Iraq invasion anniversary marked by further deaths

An Iraqi boy plays with his sister in a junkyard of old and destroyed military vehicles in the city of Baqubah, northeast of Baghdad, yesterday. Iraq marked the third anniversary of the US-led invasion deadlocked over its next national government, plagued by lawlessness and faced with the threat of civil war. PHOTO: AFP

Iraq yesterday marked the third anniversary of the US-led invasion amid deadlock over the formation of a national government, rampant lawlessness and increasing threats of all-out civil war.

As the conflict entered its fourth year, four guards tasked with protecting infrastructure were killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad and nine corpses were discovered in and around the capital in what has become a daily ritual in the last three weeks.

US and Iraqi forces have mobilized to avert a possible Sunni extremist attack that could spark a new round of violence as hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims descended on the city of Kerbala for a major ceremony coinciding with the anniversary.

Shiite pilgrims walking south to Kerbala have been repeatedly shot at over the past week, with almost a dozen killed and scores wounded, including five injured yesterday.

Rampant sectarian violence between majority Shiites and the historically-dominant Sunni Arabs flared after the Feb. 22 bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra, leaving hundreds of people dead.

On March 12, a wave of car bombs exploding in Baghdad's impoverished Shiite suburb of Sadr City sparked new waves of revenge killings against Sunnis.

In three years, the Iraq war has metamorphosed from a battle between Sunni insurgents and US troops, to internecine struggle among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Foreign fighters like al-Qaeda militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have also fanned the flames with spectacular attacks meant to trigger a civil war.

At least 33,000 Iraqis have died in the violence since US-led forces started bombing Baghdad on March 20, 2003, according to the Internet site "Iraq Body Count" which tracks Iraqi casualties.

US President George W. Bush in December put the toll at around 30,000, while the British Lancet medical journal suggested the figure had already reached 100,000 in late 2004.

Some prominent Iraqis believe the country has already slipped into a low-intensity civil war.

"We are losing each day an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," former premier Iyad Allawi told the BBC on Sunday. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, who himself warned Iraq faced such a danger after the Samarra bombing last month, played down the threat.

"The Iraqi people cannot accept a civil war. We are passing through a difficult period right now, but the attachment of Iraqis to their country will prevent such a war," he told reporters.

As violence continued, political parties remained bogged down in talks three months after national elections, with disputes over the choice of prime minister and the allotment of ministries.

Political parties have suspended negotiations on a new government for one week following agreement on the creation of a new security council, a Kurdish negotiator said yesterday.

Ordinary Iraqis, even if they do not view the conflict as civil war, bemoan the ethnic and religious splits that have come to the fore since Saddam's fall.

"The only thing we got from the invasion was the division of Iraq into Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds," said Riad Hamid, a Shiite working at a Baghdad bakery.

US promises to rebuild Iraq have noticeably stalled, with much of a US$18.4 billion reconstruction package having to be diverted to security for contractors and project sites.

Insurgent attacks have contributed to electricity generation's slide to a three-year low of 3,750 megawatts last month. Parts of Baghdad enjoy only three to five hours of power a day.

Sabotage has virtually shut down oil exports from northern Iraq to Turkey and left production hovering around two million barrels per day, well below pre-war levels of 2.5 million barrels per day.