Iraq: Bomb Kills Senior Shiite Lawmaker

Death Of Top Al-Sadr Loyalist Raises Concerns Of Destabilizing Iraq Before Provincial Elections

(AP)  A bomb struck a convoy carrying lawmakers loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Thursday in Baghdad, killing a prominent member of the Shiite bloc, officials said.

The explosion occurred as a car carrying Saleh al-Auqaeili passed about 200 yards from an Iraqi army checkpoint in a heavily secured area near Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City, according to one of his colleagues.

Al-Auqaeili was taken to a hospital in Baghdad, where he later died of his wounds, according to Sadrist spokesman Ahmed al-Massoudi and a fellow lawmaker, Hassan al-Rubaie.

Al-Auqaeili was a senior member of al-Sadr political bloc, which has 30 seats in the 275-member parliament. The Shiite cleric's cease-fire order to his militia has been a key factor in a sharp decline in violence over the past year.

The attack raised concerns that internal rivalries within Shiite and Sunni political groupings could emerge ahead of upcoming provincial elections as a major threat to Iraq's stability, even as sectarian violence ebbs.

Another Sadrist lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to disciss sensitive political issues, said al-Auqaeili was known for his moderate stance in a movement with subgroups that have promoted violence.

The U.S. military blamed Shiite extremists for the attack, which occurred shortly before 10 a.m.

Several followers of al-Sadr have been targeted in past attacks, but Thursday's bombing was notable because it occurred within a section of Sadr City that is considered secured by the U.S. military.

Falah Hassan Shanshal, who was riding in a different car in the same convoy, said the group became suspicious when discovering there were no traffic jams in the usually crowded area. He said the "operation was a pre-planned one" and that the explosion was remote-controlled.

What made them suspicious was that it took place near a checkpoint, he said. "The area is supposed to be a protected one."

AP Television News footage showed the charred hulk of a motorcycle and the white SUV that apparently was carrying the officials on a road lined with a powder blue concrete wall erected by the U.S. military to protect the area.

Iraqi police initially said the blast was caused by a motorcycle bomb. But Shanshal said the explosives had been planted in a hole near the road. He said a man on a motorcycle was killed, causing the confusion over the cause of the blast.

Shanshal also demanded a government investigation into how the roadside bomb was planted so close to the checkpoint. "We hold the security forces responsible for this attack. They should be responsible for the security of the city."

An Interior Ministry official, who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to release the information, confirmed it was a roadside bomb and said earlier that two other people were killed in the blast.

Also earlier, Maj. Mark Cheadle, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad, said the blast killed one civilian who was riding by on a motorcycle and wounded three other people in a car.

"The extremists have not ceased their attempt to erode the gains made in this area of Baghdad," Cheadle said, promising that the U.S. and Iraqi security forces "will not cease to hunt them and bring them to justice."

Sadr City and surrounding areas were long dominated by al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and were the site of fierce clashes between U.S.-Iraqi forces and Shiite extremists earlier this year. The area has been relatively peaceful after al-Sadr declared his cease-fire and the Iraqi security forces assumed control in late May.

But tensions have been rising over the U.S.-Iraqi security talks on a deal that would replace the U.N. mandate for American forces, which expires at the end of the year.

Al-Sadr, who is believed to live in Iran but retains significant political clout in Iraq, strongly opposes the U.S. military presence. He and other critics fear that the new pact will bind the U.S. and Iraq in a long-term relationship, instead of restoring Iraqi sovereignty.

Al-Massoudi, the Sadrist spokesman, accused the Americans of targeting those who opposed the deal. "The occupation forces sent us a message by staging this attack because of our stance against the agreement," he said.

The apparent assassination attempt occurred two days after bombs attached to cars exploded in a parking lot near the Iraqi Foreign Ministry shortly before U.S. Secretary of State John Negroponte and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari held a press conference.

However, the ministry stressed those blasts were some distance away from the heavily secured compound.

[guadalcanal3]

What makes everybody so sure that if Obama gets elected that he will pull the troops out immediatly??? (just because he said so?..ha! ha!)....If he becomes President he will have access to information that may very well change what he does...The president who would get stuck with the ''label'' losing the war will not be the president who ''stayed on the offensive''...It will be the President who ''retreated''....There WILL be a lot of dissapointed voters...

[bailmeout1]

Iraq: Bomb Kills Senior Shiite Lawmaker

Bye.

[mtminds]

Consider this:
The UN mandated at the start of the Iraq war that US troops be removed from Iraq by December 2008. All the political pitbull with lipstick about troop withdrawals and time lines have been a sham all along.

The current administration has been trying to work a deal to keep US troops in Iraq beyond 2008 but this deal will be on the Iraqi government terms! More than likely the way negotiations are going, it will be up to the next administration to extend US presence in Iraq.

Considering the vision of Georgie W. Bush et all about US troops being herald as liberators and showered with flowers was completely wrong. Leaving Iraq will be a good thing. GW can say he finally got that bad man who threatened his daddy''s life at the expense of thousands of dead and wounded young men and trillions of dollars.

Mission Accomplished!

[waqahi]

Hoots are the scum who beat the drums for a war in Iraq and now they are beating the drums for a war in Iran. War, mayhem, blood and the human suffering to them is like the polluted ocean to algae. Al-Auqaeili heads the Sadrists block in the Iraqi parliament which rejects security arrangement with the US that favors further occupation of Iraq. What happened in Rwanda was not purely African. 1994 Rwanda was the culmination of centuries of colonialism, religious intolerance and European rage. Radio broadcast was doing to Rwanda what the venomous AM radio is doing to America nowadays. French clergy and the French contingency in Eastern Zaire were involved in the bloodshed in Rwanda up to their ears.

"%u2026Every time they kindle the fire of war, Allah doth extinguish it; but they (ever) strive to do mischief on earth. And Allah loveth not those who do mischief." Quran 005-064
"%u2026for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter%u2026" Quran 002-191

[runningralph]

These Islamics are a hoot. I''ve just got to chuckle when they assinate and blow each other up. It will get real good when Obama pulls the troops out. They will go to fighting like to Hutus and the Tutsis.

[hotpaulie]

Hey all you republicans, all together now...THE SURGE!
I am so happy Obama will not give in to all this "the surge worked" baloney. Iraq is a failure!!! Once we leave everything will be in chaos. Bush and Cheney are war criminals!!!