Iraq president: Deal with rebels possible
2006/5/1
BAGHDAD, Reuters and AP
Iraq's president said on Sunday he and U.S. officials had met with
insurgents and that a deal with some groups to end violence could be
reached.
Though U.S. and Iraqi officials have spoken before of contacts with
Sunni Arab rebels, the statement by Jalal Talabani came as Iraq's
various factions negotiate on a new government and were among the
strongest yet that some groups involved in the three-year-old war may
be ready to lay down their arms.
"I believe that a deal could be reached with seven armed groups that
visited me," Talabani said in a statement, adding that U.S. officials
took part in the discussions in the president's Kurdish home region in
northern Iraq.
Insurgents in the Sunni heartland observed an informal truce during
December's parliamentary election, allowing a big turnout among
minority Sunnis, who had previously boycotted the U.S.- backed
political process.
A U.S. embassy spokeswoman said the U.S. position has always been to
try to engage insurgents into joining the political process who are not
associated with Saddam Hussein or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al Qaeda
leader in Iraq.
Talabani said: "There are other groups, excluding the Saddamists and
Zarqawi-types, who are involved in military operations to remove the
occupiers and these are the ones who we are seeking to hold a dialogue
with and to include them in the political process."
Bombs and drive-by shootings killed 10 people in Iraq on Sunday, and
the bodies of seven Iraqi men who apparently had been kidnapped and
tortured in captivity were found in three different areas of Baghdad,
police said.
The deadliest attack Sunday involved a roadside bomb that exploded on a
highway south of the capital, killing three security contractors and
wounding two. Police said the casualties were all British, but
Britain's Foreign Office said the dead were not British and that it
could only confirm that one of the two wounded was.
The roadside bomb targeting the contractors occurred at 9:30 a.m. about
50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Baghdad, hitting an SUV and killing
three people and wounding two, an Iraqi policeman said on condition of
anonymity to protect his own security.
One of the most brutal killings in Baghdad on Sunday occurred in Jurf
al Saghar, a town south of Baghdad. Residents discovered a corpse
inside a private car and called police. When several officers arrived
to examine the vehicle, explosives packed inside it were set off by
remote control, killing one policeman and wounding two, said police
Capt. Muthana Khalid.
The bullet-ridden bodies of seven Iraqi men also were found in three
different areas of Baghdad. All of them had been tortured and killed in
captivity, police said. Such sectarian violence by Sunni Arab and
Shiite death squads has become common lately in Baghdad.
In other violence Sunday:
--Four drive-by shootings in Baghdad killed four civilians, including
Talib Niama, an employee in the Trade Ministry.
--A roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy in central Tikrit, the
hometown of former President Saddam Hussein, said police Maj. Ahmed
Awad said. He said the blast set a Humvee on fire, causing U.S.
casualties, but the U.S. command could not immediately confirm that.
--A roadside bomb in Musayyib, 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of
Baghdad, missed a police patrol but killed one civilian and wounded
three, said police Capt. Muthana Khalid said.
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