A Shi'ite man cuts his head with a sword during the Arbain mourning rite in the Iraqi holy city of Kerbala, 68 miles southwest of BaghdadREUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz
By Ross Colvin
Mon Mar 20, 2006
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A major Shi'ite religious ritual unfolded amid heavy security in the sacred city of Kerbala on Monday as the specter of a sectarian civil war stalked Iraq on the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.
Nearly 10,000 troops and police guarded hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims gathered for Arbain, an annual mourning ritual banned under Saddam Hussein and which Sunni Arab suicide bombers have targeted in the past.
The fear of fresh communal bloodshed and the failure of Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders to form a national unity government that could avert civil war underlined Iraq's instability three years after Saddam's overthrow.
Despite calls from Washington for urgency in agreeing a cabinet, senior leaders will not now meet for the rest of the week due to public holidays and travel, officials said.
Instead of celebrating the success of their Iraq venture, Washington and its allies have been on the defensive, insisting that Operation Iraqi Freedom launched three years ago to the day will end in victory, although when is less certain than ever.
"Transiting from tyranny to democracy is never smooth or easy," said Australian Prime Minister John Howard, one of America's main allies in the war.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said: "We have suffered during the past year ... The road ahead will be tough."
But in the article in the Washington Post, he added: "The world should not falter at such a crucial stage in history."
Iraq's leaders are still deadlocked over who will lead the first full-term postwar government three months after democratic polls that were meant to be fulfill a main goal of the invasion.
A Sunni Arab insurgency against the U.S.-sponsored interim government also threatens to expand into a bloody sectarian conflict between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis.
Hundreds of people have been killed -- many of them tortured, shot and their bodies dumped in the streets of Baghdad -- since the bombing of a major Shi'ite mosque on February 22.
SECTARIAN KILLINGS
Iraqi police reported 12 new bodies on Monday. A roadside bomb in the capital also killed three policemen and the three prisoners they were escorting, they said.
"The security situation in Iraq is serious ... and more people sadly have lost their lives than we predicted three years ago," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged.
Iraqis interviewed by Reuters spoke gloomily of the future and questioned whether a unity government would be able to arrest the growing rift between Shi'ites and Sunnis that has already forced people to flee religiously mixed neighborhoods.
"We expected positive things after 35 years of dictatorship, but things moved in the opposite direction. Killings and destruction have prevailed," said Basra merchant Jassim Hamoud as he joined hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in Kerbala.
Worried that the political impasse is creating a dangerous power vacuum, foreign leaders have urged Iraqi leaders to move speedily to form a national unity government.
U.S. President George W. Bush on Sunday called on Iraqi leaders to get the government "up and running," but said he was encouraged by progress in Iraq since the invasion.
He ignored a question about earlier comments by former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who said that Iraq was already in a state of civil war. U.S. military officials have denied that.
Increasing public discontent over the Iraq war has helped push Bush's approval rating to the lowest of his presidency. More than 2,300 U.S. troops have died in the war, all but 140 since Bush declared in May 2003 that major combat was over.
Talks expected this week between neighboring Iran and the United States on stabilizing Iraq have raised hopes that the logjam in the government talks could be broken.
Iraqi political leaders have also agreed to form a national security council representing all political blocs in parliament, although its powers have not been made clear.
Political sources said the agreement reflected efforts to curb the power of the Shi'ite Islamists and provide a way out of the impasse in talks on a unity government.
The agreement creates the prospect of a powerful shadow government, in overall control of both security and the economy.
The council may also be a platform for Allawi, a secular figure popular in Washington, to take a lead in trying to stop Iraq from sliding into civil war, they added.
Fearing that attacks on the Arbain mourning ritual could spark further sectarian bloodletting, Iraqi security forces sealed off Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) south of Baghdad.
A sea of black-clad pilgrims flailing themselves and carrying traditional black and green flags filled the city, mourning the dead in a 7th-century battle that sealed a historic schism in Islam between Sunnis and Shi'ites.
Local officials say up to 2 million people were expected to attend the ceremonies that climax on Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by David Clarke in London, the Tehran bureau, Tabassum Zakaria in Washington)
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Iraqis Sound Angry on Invasion Anniversary:
Monday, March 20, 2006
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Some Baghdad residents voiced anger and dismay when asked about their lives as the U.S.-led war in Iraq entered its fourth year Monday, when insurgents and sectarian gangs killed at least 38 more people.
Salah Hashim, a 49-year-old businessman, said he yearned for the return of Saddam Hussein, the country's ousted dictator, given the violence that now envelops the country.
"Despite all he did that was bad, we did not suffer as we are now," Hashim said. "Now we have lost everything, even a sense of living. The Americans promised us, especially (President) George Bush, prosperity. And we thank them all because we got it — but we got a prosperity of car bombs, kidnappings and killings."
At least 992 people have been killed in a surge of sectarian killings since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, according to an Associated Press count.
"Now I have to spend time worrying about my safety while walking in the streets," said Hashim. "I have to worry about my children when they leave home for school. Instead of being comfortable and enjoying time with my family, I worry that I can't ensure their good life."
Ahmen Najeeb, a 33-year-old supermarket owner, said he originally "waved his hands" at American forces as they entered the country in March 2003, but that his outlook has since changed.
"Day after day the Americans proved that they are here to steal our oil and protect their homes by keeping the their war against terror in another country," he said.
One English teacher, though, said that Iraqis had tolerated Saddam's tyranny for so long that it was worth fighting through the violence to rebuild the country.
"What we are now living in is not an American failure nor that of the Iraqi government," said Assmaa Ali, 38. "The problem is in the Iraqi people ... we started fighting each other using statements and words. Now we are fighting each other with guns.
Ali said the only ones to blame were the insurgents and sectarian fighters who cause the problems. "They are the main reason behind the loss of life and destruction. We should help both the government and coalition forces in fighting these troublemaker instead of blaming them."
One man who said three of his daughters were killed by a bombing last year sounded despondent.
"I got nothing from this so-called liberation, just this cell phone and my satellite receiver. But I lost my three daughters," said Nawar Maarof, a 34-year-old taxi driver who said he had dreamed of becoming an accountant. "I have a feeling that my destiny is the same. Anyway, we're all dead."
Salam Nassir, a 25-year-old college student, also longed for Saddam.
"We deserve all this because we didn't fight the Americans," he said. "We had to know from the start they would not help us and were lying about liberating Iraq."
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