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Iraqi president lauds armed militias

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.
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