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| Iraq |
| 8 killed by Baghdad hard boyz |
| 2006-03-30 |
| For the third time in as many days, gunmen stormed a Baghdad business Wednesday, this time lining 14 employees against the wall and shooting them all. Eight were killed, and at least 26 others were reported dead in violence elsewhere. The attack on the al-Ibtikar electronics trading company began when gunmen drove up in five black BMWs shortly after 8 a.m., said police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq. The attackers set a fire in the office but took no money. Survivors told police some of the attackers wore police uniforms and said they were intelligence agents of the Interior Ministry, which oversees police. Survivors said the gunmen asked for the company manager, who wasn't there, and then opened fire on the 14 workers. Six were wounded but survived. The motive for the attack, the second on a firm in the upscale Mansour neighborhood this week, was unclear. A key lawmaker blamed militants. "These are concentrated efforts to paralyze the country. They are either from al Qaeda or the remnants of Saddam's regime. They want to tell the people that there is no government," said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman. Politicians working to form a new Iraqi government, meanwhile, canceled their multiparty talks for the day, saying they needed time to consult with their political blocs over the critical issue of what powers the next prime minister would have over security issues. It was the second time this week political leaders shunned a session meant to overcome a stalemate that is in its sixth week. The Kurdish, Sunni Arab and secular blocs in the parliament oppose the main Shiite bloc's push for Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to remain prime minister. Shiite politicians said that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has told the leader of the Shiite bloc that President Bush doesn't want Jaafari as prime minister. Jaafari on Wednesday asserted his right to stay in office and warned the Americans against undue interference in Iraq's political process. "Some American figures have made statements that interfere with the results of the democratic process," he said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |