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.
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have
RSS