Rifts emerge in Iraq govt after 'bomb plot' foiled

BAGHDAD - Sunni and Shi'ite political leaders in Iraq clashed publicly today over US allegations a bodyguard for a top Sunni politician may have plotted an al Qaeda suicide attack on the vast Green Zone government compound.

Rifts between parties in the four-month-old unity government broke the surface as data indicated sectarian violence may have claimed a record number of victims last month and a new mass kidnap saw 26 meat factory workers seized by gunmen in Baghdad.

Police found a total of 50 bodies in the city over 24 hours.

Iraq's national security adviser said security forces were closing in on the al Qaeda leader in Iraq who took over from the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June. But the US ambassador said the main threat to Iraq was now from sectarian violence and that the government had just two more months to start containing it.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki renewed his pledge to stamp out militias, many linked to allied Shi'ite parties and blamed for violence: "We are between two realities. There is no third way. Either we have a completely sovereign state ... or we have militias running the state," he told Hurriya television.

He planned meetings to "quieten sectarian tension", he said.

US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad praised Maliki's efforts but, echoing US generals' warnings last week, said he stuck by his view expressed after the government was formed in late May that it must, in its first six months, curb the danger of civil war:

"That is a fair assessment. I stand by that," Khalilzad told CNN. "The government, in the course of the next two months, has to make progress in terms of containing sectarian violence."

As Baghdad returned to nervous normality after a 24-hour curfew imposed to contain bomb threats, a leading parliamentary supporter of Shi'ite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr accused the government of being "infiltrated by terrorists".

Bahaa al-Araji was responding to the arrest of a bodyguard to Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the Sunni Accordance Front. US officials said the man may have plotted car bombings but were at pains to stress Dulaimi was innocent and still a valued partner.

Araji demanded Maliki reshuffle his cabinet and hinted that Shi'ite leaders no longer trusted Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie, from the Sunni minority, who oversees security.

Reshuffle plan

That drew a sharp response from allies of Dulaimi: "All this talk about car bombs and so on in Adnan Dulaimi's house is fabricated," the Accordance Front's Hussein al-Falluji said.

An ally of Maliki said the premier was sticking to a plan to reshuffle his cabinet and expected to do so this month: "There is strong support for change ... from the Alliance," he said.

"The prime minister is strong but his cabinet is weak."

Among those named as possible targets for ejection from the government in a reshuffle have been supporters of Sadr. Some of his supporters say they would be better off in opposition.

Cajoled under US pressure following a December election to form a government involving Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds, Maliki faces a delicate job in adjusting the balance of his cabinet.

In the background lurks growing speculation about whether any group might make a bid to seize power in Baghdad by force.

Partial statistics released by the Health and Interior Ministries indicated the number of civilians killed in September leapt by over 40 per cent to a record high. Though not complete, the series of data is an early indicator of trends.

It showed 1,089 civilians died violently, up from 769 in August and more than the record of 1,065 in July. The United Nations estimates that more than 100 people are dying every day.

In addition to 50 bodies found around Baghdad over the day, many tortured, and most bound and shot, five corpses were pulled from the Tigris downstream at Suwayra, including that of a girl.

National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie played a video at a news conference that he said showed al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, rigging up a car bomb near Baghdad.

"I tell him 'Your days are numbered'," Rubaie said, adding that security forces were closing in. "We are very close." A man resembling Masri was seen unrolling wire inside a car.

Khalilzad said al Qaeda had diminished in importance: "The importance of the sectarian violence has increased. While the insurgency, ... the al Qaeda terrorists are weakened."

However, with President George W. Bush's Republicans under pressure in congressional elections next month, he warned against a hasty withdrawal of the 140,000 US troops.

Just west of Baghdad, in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, a car bomb killed four people in a vegetable market. In the same region, two US soldiers were shot dead on Saturday.

- REUTERS