More than 40 soldiers killed in Iraq so far this month...
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Sectarian Violence Continues in Baghdad
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By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: October 11, 2006
BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 — Iraq’s Shiite-dominated Parliament approved a law today setting up a procedure for the country’s provinces to form themselves into autonomous regions, a plan that is vehemently opposed by Sunni Arab leaders who say it could splinter the republic and put their constituents at a disadvantage. The vote was a clear victory for Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the dominant Shiite bloc in the Parliament, who wants to form an autonomous state out of nine predominantly Shiite provinces in the south, a region where a large part of the nation’s oil wealth is located.
Mr. Hakim cast the results as a victory for democracy. “The road is open for all the Iraqi people to form any region they want, and it is up to the Iraqi people basically to decide this issue,” he said.
The Iraqi Constitution, approved by the voters a year ago, allows the formation of such regions through mechanisms to be defined by the Parliament, a requirement that the new law is meant to meet.
Under the new law, provinces may hold referendums to decide whether to merge with others to form larger states. Either one-third of the province’s governing council or one-tenth of its electorate can call for such a referendum, which would then be decided by a majority vote. The law imposes a moratorium of 18 months before any referendums may be called.
The parliamentary session on Wednesday was boycotted by the Sunni political blocs and by some Shiite and secular legislators, who have voiced a variety of arguments against the law and who united to block it last month.
Sunni leaders fear that any plan to divide the country into regions would shift control of the nation’s oil wealth away from the central government and into the hands of the groups who predominate in the areas around the oil fields — the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in the south — leaving little for the Sunni Arabs of the relatively barren central and western regions.
“We had our objections, and when they were disregarded, we found that the best way to deal with that was to boycott the session,” said Salman al-Jumaili, a legislator from the Iraqi Consensus Front, the largest Sunni bloc. “We believe that implementing this law in its present form will be a prescription for dividing Iraq.”
Within the ruling Shiite coalition, which itself remains divided on the issue, legislators loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr have demanded that any discussion of federalism should proceed only after American forces have pulled out of Iraq.
Members of the Fadhila, a Shiite party wary of Mr. Hakim’s power, said they would support the measure only if it included clauses preventing the formation of a single huge federation across southern Iraq.
The political developments came as the American military revealed today that a series of huge explosions in a munitions depot that began late Monday had been caused by an 82-millimeter mortar shell fired into the depot by insurgents.
The mortar round ignited tank, artillery and small-arms ammunition stored at the base, located in the Rasheed district of Baghdad, but caused no injuries, the military said in a statement.
The explosions, which began at about 10:40 p.m. Monday and continued for several hours, shook buildings across the capital and alarmed residents, who were reminded of the overnight aerial bombardments at the start of the American-led invasion in 2003.
The Islamic Army in Iraq, a nationalist insurgent group, claimed responsibility for the attack. “With the help of God, the mortar and rocket squads of the Islamic Army have shelled a U.S. Army base with two rockets and three mortar shells,” the group said in a statement posted on a Web site used by insurgent groups, according to The Associated Press.
Elsewhere in the capital, at least 13 people were killed and dozens more were wounded in a series of attacks today, officials said. In the most deadly event, unidentified gunmen stormed a house in the troubled Dora neighborhood, killing five members of a family and wounding two others, according to an official at the Yarmouk Hospital, where the victims bodies were taken.
The American military announced today that three Marines had been killed Monday in an insurgent attack in Anbar Province.
At least 40 American troops have been killed so far this month, according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent Web site that tracks military announcements and reports in the news media.
Kirk Semple, Qais Mizher, Khalid al-Ansary and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting.
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