World

New Doubts About The New Iraq

March 23, 2004 / 12:17 PM EST / CBS/AP

Iraq's most influential Shiite Muslim cleric tells the United Nations that the country's U.S.-backed interim constitution was a recipe for the break up of Iraq.

Grand Ayatollah al-Husseini al-Sistani says the constitution's call for a three-part presidency shared by Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs "puts the country in an unstable situation and could lead to partition and division."

Al-Sistani's objections have derailed several postwar U.S. plans. His complaints about the interim government drafting a constitution led to changes in the timetable. His opposition to a U.S.-backed plan for caucuses led that idea to be scrapped. And his doubts about the interim constitution delayed its signing by a week.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week he is sending a U.N. team back to Iraq "as soon as possible" in response to an Iraqi request for help in organizing the political transition and general elections due by Jan. 31.

Meanwhile, gunmen killed two policemen and wounded two others near their station Tuesday in the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi authorities said. West of Baghdad, U.S. soldiers fired shots to disperse a violent protest against Israel's killing of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin.

In other developments:

At Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, the U.S. military released 272 detainees who had been picked up in security sweeps. Some 5,500 to 6,000 security detainees are believed held there.

The Pentagon is rushing into service in Iraq a pair of technologies developed under its advanced research arm: a Humvee-mounted sensor for pinpointing hostile gunfire and a "command post of the future" designed to cut down on combat leaders' travel and streamline decision-making.

Annan plans to give the Security Council details this week about a planned independent commission to investigate allegations that diplomats, officials and companies from around the world collected millions of dollars in illegal profits from the Oil-for-Food program.

Australia's defense minister is having second thoughts after saying he was confident there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Robert Hill now says it's too soon to say while the search continues.

The return of sovereignty to Iraq must be endorsed by the United Nations or an international conference specially convened for the purpose, a senior Russian diplomat said Tuesday.

In the southern city of Basra, 14 British troops were wounded in two explosions during a demonstration.

British soldiers fired tear gas at about 500 unemployed Iraqi civilians protesting a failure to get jobs with the local customs police, the chief of Basra customs Col. Zafer Abdel-Nabi said. The crowd threw rocks, petrol bombs and a grenade at troops; six civilians were injured, he said.

A British Ministry of Defense spokesman said the soldiers — three of whom were seriously wounded — were evacuated to a nearby British military hospital at Shaibah.

British television showed demonstrators throwing rocks at soldiers riding tanks and standing behind plastic shields. Two Associated Press photographs showed a British soldier running down a street with his head and shoulders on fire.

Some demonstrators shouted slogans in support of Saddam Hussein and condemned Israel's killing of Yassin, witnesses said. "We are all sons of Yassin," they shouted.

The slain policemen — twin brothers — were shot by assailants in a car in Kirkuk, north of the capital, police Capt. Abdul-Salam Zangana said. He identified the brothers as Ahmed and Mohammed Kadhim. The attack occurred as the police parked their car in a main square and worshippers left a nearby mosque.

Rebels often target police and other Iraqis who work with the U.S.-led coalition that is governing Iraq.

Muslim clerics in Ramadi, where support for the anti-U.S. insurgency is strong, had urged followers to protest the targeted killing of Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Palestinian militant group, in Gaza City on Monday.

U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police fired shots after protesters burned two police cars and two hand grenades were thrown at a government building, witnesses said. At least two police and three protesters were injured.