Thousands of Shi'ites march in Baghdad

Iraqi Shi'ite men shout slogans during a gathering in Baghdad. Picture / Reuters

BAGHDAD - Thousands of Shi'ite civilians charged with guarding neighbourhoods in Iraq marched through Baghdad to demand an end to the sectarian violence that is ravaging the country.

Young men in uniforms and headbands, members of what are known as the popular committees, chanted as a speaker urged them to protect the neighbourhoods from the Saddam Hussein loyalists leading a Sunni insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government.

"Stamp on terrorism," he said.

The crowd included members of the Badr Organisation, one of the armed Shi'ite groups that Sunni Arabs accuse of running militia death squads, a charge they deny.

"We have to benefit from this wide popular base, and the state and Iraqi people should form these popular regional committees from the best of our young men to face terrorism," Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite leaders, told the crowd.

"They will defend people of districts; Sunnis, Shi'ites, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. They do not differentiate between anybody. They will provide support for the official security apparatus."

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose reconciliation plan has failed to reduce sectarian bloodshed, has promised to disband the militias many fear will push the country into civil war.

"The first enemy is the Baathist Saddam loyalists and their henchmen, the Islamic extremists," Hakim said.

Officially, the event was held to mark the third anniversary of the death of Hakim's brother, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, in a bombing in the southern city of Najaf.

But the speeches also covered some of the most explosive issues in Iraq, such as federalism, which is opposed by Sunnis who fear it will leave them deprived of oil in resource-poor central Iraq.

Roadside bombs

"We believe that implementation of a federal system in Iraq will achieve justice and rebuild Iraq and guarantee the unity of the Iraqi people and land," Hakim said.

Two roadside bombs killed at least 12 people and wounded 13, mostly young football players, in the western Baghdad district of Amel on Wednesday evening, a police source said. He said the bombs had been planted near a soccer field opposite a police station.

Two US servicemen were killed in action in Anbar on Wednesday, the US military said. One was a Marine, assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Armoured Division. The other was a soldier assigned to the 9th Naval Construction Regiment.

Earlier, three roadside bombs exploded in central Baghdad near a group of labourers seeking work, killing three people and wounding nine, police sources said.

In Madaen, south of Baghdad, 15 insurgents and three policeman were killed in fighting that began Monday night with a mortar and rocket attack on security forces.

Gunmen in Baquba, north of Baghdad, killed the chief of the traffic police, Ahmed Abdel Hussein, and one of his bodyguards.

Two off-duty Iraqi soldiers and a civilian were killed and four civilians wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a lorry carrying wheat in Hawija, 70 km (45 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

A policeman was killed when a roadside bomb went off near his patrol in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

The violence came a day after bombings and shootings that mostly targeted Iraqi security forces killed up to 61 people across the country, including at least 26 soldiers.

A senior coalition officer said the leaders of almost a quarter of the 24,000-strong national police were suspected of crimes and sectarian violence and should be replaced.

"There are 26 battalions. Maybe five or six have leaders who have led them in a way that was either criminal, or sectarian, or both," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters at a briefing in Baghdad.

President George W. Bush has ordered more US troops to Baghdad to quell sectarian violence that has continued during the first two months of Maliki's government of national unity.

But many question the government's will to confront death squads that could be operating from within the security forces.

"There are (security) forces in Baghdad who don't feel that they have the got the backing of their government to confront the (militias) ... It puts the soldier on the street in a pretty tricky spot," the official said.

- REUTERS