56 killed in US air strikes on Qaeda suspects in Iraq

08-30-2005, 12h28
BAGHDAD (AFP)

At least 56 people were killed in multiple US air strikes in Iraq against suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts near the Syrian border, an Iraqi security source said.

The attacks at dawn on Tuesday, the second such raid in less than a week, came as Sunni Arabs, believed to be the backbone of the raging insurgency, were seeking alliances to defeat Iraq's newly-drafted charter.

"At least 56 people were killed in the air strikes carried out by US forces near Qaim close to the Syrian border," the security source told AFP.

The US military said it had no exact numbers of casualties.

"There was a total of three strikes targetting terrorist safe houses... Abu Islam (a reported Al-Qaeda operative) and several associates are believed killed," a US military spokesman in Baghdad said.

The spokesman said a total of eight bombs were dropped in three air strikes on suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts, including a safehouse where Abu Islam and several associates were holed up, the spokesman said.

Abu Islam and several associates were believed killed in the strikes around Karabila near Qaim, 450 kilometres (280 miles) west of Baghdad, he said.

On Friday the US military launched similar strikes against another suspected Al-Qaeda hideout in the restive Al-Anbar province.

Around 50 militants associated with Al-Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were in a safe house in the border town of Husaybah at the time, it said but did not provide details of casualties.

Meanwhile, disenchanted Sunni Arabs reached out across the sectarian divide to seek alliances with any ethnic or religious groups opposed to the newly-drafted constitution.

After staging demonstrations on Monday, Sunni leaders said they were opening talks with the movement of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and preparing a national conference to generate public support for defeating the charter at a mid-October referendum.

"We would like to cooperate with Moqtada al-Sadr and very soon we will start negotiations with him," Saleh al-Motlag, a top Sunni negotiator, told AFP.

Sadr, who rejects any constitution drafted under the US-led occupation, enjoys widespread support among poor urban Shiites and his militia led one of post-war Iraq's fiercest rebellions against US-led forces last year.

"It is not just about the Sunnis anymore. It is about all those who do not want Iraq to break up, including the Shiites," Motlag said.

US President George W. Bush said Monday he was "very optimistic" about Iraq's future after the charter was finally drawn up following weeks of tortuous negotiations, even if not everybody agreed with the text.

"Now the Iraqi people get to decide, they get to debate, they get to make the decision this fall as to whether or not that constitution will be the constitution that governs their society," he said.

However, failure to win Sunni support for the charter has dented hopes that a consensus could help weaken the insurgency that erupted after former dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003.

As Iraq distributed millions of copies of the charter throughout the country Monday, thousands of Sunnis in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit took to the streets to protest against its federalist proposals.

Sunni Arabs fear any decentralisation of government will rob them of a share in Iraq's vast oil wealth which is largely concentrated in the Kurdish north and Shiite south.

During the charter negotiations, Sadr had expressed opposition to a federal structure for Iraq. At least 20 members of parliament are said to be political allies of Sadr's movement.

Motlag said Sunnis would engage with leaders of any of Iraq's mosaic of ethnic and religious groups against the charter.

But a member of Sadr's movement in Baghdad said: "Nothing is decided yet.

"There are several opinions but as of now we have decided to focus on registering our names to participate in the referendum. The final decision will be taken by Sadr later."

US analysts said Sunni dissatisfaction with the constitution will likely fuel an increase in violence.

"It's not a good path we are on right now," said Flynt Leverett, of the Washington-based Brookings Institution think-tank. "You have a situation now in which one or two things will happen, and both of them are bad."

He said either the minority Sunni Arabs will succeed in mustering a two-thirds majority in three of the country's 18 provinces to sink the charter or will fail and end up feeling disenfranchised and disgruntled.

In more violence Tuesday, five people, including four security personnel, were killed in separate rebel attacks, police said.

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