Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has said he rejects the Iraqi Constitution backed by his partners in the biggest parliament bloc, raising the possibility of a crisis over one of the country's most explosive issues.
"I reject this Constitution which calls for sectarianism and there is nothing good in this constitution at all," he told al-Jazeera television late on Saturday.
Al-Sadr criticized federalism in the Constitution, which is rejected by Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who fear that it will give both Kurds and Shiites too much power and control over the country's valuable oil resources.
"If there is a democratic government in Iraq, nobody has the right to call for the establishment of federalism anywhere in Iraq whether it is the south, north, middle or any other part of Iraq," he said.
Al-Sadr also called for an investigation into images released last week showing British soldiers beating local youths during a deadly January 2004 riot in the southern city of Basra.
Al-Sadr vast influence in Iraq's mainly Shiite south. He tirelessly calls for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq, where his loyal militiamen staged two revolts in 2004 against US and other forces across much of central and southern Iraq as well as Baghdad.
In the al-Jazeera interview, al-Sadr called for the closure of detention facilities where he said "terrorism" was being practiced against Iraqis. He named the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad as well as other jails in Basra and Mosul.
Meanwhile, gunmen ambushed a convoy of trucks carrying construction materials to US military north of Baghdad yesterday, killing four Iraqi drivers, police said.
The ambush occurred near Nibaie, about 60km north of the capital, a police spokesman said.
Elsewhere, police Brigadier General Hatim Khalaf and his driver were killed yesterday when a roadside bomb exploded about 35km southwest of Kirkuk, police said. Khalaf was the chief of the operations center for the police in Kirkuk, headquarters of Iraq's northern oil-producing center.
Two policemen were injured in a roadside bombing yesterday in Fallujah, 65km west of Baghdad. The city has seen several deadly attacks in the past two weeks even though it is now one of the most tightly controlled cities in Iraq after it fell to a US assault in November 2004.
Also yesterday, police found the bodies of three men in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City. They appeared to be the latest victims of sectarian tit-for-tat killings, which have sharpened religious tensions as Iraqi politicians attempt to form a national unity government following the December parliamentary elections.
More than 1,000 students at Diyala University marched through the streets of Baquba to the governor's office yesterday to protest the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed which first appeared in Denmark and against the recent video showing British forces beating Iraqi youths during a January 2004 protest in Amarah.
Signs read "We sacrifice our souls and blood for Islam" and other religious slogans.
On Saturday, more than 20 people were killed in insurgency-related violence, most of it in the Baghdad area. The dead included a US soldier killed in a roadside bombing in eastern Baghdad.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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