Iraq's president openly praised Shiite and Kurdish militias yesterday in a statement that could further antagonize Sunni Arabs at a time when there are growing fears of sectarian strife.
Clashes in Baghdad and other attacks around Iraq killed at least eight people as the Sunni-dominated insurgency pressed on with its campaign against the Shiite-led government.
The bloody wave of violence that broke out after the April 28 announcement of Iraq's new Shiite and Kurdish dominated government has killed more than 874 people. More than 10 Sunni and Shiite clerics have been killed in apparent tit-for-tat slayings.
President Jalal Talabani's backing of the Shiite Badr Brigade militia came at a time when Sunni leaders have accused it of killing members of the minority. They have only demanded that it be disarmed, but have complained that the militia provides intelligence and support for some Shiite-dominated special security units.
The Badr Brigade was the military wing of the country's largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Republic in Iraq (SCIRI). The party claims the Badr Brigade is no longer a militia but performs social and political functions.
"Badr is a patriotic group that works for Iraq's interest and it will not be dragged into sectarian or any other kind of conflict," said Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, SCIRI's leader and the former commander of the Badr Brigade.
"May those who describe the heroes of Badr and their Kurdish brothers as militia be doomed to failure," Talabani, himself a Sunni Kurd, said during a conference marking the second anniversary of the brigade's transformation from a military body to a political one.
"You and your [Kurdish] brothers are the heroes of liberating Iraq," Talabani added. "You, my brothers, march on without paying attention to the enemies' claims because you and the [Kurdish militia] are faithful sons of this country."
Sunni criticism of Talabani's remarks was swift, with Abdul-Salam al-Qubeisi, spokesman of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, saying Talabani was acting in line with "US policies to prolong the struggle in Iraq and turn it into an Iraq-Iraq conflict."
Al-Qubeisi accused the Badr Brigade of providing intelligence to units such as the feared Wolf Brigade, an elite commando unit from the Interior Ministry that is headed by a top SCIRI member.
The Badr organization's leader, Hadi al-Amiri, challenged the association's head -- Sheik Harith al-Dhari -- to prove his group involvement and said there should be an investigation.
Meanwhile, a leading think-tank said yesterday that Iraq should delay drafting of its first post-Saddam constitution to ensure that the document has the support of all the country's disparate groups,
"Iraqis face a dilemma: rush the constitutional process and meet the current deadline of August 15 ... or encourage a process that is inclusive, transparent and participatory in an effort to increase popular buy-in of the final product," the International Crisis Group said in a report.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and