World

Rice, Bush Urge Iraq Factions To Unify

February 25, 2006 / 4:31 AM EST / CBS/AP

Hoping to help prevent Iraq's bloody sectarian violence from turning into civil war, President George W. Bush on Friday urged Iraqis to exercise restraint in a critical "moment of choosing." Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged political factions to renew efforts to form a unity government.

Bush praised Iraq's political and religious leaders who have taken steps apparently with some success to halt the unrest that exploded after Wednesday's bombing of one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines. Almost 130 have died in that attack on the Askariya Shrine in Samarra and in the wave of deadly reprisals that followed.

"We can expect the coming days will be intense. Iraq remains a serious situation," Mr. Bush said in a speech to The American Legion. "But I'm optimistic, because the Iraqi people have spoken, and the Iraqi people made their intentions clear. ... They want their country to be a democracy."

Still, Mr. Bush, Rice and others employed unusually negative language, underscoring the gravity of the situation. There are fears in Baghdad and Washington alike that Iraq could be on the brink of civil war nearly three years after the U.S. invasion ousted Saddam Hussein's regime.

Mr. Bush spoke of "stunning acts of violence" and counseled that "difficult and exhausting" days ahead would require patience as both bloodshed and political conflict continue. Rice called this "an extremely hard and extremely delicate moment," acknowledged the violence was "a strike against Iraqi unity" and said "people's nerves are a bit on edge."

"There will be undoubtedly some period of time in which it is hard to have a completely unified response to what has happened, because it is very terrible," said Rice, traveling back to Washington from a tour of Arab capitals.

In other developments:

Some progress is being made in the training of Iraqi troops, but the number of Iraqi army battalions that can fight without U.S. help has dropped from one to zero. But Pentagon officials say the number of Iraqi battalions that could fight with the U.S. in a supporting role has grown by nearly 50 percent. The number of them actually engaged in combat has jumped as well, by 11 percent.

The tomb of Salman Pak, also known as Salman al-Farisi, was attacked after sunset with two rockets, said Jamal al-Saghir, an aide to Shiite political leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim. Although the shrine attracts Muslim pilgrims, it is not considered as venerable as the Askariya mosque in Samarra.

In Samarra, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed two officers 10 minutes after the daytime curfew expired. Elsewhere, police found the bodies of two bodyguards for the Basra head of the Sunni Endowment, a government body that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines. They had been shot.

South of Baghdad, in the religiously mixed area known as the "Triangle of Death," gunmen burst into a Shiite home in Latifiyah, separated men from women, and killed five of the males, police Capt. Ibrahim Abdullah said.

British, Australian, American and Japanese officials held routine talks Friday over troop deployments in Iraq, the British Defense Ministry said. No top-level officials were attending. The United States has 138,000 troops in Iraq, Britain has 8,000, Australia has 1,300 and Japan, 600.

Gunmen on Friday kidnapped three children of a Shiite legislator in Basra, but freed unharmed a few hours later, police said. It was not known whether the kidnappings were politically motivated. Kidnappings for ransom are also common. The children were ages 7, 9 and 11.

In Washington, Mr. Bush said, "We'll do everything in our power to help the Iraqi government identify and bring to justice those responsible for the terrorist acts."

"This is a moment of choosing for the Iraqi people," he said.

Added U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, "Everything that needs to be done must be done to avoid a civil war, and I think they are keenly aware of the danger."

Rice acknowledged that the violence could deal a setback to U.S.-backed talks among Shia, Sunni and Kurdish leaders to fashion a permanent government. The formation of a unity government is regarded as key to demoralizing the Sunni-dominated insurgency and setting the stage for the end of the U.S. military presence in Iraq. But the largest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament has said it will not resume negotiations until the government apologizes for failing to protect Sunni mosques from reprisals and commits to finding those responsible.

Rice predicted the political negotiations would be halted only temporarily.

"This makes it harder today and perhaps tomorrow, but I'm confident that the Iraqis are devoted to, dedicated to, the formation of a national unity government," she said. "I think they will get back to that process very shortly."

Meanwhile, Iraq's most influential Shiite political leader called Friday for Sunni-Shiite unity and condemned all killings of Iraqis in a bid to pull the nation back from the brink of civil war after the bombing of a Shiite shrine and a wave of deadly reprisal attacks.

An extraordinary daytime curfew in Baghdad and nearby provinces appeared to have blunted the surge in sectarian violence, and was extended for a second straight day.

The curfew is an attempt by the Iraqi government to put a lid on Shiite-on-Sunni violence, reports

CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier (video)

. There was more killing overnight: At least a dozen Iraqis turned up dead in Baghdad Friday morning, including six who had been handcuffed and shot execution style. But that's a fraction of the hundred or so killed the day before, so the security crackdown seems to be working — for now.

Several joint Sunni-Shiite prayer services were announced for Friday, including one at the Askariya shrine. But security forces turned away about 700 people, virtually all of them Sunnis, who showed up for the service.

In a statement read over national television, top Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said those who carried out the Wednesday bombing at the Askariya shrine in Samarra "do not represent the Sunnis in Iraq."

Al-Hakim instead blamed Saddam Hussein loyalists and followers of al Qaeda in Iraq boss Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

"We all have to unite in order to eliminate them," al-Hakim said in a statement. "This is what al-Zarqawi is working for, that is, to ignite a sectarian strife in the country," he added. "We call for self-restraint and not to be dragged by the plots of the enemy of Iraq."

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad acknowledged the danger facing Iraq — and the U.S. strategy for disengaging from this country. But he also said this was also a "moment of opportunity" for Iraq.

"This tragedy can be used to bring people together," Khalilzad told reporters.

"What will determine whether it turns into a civil war or not is what the clerics decide to do, not what the government of Iraq decides to do or what the United States military does,"

CBS News consultant Mitch Mitchell (video)

said on CBS News' The Early Show. "The people who are in control and who have power over the people are the clerics on both sides, the Sunnis and Shias."

The clerics calling for restraint is a good sign, says Mitchell.

"As long as they maintain that stance of calling for restraint, I don't think you'll see any type of all-out civil war," the retired Army colonel said.

Late Thursday, Iraqi state television announced an extension of the nighttime curfew until 4 p.m. Friday in Baghdad and the nearby provinces of Diyala, Babil and Salaheddin, where the shrine bombing took place. But security forces permitted worshippers to walk to mosque for midday prayers.

A large crowd attended Friday prayers at Baghdad's Abu Hanifa mosque, Baghdad's most important Sunni site, where Imam Ahmed Hasan al-Taha denounced the attack on the Shiite shrine as a conspiracy intended to draw Iraqis into sectarian strife.

There was also little sign of the curfew in Baghdad's teaming Shiite slum, Sadr City, where armed militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have been out in force since Wednesday's attack. Iraqi police found six bodies handcuffed and shot near a parking lot in the area, the Interior Ministry said.

Shiite and Sunni clerics met Friday and agreed to work to discourage killings between the two sects. The meeting between followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and members of the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars was held in northern Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, said Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, one of the participants from al-Sadr's group.

In a statement read over national television, top Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, condemned the killings of all Iraqis as well as reprisal attacks on Sunni or Shiite mosques. He said those who carried out the mosque bombing in Samarra "do not represent the Sunnis in Iraq."

Dhafer al-Ani, spokesman for the biggest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament, praised al-Hakim's statement, calling it "a step on the road of healing the wounds."