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Iraqi women, supporters of the Iraqi Workers-Communist Party, stand behind a banner reading in English 'No to a fascist nationalist Islamist constitution' as they rally in central baghdad, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005. Talks on Iraq's new constitution have stalled over the role of Islam and the distribution of the country's oil wealth. Iraqis have until Monday night to complete work on the draft, otherwise parliament must dissolve.(AP Photo/Samir Mizban)

Iraq Sunnis Urge U.S., U.N. to Block Draft

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - One day before the deadline for the new constitution, Sunni Arab negotiators appealed Sunday to the United States and the international community to prevent Shiites and Kurds from pushing a draft charter through parliament without Sunni consent.

An Iraqi government spokesman suggested that if the factions cannot agree on a draft by Monday night, parliament may have to amend the interim constitution yet again to extend the deadline to prevent the dissolution of parliament.

The deadline was already extended by one week last Monday after negotiators failed to reach agreement on a number of contentious issues including federalism, distribution of Iraq's oil wealth, power relationships among the provinces and the role of the Shiite clerical hierarchy in Najaf.

The 15-member Sunni Arab bloc issued its statement after complaining that it was being sidelined by Shiites and Kurds, who were cutting deals without them.

"At a time when there are few hours left to announce the draft, we still see no active coordination and seriousness to draft the constitution," the statement said.

Sunni Arabs said they were only invited to a single meeting with the other community negotiators since Monday. That session was held on Friday.

The statement urged the United States, the United Nations and the international community to intervene to prevent a draft constitution moving forward without unanimous agreement, "which would make the current crisis more complicated."

Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, told Forat television that 97 percent of the document had been agreed upon and would be submitted to parliament by the deadline.

Government spokesman Laith Kubba also expressed hope that political leaders would complete the draft in time. If not, Kubba said there were two options: amend the interim constitution again and extend the deadline or dissolve parliament.

Iraqi government spokesman Leith Kubba answers questions during a press conference on August 9. Iraq called on neighbouring Jordan to extradite members of Saddam Hussein's former regime it accused of fomenting 'terrorism' on its soil.(AFP/File/Sabah Arar)

Shiites and Kurds have enough seats in parliament to push through a draft even without the Sunnis. Because so many Sunni Arabs boycotted the Jan. 30 elections, they won only 17 seats in the country's 275-member National Assembly. Sunni Arabs form an estimated 20 percent of the national population.

But Sunni Arabs could in theory scuttle the constitution in the Oct. 15 referendum. Under current rules, the constitution would be defeated if it is opposed by two-thirds of the voters in three of the 18 provinces. Sunni Arabs form the majority in at least four.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government criticized its neighbor Jordan for allegedly allowing Saddam Hussein's family to fund a network seeking to destabilize Iraq and re-establish the banned Baath Party.

"It is regrettable to say that until now there are big numbers of elements, not only former regime elements, but supervisors of some terrorist groups who are in Jordan," Kubba, the government spokesman, said.

Kubba cited Saddam's relatives who live in Jordan, where they have "huge amounts of money" to "support ... efforts to revive Baath Party organizations." Kubba did not specify individual family members, but Saddam's two oldest daughters live in the Jordanian capital Amman.

Relations between Jordan and Iraq have been strained since the collapse of Saddam's regime in 2003 over various issues. However, it appeared Kubba's statements were aimed in part at deflecting criticism from Jordan about the possible involvement of Iraqis in subversive operations in Jordan.

Jordanian police have detained an undetermined number of Iraqis as well as other foreign Arab suspects in the Friday rocket attack that barely missed a U.S. warship in Aqaba.

"We don't want Jordan to harm a quarter of a million Iraqis (living in Jordan) because of one Iraqi" involved in the Friday attack, Kubba said.

There was no immediate comment from the Jordanian government, which has been seeking to improve relations with its eastern neighbor — once its closest trading partner and only supplier of oil.

In other developments:

• A prominent member of the Baghdad city council, Sabir al-Issawi, was in serious condition Sunday after an ambush the day before in which one of his bodyguards was killed and three others wounded, officials said.

• Two officials of the Interior Ministry's security department were shot dead Sunday as they drove through western Baghdad, police Lt. Majid Zaki said.

U.S. troops secure the area as bodies of two Iraqi interior ministry officers killed by unidentified gunmen lay on the ground in Baghdad, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005. Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army's top general, said Saturday the Army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq for four more years. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

• In Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, a policeman and a civilian were was killed by insurgents in a drive-by shooting, and five members of a single family were found shot dead overnight, a police spokesman said.

