of Shia death squads, perhaps secretly controlled by the Badr Brigade, the leading Shia militia, frightens the Sunni. The patience of the Shia is wearing very thin. But their leaders want them to consolidate their strength within the government after their election victory in January.

The radical Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia twice fought US troops, has called for restraint. "The occupation itself is the problem," he said. "Iraq not being independent is the problem. And the other problems stem from that - from sectarianism to civil war. The entire American presence causes this."

The suicide bombings show increasing sophistication. The casualty figures from Musayyib were so horrific because the bomber blew himself up beside a fuel tanker which had been stolen two days earlier and pre-positioned in the centre of the town.

The slaughter of hundreds of civilians by suicide bombers shows that a "genocidal war" is threatening Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most influential Shia cleric, warned yesterday.

So far he has persuaded most of his followers not to respond in kind against the Sunni, from whom the bombers are drawn, despite repeated massacres of Shia. But sectarian divisions between Shia and Sunni are deepening across Iraq after the killing of 18 children in the district of New Baghdad last week and the death of 98 people caught by the explosion of a gas tanker in the market town of Musayyib. Many who died were visiting a Shia mosque.

There are also calls for the formation of militias to protect Baghdad neighbourhoods. Khudayr al-Khuzai, a Shia member of parliament, said the time had come to "bring back popular militias". He added: "The plans of the interior and the defence ministries to impose security in Iraq have failed to stop the terrorists."