Iraq: Violence Keeps Sectarian Tensions High

Iraq: Violence Keeps Sectarian Tensions High

It's been a week since the bombing of a key Shi'ite shrine in Samarra set off a wave of violence that has taken nearly 400 lives. In recent days, the level of violence has shown signs of subsiding amid calls from religious and political leaders for calm. But the unrest is far from over, as the latest bombings in Baghdad attest.

PRAGUE, 1 March 2006 (RFE/RL) -- By midday Baghdad time today, two new explosions had already taken 17 more lives.

A car bomb in eastern Baghdad killed 14 people in a mainly Shi'ite district. while just hours earlier, a bomb detonated under a car as a police patrol passed by, killing three more civilians.

The latest bombings come as sectarian tensions remain high a week after an explosion badly damaged the Golden Mosque in Samarra.

That blast set off a wave of tit-for-tat reprisals and attacks on mosques as rival Shi'ite and Sunni militants took to the streets. The violence took 60 lives in the capital on 28 February.

One blast occurred on a crowded main street in the Karrada district of central Baghdad.

"A man with blue Daewoo [car] came to laborers gathering in Baghdad al-Jadida to ask for workers," a witness told Reuters. "He said he has some work to do and he needs workers. A big blast and heavy fires took place when he put his hand in his pocket. We condemn this act."

Across town, in the Al-Amin quarter of the neighborhood known as New Baghdad, a blast at a gasoline station took other lives. A witness to that blast told Reuters he thought it was caused by a suicide bomber. His account could not be immediately verified.

"A man wearing an explosive belt or a bomb hidden in a jerry can exploded and killed the people," the witness said. "If the government cannot do anything, let it step back. We have suffered enough, an arm is here and a leg is there. Why does all this happen to us? Is it because we are Shi'a? Our crime is being Shi'a."

Bombing Saddam's Memory

Amid the blasts on 28 February, there was also the bombing of a site closely associated with the family of Saddam Hussein. The explosion, which caused no injuries, damaged a small mosque in Tikrit built over the grave of Hussein's father.

The targeting of the mosque provided one more measure of the sectarian fissures in Iraqi society, which many observers say were deepened by Hussein's regime.

Hussein based his power in the Sunni minority while repressing Iraq's majority Shi'a. Today, he remains a hated symbol for Shi'a but a hero for some Sunni militants who say democracy in Iraq could reduce the Sunnis' power.

Washington Worried

The flaring of sectarian violence -- the worst since U.S. troops entered Iraq almost three years ago -- is seen as a major crisis by Washington.

U.S. President George W. Bush said on 28 February that he has called numerous Iraqi leaders to urge calm. "This weekend, I spoke to seven of the Iraqi leaders," he said. "They understood the seriousness of the moment. They have made their choice, which is to work toward a unity government."

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Ja'fari vowed again today to continue negotiations aimed at forming a national-unity government in the wake of parliamentary elections in December

"We will continue with the interparty talks," al-Ja'fari said. "The government will be set up soon. The government will be broad-based."

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Iraq: Violence Keeps Sectarian Tensions High