Ali Nasir Jabur, 10, sits on the back of a truck loaded with the bodies of his family members, outside Tikrit hospital, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005. Ali's parents, two brothers and sister were killed when unknown gunmen wearing Iraqi security forces uniforms raided their home the previous night, while he was hidden under a blanket.(AP Photo/Bassim Daham)

Two Jordanian policemen stand guard near a warehouse in Jordan's port town of Aqaba, from where attackers fired three Katyusha rockets early Friday, Aug. 19, 2005, killing a Jordanian soldier. One rocket narrowly missed a U.S. Navy ship docked in the Jordanian port and another fell close to a nearby airport inside neighboring Israel, officials said. The rocket fire narrowly missed the USS Ashland, an amphibious vessel attached to the Marines, in the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba, marking the most serious attack on an American naval vessel since the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 sailors. (AP Photo/ Nader Daoud)

Several Arrested in Jordan Rocket Attacks

By SHAFIKA MATTAR, Associated Press Writer

Sun Aug 21, 7:23 AM ET

AQABA, Jordan - Police detained several suspects on Saturday as the hunt widened for the attackers who fired and supplied the rockets that narrowly missed a U.S. Navy ship anchored in the bay of this Red Sea port best known for beach vacations and Mideast summits.

Those arrested included Iraqis, Syrians, Egyptians and Jordanians, according to a Jordanian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. He would not give the number of detainees.

Interior Minister Awni Yirfas told The Associated Press that security forces had found the launcher used to fire the three Katyusha rockets.

Police found four more rockets when they seized the launcher in a warehouse in an industrial zone on a hillside overlooking Aqaba, state TV reported Saturday. The four rockets were defused, the report said.

The newscast did not say whether anyone had been detained for Friday's attack.

The Gulf of Aqaba, a narrow northern extension of the Red Sea, is bordered by Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia with the frontiers of the four countries touching or within view of one another.

A further outbreak of terrorism in the region would be particularly worrisome not only because of U.S. Navy targets in the area but also because Muslim extremists want to topple governments in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan — all longtime American allies. Egypt and Jordan have peace treaties with Israel.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades — an al-Qaida-linked group that claimed responsibility for the bombings which killed at least 64 people at Sharm el-Sheik in July and 34 people at two other Egyptian resorts last October — said in an Internet statement that its fighters had fired the Katyushas, bolstering concerns that Islamic extremists had opened a new front in the region.

Authorities said the warehouse used to launch the notoriously inaccurate rockets had been rented days beforehand by four men carrying Iraqi and Egyptian identity papers.

The security official who disclosed Saturday's arrests said an Iraqi detainee was suspected of taking part in the attack, but he cautioned against assuming the others arrested were equally involved.

A Jordanian soldier was killed and another wounded when one Katyusha flew across the bow of the USS Ashland and hit a warehouse used by the Americans to store goods headed to Iraq.

Two more rockets were fired toward Israel. One fell short and hit the wall of a Jordanian military hospital. The other landed close to Israel's Eilat airport, lightly wounding a taxi driver.

Police said Saturday they were searching for as many as six people — including one Syrian, Egyptians and Iraqis — who escaped in a vehicle with Kuwaiti license plates.

Security was tightened nationwide, including in the capital Amman, which has been the target of several failed al-Qaida terrorist plots — including one using chemicals in April 2004. Police at road blocks were stopping cars and checking identity papers. Pictures of suspects were distributed to border checkpoints.

Although the rockets missed the USS Ashland, the Navy decided to sail both of its ships out of Aqaba bay as a precaution. They had arrived earlier in the week for a military exercise with the Jordanian navy.

Jordan is trying to determine the source of the rockets, and how they were smuggled into the country, which has tight border security.

Lebanon's Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has thousands of Katyushas.

Doug Richardson, of the London-based Jane's Defense Review, said the rockets have been widely copied from their original Russian design and modified by many countries, including those in eastern Europe and China.

Iran and Hezbollah would be "potential sources" of the weapon, he said in a telephone interview.

In Lebanon, a Hezbollah official declined to comment when asked about the group's involvement.

In Syria, Elias Murad, chief editor of Al-Baath newspaper, mouthpiece of the country's ruling Baath Party, said attempts to involve Damascus were "ridiculous because Katyusha rockets exist in two-thirds of the world."

Hezbollah pounded Israel's north with Katyusha rockets for two decades in a guerrilla war that ended with Israel's pullout from southern Lebanon in 2000.

In Iraq, insurgents have used Katyusha rockets against U.S. military installations. ___

Associated Press reporter Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.