Car bomb kills 7, including Iranians, in Iraq city

What options does Nouri Al-Maliki have?


It is almost eight months since March 7 parliamentary election in Iraq which no political party emerged as a winner. The Americans want to reduce the role of the Shiat Arab majority by insisting on sharing power with pro-American minorities; like the Kurds and the former Baathists represented by Dr Ayad Allawi. Saudi Arabia has been investing heavily on Dr Allawi party made mostly of former Baath members. By his own admittance, Dr Allawi had been working closely with the CIA, MI-6 and with Saudi intelligence services. While the first post-Paul Bremer Prime minister, Dr Allawi established a CIA-style Iraqi intelligence services which has been threatening violence or actually carrying out terror attacks in the country in collaboration with the Americans in order to put pressure on Al-Maliki.

In return, Al-Maliki has been digging in and is trying to rally popular support by appealing to Al-Sadr movement. But the Americans didn’t like that and insist on having a troika weak enough to serve their own economic and political designs in Iraq.

Al-Maliki has been left with two options. Either to go along with the Americans and form a government that serves the occupation and fragment Iraq, or come out of the Green Zone to his own people and rally support for an Iraq that is democratic, united and free of American dictations. In either way, there will be violence in Iraq until the Americans, their mercenaries, agents, stooges, intelligence services and dirty-works squads leave the country. Iraq needs a new national leadership made of people who didn’t enter Iraq behind American tanks.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times

By Ben Lando of Iraq Oil Report
Published November 8, 2010

As the formation of a new Iraqi government draws closer, Iraq’s Sunni population is bracing for political marginalization.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, leader of the Shiite-dominated State of Law coalition, seems poised to secure a second term. It’s not clear yet whether the Iraqiya political block, which is led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and has a major Sunni component, will have a meaningful role – if any – forcing it into opposition or boycott.

As a result, Iraq’s Su…

08 Nov 2010 08:02:03 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Political tensions high

* Thousands of Iranian pilgrims visiting Iraqi holy sites

(Updates death toll)

BAGHDAD, Nov 8 (Reuters) - A car bomb aimed at Iranian pilgrims killed seven people in Iraq's holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala on Monday, an official said, shortly before a meeting that could break an eight-month deadlock over a new government.

Thirty-four people were wounded by the blast at one of the entrances to Kerbala, site of two of the holiest shrines in Shi'ite Islam, said Mohammed al-Moussawi, head of the Kerbala provincial council. Four of the dead were Iranians, he said.

"It was a car bomb. There were Iranian pilgrims in the area. They were targeted," said Moussawi.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranian religious tourists have visited Shi'ite holy sites in neighbouring Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.

Saddam crushed insurrections by Iraq's Shi'ite majority, banned Shi'ite religious festivals and fought an eight-year war with Shi'ite power Iran.

The pilgrims are often targeted by Sunni Islamist groups like al Qaeda in Iraq, which view Shi'ite Muslims as apostates.

Iraq's political factions are preparing to meet in the capital of the Kurdish region to try to forge a deal on a new government eight months after an inconclusive election that produced no outright winner.

Incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, is close to securing a second term but is still trying to win over leaders of a Sunni-backed cross-sectarian alliance.

Tension has risen during the eight-month impasse as Maliki and the head of the Sunni-backed bloc, former premier Iyad Allawi, jostle over power, while insurgents launch a stream of often devastating attacks.

U.S. troops meanwhile are scaling back their presence in Iraq ahead of a full withdrawal next year. (Reporting by Aseel Kami; writing by Michael Christie; editing by Tim Pearce)