Iraq - New Power Bloc without Sunnis

BAGHDAD August 17, 2007 -- Iraq's political leaders emerged yesterday from three days of crisis talks with a new alliance that seeks to save the crumbling US-backed government. But the reshaped power bloc included no Sunnis and immediately raised questions about its legitimacy as a unifying force. The political gambit came as teams in northern Iraq tallied the grim figures from the deadliest wave of suicide attacks of the war and -- in a rare moment of joy since Tuesday's devastation -- pulled four children alive from the rubble. "We didn't hear them calling out for help until moments before a bulldozer would have killed them as it cleared the rubble," said Saad Muhanad, a municipal council member in the Qahtaniya region, where four bomb-laden trucks turned clay and stone homes into tombs for hundreds belonging to a small religious group considered as infidels by hard-line Muslims. Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said yesterday that at least 400 were dead, apparently all members of the ancient Yazidi sect that mixes elements of Islam, Christianity, and other faiths. Some authorities outside the central government had said at least 500 people died and have not revised that figure downward. The four young survivors were related, Muhanad said, but he did not know if they were siblings. No other details about the children were known. The freed youngsters began running through the streets begging for food and water. "In a while, some of their families came and took them away," said Muhanad.

The mayor of the region pleaded for help, saying an even larger tragedy loomed if the shattered communities did not get food, water, and medicine soon. "People are in shock. Hospitals here are running out of medicine. The pharmacies are empty. We need food, medicine, and water otherwise there will be an even greater catastrophe," said Abdul-Rahim al-Shimari, mayor of the Baaj district, which includes the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi villages hit by the suicide blasts blamed on Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The region is in northwest Iraq, near the Syrian border, suggesting that the extremist group could be pushing into new areas in northern Iraq after being driven from strongholds by US-led offensives. Qassim Khalaf, a 40-year-old government worker, was crying while he spoke by telephone from Qahtaniya. "We call upon the United Nations to protect the Yazidis because the Iraqi government is in hibernation. Right now, I can see some bodies still partially buried under the rubble. Hundreds of local volunteers are still working in the rescue operations," he sobbed. "Eighty percent of the village was destroyed or damaged." Barham Saleh, a Kurd and deputy prime minister, toured the area and ordered the Health and Defense ministries to immediately send tents, medicine and other aid. He also allocated $800,000 to provincial officials to distribute to the victims and relatives. The UN Security Council condemned the bombings "in the strongest terms," saying they were aimed at widening the sectarian and ethnic divide in Iraq. Council members called for an end to sectarian violence.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

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