Posted on 03/05/2004 3:49:32 AM PST by Kaslin
No Injuries Reported
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Militants fired mortar rounds at the airport and two roadside bombs exploded Friday, hours ahead of a signing ceremony for the country's interim constitution, a key landmark in U.S. plans to hand over power to Iraqis by June 30. No injuries were reported.
The signing of the document, scheduled for Friday afternoon amid tight security, was delayed for nearly a week - first by tough negotiations among members of the Iraqi Governing Council that went beyond a Feb. 28 deadline, then by a three-day mourning period following two suicide attacks Tuesday that killed scores of Shiite pilgrims on the holy day of Ashoura.
The top U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, and chief British representative Jeremy Greenstock mediated with council members through the night in a marathon session that sealed the deal around dawn Monday. Compromises were struck on some of the toughest issues, particularly the role of Islam and federalism.
The draft recognizes Islam as a source of legislation. In a concession to religious conservatives who wanted Islam to be the main source, it also states that no law will be passed that violates the tenets of the Muslim religion.
It also accepts the principle of federalism but leaves it to a future elected national assembly to decide the details of self-rule for Iraq's Kurdish minority.
Delegates hammered out a system that would allow any of Iraq's 18 provinces to form federal regions - a provision opening the door for Shiites to form a self-rule region in the south similar to the Kurds' region in the north.
The U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Watch criticized the document Friday, saying it does not do enough to protect women's rights, particularly in the area of family law.
"Equal rights for Iraqi women in marriage, inheritance, and their children's citizenship should not be left in jeopardy," said LaShawn R. Jefferson, executive director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. "The interim constitution should explicitly guarantee these rights."
Hours ahead of Friday's signing ceremony, militants fired mortar rounds at Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. military said. A pair of bombs also exploded on capital roads frequently used by U.S. troops, but no injuries were reported.
The United States will transfer sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 30 - though it has yet to be decided how to pick the government that will take power. U.S. troops, however, will only gradually transfer security duties to Iraqi police and civil defense.
Tuesday's bombings of Shiite shrines in Baghdad and Karbala raised the specter of sectarian war. The Governing Council said 271 people were killed in the attacks, while the U.S. coalition said 181 people were killed and another 573 were wounded.
U.S. officials pointed to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant with al-Qaida links, as the prime suspect.
But some officials said the role of foreign militants in the attacks was still unclear.
Bremer said Thursday it was "increasingly apparent" terrorism was coming from outside Iraq, but some American generals were far less certain about the extent of foreigners' roles.
The brutality and sophistication of Tuesday's bombings in Karbala and Baghdad pointed to a foreign influence on an insurgency that is still mainly homegrown, said Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the 1st Armored Division, which controls Baghdad.
"It's far more than a supposition and far less than empirical evidence" to say that al-Zarqawi had a hand in the Tuesday blasts, Dempsey said. "It's a very educated guess."
But he called the idea that foreign fighters were flooding Iraq "a misconception."
U.S. Army Gen. John Abizaid, who runs the war in Iraq, said he had evidence al-Zarqawi was behind the massacres.
But other U.S. officials later said they could not elaborate because the evidence was still "being developed."
In Najaf, meanwhile, police Maj. Mohammed Dayekh said Thursday an Iraqi member of al-Zarqawi's network had confessed he and four other Iraqis were involved in the Karbala bombing. The U.S. military command said it was unaware of the purported confession by Mohammed Hanoun Hmood al-Mozani.
The U.S. military official in Baghdad said the case for foreigners having planned the attacks was bolstered by the capture of five "suspected foreign fighters" near the holy city of Karbala just 10 hours before the blasts.
The military has not determined the identities or nationalities of the five, nor concluded whether they were linked to al-Zarqawi. The five were planning an attack on pilgrimages for Ashoura, which climaxed Tuesday.
Fifteen other suspects - including five Farsi speakers, believed to be Iranian - were being questioned.
They know their chances of influencing Iraqi's will fade away with the signing of this historic document.
Wonder wy we have heard so little about the Iraqi Constitution? hmmmm....
As they get weaker they seek softer and softer targets.
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