BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) A Sunni Arab politician said Tuesday two
insurgent groups were willing to negotiate with the government,
possibly opening a new political front in embattled Iraq. But a
string of coordinated deadly bombings signaled that militants
remain fierce.
The former Cabinet minister said he had established contact with
the groups which account for a large part of the Sunni insurgents
and were responsible for attacks against Iraqis and foreigners,
including assassinations and kidnappings.
It was the first public disclosure that such negotiations might
be in the offing with specific groups, but independent confirmation
was not possible. Al-Jaafari's government declined comment.
At least 32 lives were claimed in the day's violence, which
included four explosions within seven minutes in and around Hawija,
40 miles southwest of Kirkuk, and the killings of a Sunni cleric
and a foreign ministry employee. The fatalities pushed the death
toll to 879 in the 5½ weeks since the government was formed.
Former electricity minister Ayham al-Samarie told The Associated
Press the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Army of Mujahedeen or holy
warriors were ready to open talks with the Shiite-led government
aimed at eventually joining the political process.
The claim appears consistent with comments from a senior Shiite
legislator, Hummam Hammoudi, who told the AP last week the
government had opened indirect channels of communication with some
insurgent groups.
The contacts were ''becoming more promising and they give us
reason to continue,'' Hammoudi said without providing details.
Al-Samarie, an Illinois Institute of Technology graduate who
holds dual U.S. and Iraqi citizenship, said the two groups
represent more than 50 percent of the ''resistance.'' He excluded
the al-Qaida in Iraq group which has carried out some of the
bloodiest attacks and is headed by a non-Iraqi, Jordanian-born Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi.
U.S. military officials believe about 12,000 to 20,000 fighters,
including supporters, make up the insurgency.
Al-Samarie said he began contacting insurgent political leaders
about five months ago. He did not meet any field commanders, he
said, but would not name those he contacted or say who else joined
in the meetings.
''Guns will not solve the problem. Guns never solved any
problems; it's always politics that solves problems,'' he said.
''How can they (the government) solve the problem without talking
to the resistance? The resistance exists and everyone knows it
exists.''
Al-Samarie said he told the insurgent leaders they had to ''come
out to the political arena.''
''We told them that 'no one knows what you want,''' he said,
speaking in his home in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood. '''You say
you want the occupier to leave Iraq but what do you want after
that? You must have a political agenda.'''
The insurgent leaders agreed ''that the time has come for them
to come out,'' al-Samarie said.
The Islamic Army in Iraq is a significant insurgent group that
has claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces as
recently as in the last two weeks.
The group, most active in Baghdad and the region directly to the
south, generally avoids bombings. Besides attacks against U.S.
forces, it has claimed responsibility for assassinations of Iraqi
government officials and the killings of an Italian journalist and
Pakistani contractors. It released two French journalists in
December 2004 after holding them for 124 days.
It claims thousands in its ranks and says its members are
predominantly Iraqi. According to insurgent statements, the group
has at times collaborated with the al-Qaida in Iraq network of Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi and the Ansar al-Sunnah Army.
Less is known about the Mujahedeen Army, but it has claimed
responsibility for scores of attacks, including the April downing
of a helicopter carrying 11 civilians, among them six Americans,
and the kidnapping of Indonesian journalists who were released
unharmed in February.
The effort to begin talks comes at a delicate time for the
government, criticized by Sunni Arab groups for deliberately
targeting the minority in counterinsurgency campaigns such as the
ongoing Operation Lighting in Baghdad.
The influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars said the
operation, which has led to nearly 900 arrests, could spark
sectarian strife. Now in its second week, the campaign involves
thousands of Iraqi security forces and 7,000 U.S. troops, according
to the U.S. military.
''We tried to reduce tension, but the government took another
path. What is being done by the army during the raids and the
arrests is only enhancing the culture of hatred,'' said association
spokesman Abdul-Salam al-Qubeisi.
In Hawija, the first explosion, caused by a roadside bomb,
killed no one. But the next three killed 18, with the deadliest
coming at a checkpoint in Dibis, on Hawija's outskirts which
killed 10. At least 39 people were wounded.
''I was standing some distance from the checkpoint when I heard
a big explosion and I was thrown onto the ground,'' Lt. Sadiq
Mohammed, 26, whose right leg was wounded, said from his hospital
bed. ''This is a terrorist act because real resistance should only
target American troops, not Iraqis trying to protect their
country.''
Near the Syrian border, an American-backed military operation
zeroed in on insurgents in Tal Afar, sending tanks and Bradley
fighting vehicles to patrol the narrow streets under the cover of
helicopters, witnesses said. About 20 suspected insurgents were
captured, Tal Afar police Capt. Amjad Hashim said.
Two U.S. Marines also died Monday after separate roadside
bombings near Fallujah, the military said Tuesday. A U.S. soldier
died of non-combat related injuries near Baghdad International
Airport.
As of Tuesday, at least 1,673 U.S. military members have died
since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated
Press count.
In Habaniya, 50 miles west of Baghdad, insurgents attacked a
supply convoy carrying supplies to an American base, and local
reporters said they saw at least seven bodies, all of which
appeared to be Iraqi men in their 20s and 30s. The U.S. military
and American diplomats said they were not aware of any Americans in
the convoy.
Elsewhere, a mortar attack at a U.S. base near Fallujah left
three Iraqis dead; and gunmen killed four Iraqis in Mosul, a Sunni
cleric in southern Basra and a foreign ministry employee in
Baghdad.
Laith Kuba, spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who
earlier this week indicated Saddam Hussein could go on trial within
two months, said Tuesday the timing was in the hands of the Iraqi
Special Tribunal and no trial date had been set.
Associated Press writers Yehia Barzanji in Kirkuk, Iraq,
contributed to this report.
