Shi'ites attacked as Iraq campaign begins

BAGHDAD - A bomb near a Shi'ite shrine and an outspoken attack on Iran by an Iraqi minister fuelled fears of sectarian strife as campaigning began on Wednesday for Iraq's first free election since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

The Pentagon acknowledged guerrillas were getting better at disrupting its forces despite reinforcements being sent to guard an election that is likely to hand power to the long-oppressed Shi'ite majority at the expense of Saddam's fellow Sunnis.

Eight people were killed in the Muslim holy city of Kerbala and a senior Shi'ite cleric was among 32 wounded. His aides said the target was Sheikh Abdul Mehdi al-Karbalai, a close ally of Iraq's top cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Previous attacks in Kerbala, including by Sunni al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, have seemed designed to trigger civil conflict. Shi'ite leaders regularly warn against retaliation.

In Sunni Samarra, where US troops launched a major assault in October to crush revolt, insurgents overran a police station and seized weapons -- the latest sign an enemy the Pentagon called "very, very sophisticated" remains a serious threat.

Numerous other bombings and ambushes saw another daily round of blood-letting across Sunni northern and western Iraq.

In an apparent start to electioneering by US-backed Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, his defence minister said Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", would be the first leader of the old government to be tried -- before the poll.

Hazim al-Shaalan, like Allawi a strictly secular Shi'ite and a close ally of the prime minister, also brandished the spectre of Iran's Shi'ite clerics interfering in their Arab neighbour, accusing them of backing guerrillas set on wrecking the January 30 vote and branding the leading Shi'ite-led bloc agents of Iran.

US President George W Bush said: "We will continue to make it clear to both Syria and Iran that...meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq is not in their interests."

A US general acknowledged that the insurgents' use of roadside bombs and ambushes was increasingly disrupting US supplies, 20 months after Saddam was overthrown. American soldiers are being forced to rely more on air than road transport. Civilian fuel is running short, angering Iraqis.

"They have had a growing understanding that where they can affect us is in the logistics flow," said Central Command deputy head Lieutenant General Lance Smith. "They have gotten more effective in using IEDs (improvised explosive devices)."

In keeping with US efforts to hand more duties to Iraqi forces -- US troop numbers have already risen 7 per cent to 148,000 for the election -- Shaalan's Defence Ministry issued a call to former soldiers in Saddam's Transport Corps to join up.

Washington dissolved Saddam's 375,000-strong army just after last year's war, a move criticised by today's Iraqi leaders.

"In the next few days we will have the trial of Ali Hassan al-Majid, one of the close followers of Saddam Hussein," Shaalan said. The trial would take place in mid-January at the latest.

The Special Tribunal trying Saddam and his lieutenants said "investigative hearings" would start soon but named none of the defendants. Saddam himself is not expected to be tried soon.

Majid, a cousin of Saddam who is accused of some of the worst crimes of the old regime, including the gassing of up to 5,000 Kurds in northern Iraq in the late 1980s, was the only one of Saddam's deputies so far set for trial, Shaalan said.

Other officials see electioneering in Allawi's announcement of trials. Majid may appear at little more than a pre-trial hearing, diplomats in the US-led coalition in Iraq said.

Shaalan, once a senior intelligence officer under Saddam, said agents of the old government's secret services were conspiring with Iranian and Syrian intelligence to aid Zarqawi, who claims some of the bloodiest attacks.

"Iran runs a major terrorist ring inside Iraq," Shaalan said. "This state is the prime enemy of Iraq."

Iran, which fought an eight-year war with Saddam in the 1980s, dismissed the accusation. Syria also denies the charges.

Shaalan mocked the Iranian-born Sistani's electoral bloc as the "Iranian list" and effectively accused one of its leaders, Saddam-era dissident Hussain al-Shahristani, of being an Iranian agent: "We want democracy and they want the dictatorship of Islam," Shaalan said. Allawi has called his bloc The Iraqi List.

The Sunni minority is also wary of Shi'ite links with Iran. US leaders also do not want Iraqi Shi'ites to elect clerical rulers who would side with Washington's Iranian adversaries.

Sistani says he prefers to keep religion and politics apart.

Shaalan did not explain why Iran would support former foes among Saddam loyalists or Zarqawi's Sunni militants. Some Iraqis believe Iran and Syria prefer a weak Iraq. A signal US failure to create an Iraqi democracy might also be in their interests.

More than 230 parties and groups, gathered into 89 blocs or alliances, are set to contest the poll in six weeks' time. It will elect a national assembly to draw up a new constitution.

- REUTERS