Violence in Iraq leaves 14 dead
Shi'ites, Kurds seen close on deal
BAGHDAD -- A bomb planted near a tea stand killed eight men waiting for day labor in a largely Shi'ite area of Baghdad yesterday, and six other people died in violence across the country. A Shi'ite politician tapped as a possible prime minister predicted a new government would be in place by mid-March.
The morning attack on the impoverished laborers in the capital's New Baghdad area appeared aimed at further inflaming sectarian tensions in this war-ravaged country, where Shi'ites trade accusations with Sunni Arabs of reprisal killings and kidnappings.
Police said at least eight men were killed and more than 50 wounded in the bombing. Eyewitnesses said a man put down a bag of explosives that detonated near a tea cart.
Iraq's most powerful politicians met to thrash out the formation of the next government. The United States wants the dominant Shi'ites and Kurds to welcome Sunni Arabs into the government in hopes this would take the steam out of the insurgency, which draws most of its support from the Sunni community.
Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the biggest Shi'ite party's candidate for prime minister, said he expected the government to begin operating in mid-March, following final certification of results from the Dec. 15 parliamentary election and the seating of the Legislature.
To do so, the Shi'ites, who won 128 of the 275 parliament seats, want to build a coalition with the major Kurdish alliance. That deal seems set, with President Jalal Talabani saying his Kurdish ticket nominated him to retain the post.
The Shi'ite bloc is expected to support Talabani's reappointment in return for control over major Cabinet posts. Shi'ite leaders, who were long suppressed under Saddam Hussein, want the interior and defense ministries, which would give them control of the police and military.
But Sunni Arabs, who accuse Shi'ite-led police forces and militias of killing Sunni clerics and others citizens, oppose Shi'ites taking control of both ministries.
Also yesterday, Sunni Arab leader Tariq al-Hashimi threatened to call a popular ''uprising" unless Interior Minister Bayan Jabr is dismissed and Iraqi soldiers are sent to Baghdad neighborhoods to protect Sunnis.
Hashimi also demanded the freeing of all detainees and the release of a US probe's findings into claims that Sunni Arab prisoners were mistreated last fall in an Interior Ministry-run jail in Baghdad's Jadriyah neighborhood.
''The government and the occupation forces have a chance to respond to these demands, but they should not take a long time," said Hashimi, leader of one of two Sunni political parties in the Iraqi Accordance Front. ''If our demands are not heard, we will call on all political parties to stage a mass civilian uprising."
In other violence, roadside bomb blasts in Amiriyah, west of Baghdad, and Baqubah, to the north, killed two civilians. A mortar barrage killed two Iraqi soldiers in the northwestern city of Tal Afar, officials said.
Gunmen shot a man to death outside his southern Baghdad home, while a gunfight between insurgents and police in central Baghdad killed one civilian. 