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Syria offers Iraq support amid new violence

19 Nov 2006 21:48:52 GMT
Source: Reuters

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Policemen carry Iraqi flags as soldiers guard the funeral for Ali al-Adhadh, a leading member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and his wife in Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, November 19, 2006. Gunmen shot dead a leading member of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite political party and his wife as they were driving through western Baghdad on Saturday, police and a party official said.
REUTERS/ALI ABU SHISH

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(Adds death of U.S. soldier)

By Mussab Al-Khairalla

BAGHDAD, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Syria's foreign minister offered Iraq's government support against militants in a ground-breaking visit to Baghdad on Sunday, as a suicide bombing and the kidnap of a top official added heat to sectarian frictions.

A junior minister from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's party was seized from his home by men in uniform, one of the most senior figures to fall victim to Baghdad's kidnapping frenzy. It was one of several attacks this week by camouflage-clad gunmen that cast doubts on the loyalties of Iraqi security forces.

A leading politician from the dominant Shi'ite bloc was assassinated on Saturday and a suicide bomber killed 22 poor Shi'ite labourers in an attack that a Sunni Islamist group said was revenge for a mass kidnap by suspected Shi'ite militiamen.

Talk is growing in Washington that President George W. Bush may approach its regional adversaries Syria and Iran to help in efforts to quell an incipient civil war that has left 140,000 U.S. troops with little immediate prospect of going home.

But on the first trip by a Syrian minister since Saddam Hussein was overthrown -- and a rare visit by any senior Sunni Arab official to U.S.-occupied Iraq -- Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem stressed he was not coming to please foreign powers and repeated Damascus's position that American forces should go.

"I'm not coming to Iraq to satisfy some other person," he told a news briefing with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshiyar Zebari.

Saying Syria condemned "terrorism", he added: "We support the elected government and national reconciliation ... We support the unity of Iraq and think that a timetable for pulling out U.S. occupation forces from Iraq will reduce violence."

Zebari, whose government endorses U.S. complaints that Syria and Iran aid Iraqi militants, has said Moualem's visit will be an acid test of neighbouring Sunni Arab states' will to help an Iraq now dominated by Shi'ite Muslims and backed by Washington.

"Iraq's security and stability is an issue for Syria and the neighbouring countries," Zebari said. "It's important they support our government and fight terrorism."

Iraq's government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said officials would press Moualem to prevent Sunni al Qaeda fighters crossing its border, to cut off funding for Saddam's diehard Baathist followers and stop giving safe haven to his former aides.

Iran, for its part, denies funding and equipping fellow Shi'ite militants. An official source said President Jalal Talabani was expected to lead a delegation to Tehran shortly.

SYRIA, IRAN ROLE?

Bush has played down suggestions, most prominently put by his ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair, that Syria and Iran should play a role in Iraq. But the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker, may be preparing to make similar proposals in a report that Bush is expected to examine closely in his quest for a new approach.

Henry Kissinger, secretary of state during the Vietnam War and still said to be consulted by Bush, said outright victory in Iraq was impossible and called for an international conference.

"If you mean by clear military victory, an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets civil war ... and sectarian violence under control, I don't believe that is possible," he told the BBC.

The past week has seen sectarian tensions surface inside Maliki's national unity government, which has yet to make much headway on key issues six months after taking office on May 20.

The Shi'ite-led Interior Ministry has rejected assertions by the Sunni-run Higher Education Ministry that more than 60 people are still missing and some were tortured and killed after being snatched by men in police uniform at their office last week.

Few Iraqis put much faith in their U.S.-trained security forces, which Washington hopes can stand up to the militants but which U.S. commanders concede are heavily infiltrated by them.

On Sunday, Shi'ite Deputy Health Minister Ammar al-Saffar was taken from his home by gunmen in uniform who were led by three men in suits, a neighbour said. An Interior Ministry official said the gunmen arrived in six vehicles after sunset.

Another 49 bodies were found in Baghdad on Sunday, police said, most apparent victims of kidnappers and death squads.

Protesters in a Baghdad stronghold of Saddam's once dominant Sunni minority demanded the government withdraw an arrest warrant issued last week for top Sunni cleric Harith al-Dari.

Exiled in Jordan, he told Reuters: "The government wanted to instigate a crisis to silence me after we exposed the mass murders and sectarian killings by militias of Shi'ite parties."

A suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded 49 in Hilla, a Shi'ite town south of Baghdad, after luring poor day labourers with the promise of work and then blowing up his minibus.

"Everybody ran towards him and then he detonated his vehicle," labourer Ali Mohammed said from his hospital bed.

Police said they had made three arrests in the case.

The U.S. military announced the death of a soldier from the 89th Military Police Brigade who was wounded by a roadside bomb in southeastern Baghdad on Saturday evening.

(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Alastair Macdonald, Claudia Parsons and Ross Colvin in Baghdad, Inal Ersan in Dubai and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman)

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Last updated:Sun Nov 19 21:50:31 2006