Thu, Jul 21, 2005 page7

• Bomber strikes as Iraqis mourn

  CONTINUING VIOLENCE A suicide bomber targeted an army recruiting center, even as the country held a three-minute silence for previous bombing victims

  • AFP
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  A suicide bomber blew himself up outside an often-targeted army recruiting center Wednesday, killing at least eight people, as Iraqis nationwide held three minutes of silence to commemorate victims of two of the recent bombings.

  The latest round of violence came as Sunni Arab members of the panel drafting Iraq's new constitution announced they were pulling out after two of their colleagues were murdered a day earlier.

  At least 26 would-be recruits were also wounded in the 9:30am attack outside the main gate at the Muthanna recruitment center, an interior ministry official said.

  

  A police officer salutes as a young survivor of a bombing attack holds up the national flag in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad yesterday, as Iraqis observed a three-minutes silence for victims of last week's bombings in Baghdad and in the southern town of Al-Musayyib. Children from Baghdad who came to this square lost friends a week ago in an attack that left 32 children dead when a suicide bomber blew himself up as US soldiers handed out chocolates in the street.

  PHOTO: AFP

  The blast came 10 days after another suicide bomber killed at least 21 would-be recruits waiting at the same gate.

  The Muthanna base, a former airfield, has been attacked more than six times over the past months.

  Earlier Wednesday, two car bombs were reported in former president Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, with at least two wounded, the official said.

  Iraq is reeling under a blitz of bombings that have killed at least 200 and wounded hundreds more over the past week.

  Two of the deadliest recent attacks occurred in Baghdad on July 13 and in the southern town of Al-Musayyib late Saturday.

  In the Baghdad attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up as US soldiers handed out chocolates in a local neighborhood, killing 32 children, while a bomber blew up a propane gas tanker in Al-Musayyib, killing 83 and wounding 151.

  The nation came to a standstill for three minutes at noon yesterday to commemorate the victims of these two killings.

  The terrorists "feel that by killing our children we will bow down," said Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, speaking to parliament in a televised broadcast, flanked by his Cabinet ministers. "But the people of Iraq have faced a dictatorial regime for three decades and they will not bow down."

  Police brought traffic to a halt across the country, and people stood next to their vehicles in somber silence.

  At least 37 people were killed in attacks across the country on Tuesday, including 10 workers in a bus carrying them to a US army base outside Baquba and three civilians killed when the bus careened out of control.

  Tuesday's victims include Dhamin Hussein and Aziz Ibrahim, who were among 15 prominent Sunni Arabs from outside parliament invited to work on the panel drafting Iraq's new constitution.

  Hussein and Ibrahim were gunned down in Baghdad on Tuesday, rattling hopes that the new charter might be completed ahead of schedule.

  The minority Sunni Arabs, who were dominant under Saddam, are under-represented in parliament because they largely boycotted legislative elections last month.

  Sunnis are also believed to provide the main backbone for the ongoing insurgency.

  A top aide, Mijbil Alshiekh Isa, originally identified as a member of the panel, was also killed, a spokesman for Sunnis' National Dialogue Council said Wednesday.

  More ominously Salah al-Mutlaq, said four other Sunni Arab constitutional drafters from his group have resigned following the assassination of their colleagues.

  The charter is a key stage in Iraq's political transition. It is also a milestone on the path to an eventual US military withdrawal from Iraq.

  The document must be finished by Aug. 15 and put to a national referendum by October 15, according to the transitional administrative law serving as a temporary constitution, ahead of legislative elections in December.

  Former premier Iyad Allawi, whose party is the third largest in parliament, said Tuesday negotiators agreed that the document would be based on the law, which was written during the period of the US-appointed Coalition Provisional Authority.

  However, a draft chapter obtained by the New York Times showed that the new constitution would greatly curtail women's rights, imposing Sharia, or Islamic law, in personal matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance, as well as female representation in parliament.
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