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| Iraq |
| Iraq mulls talks with insurgent groups |
| 2006-06-13 |
| Iraq is considering inviting members of insurgent groups to national reconciliation talks, a source in the prime minister’s office said yesterday. Leaders will meet to agree a definition of “resistance” groups and then some of their members will be invited to take part in the talks on July 22. It was not clear whether this signalled a softening of the Shi’ite-led government’s position on Sunni Arab insurgents seeking to overthrow it. Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki has rejected the idea of a dialogue with Saddam Hussein loyalists and other hardline groups, saying they have Iraqi blood on their hands. But Sunni officials say he can only deliver on promises of national reconciliation if he opens a dialogue with insurgent groups. The US military said US-led forces killed seven insurgents with links to senior Al Qaeda leaders in a raid yesterday near the area where Abu Musab Al Zarqawi was killed last week. It said there were several women and children at the scene and two children had also been killed, without giving details. Al Qaeda in Iraq on Sunday vowed to carry out large-scale attacks to “shake the enemy” after Zarqawi’s death in a US air raid last Wednesday. Iraqi leaders said Zarqawi’s death was a major blow to Al Qaeda in Iraq but no one, including US President George W Bush, expects violence to end anytime soon. Responding to a query over whether children were killed by US fire in the operation north of Baghdad, the US military said in a statement it could not confirm the cause of death at this time. “Coalition Forces received enemy machine gun fire from a rooftop upon arriving at the objective ...,” said the statement. “Following the assault, coalition troops discovered two children had been killed. One child was wounded and evacuated for treatment,” it added. Three insurgents were wounded in the operation and two others detained, it said. In other violence, a roadside bomb targeting a bus taking workers to Iraq’s industry ministry killed six people and wounded 12 others yesterday, official sources said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |