Posted on 04/14/2007 6:34:04 PM PDT by blam
Bombing backfires by uniting Iraq's MPs
By Robert Watson and Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:54pm BST 14/04/2007
The bombing of Iraq's parliament by suspected al-Qaeda militants appears to have backfired by uniting Sunni and Shia politicians against a common enemy.
The Iraqi parliament holds a special session one day after the blast
An alliance of Sunni insurgent groups that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, in which an MP died and more than 20 other people were injured.
Shia parliamentarians had previously voiced disquiet at the security threat posed by their Sunni colleagues, claiming that many of those protecting Sunni MPs had links to al-Qaeda. But at an extraordinary session of the parliament on Friday, politicians from both sides condemned the suicide attack and vowed to press forward with the political process, calling for unity against extremism.
There were also signs that Sunni insurgents had had enough of their erstwhile al-Qaeda allies. "They have realised that those people are not working for Iraq's interests. They realised that their operations might destroy Iraq altogether," said Alaa Makki, a Sunni MP.
Other politicians indicated that the bombing had worked against al-Qaeda. "The relationship between [Sunni and Shia MPs] is better than before, because now they have agreed to fight terrorism together," one commentator noted. Officials say three people, believed to be workers in the cafeteria where the bomb went off, have been detained.
The government has been rallying the tribes of Anbar province in the western desert against al-Qaeda, which appears to have made a tactical error by targeting tribal leaders who had been reluctant to join their bombing campaign against Shia civilians. The result has been a wave of clan-based retribution against the foreign terrorist network in the Sunni heartland.
However, US and Iraqi forces also have to contend with growing frustration in the ranks of the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, which has been ordered to collaborate in the security clampdown in Baghdad. Yesterday, a senior official in the Sadr movement, which holds six cabinet posts, warned that it was on the verge of withdrawing from the government because of Baghdad's close ties to Washington.
Meanwhile, British forces in Basra killed eight gunmen laying mines in an area where four British soldiers and their civilian translator were killed by a roadside blast last week, and in the city of Karbala, 47 people died in a car bombing near a key Shia shrine.
The awakening begins...?
Sounds like good news.
BTTT
Things you don’t read in The New York Times.
I am confused.
The Western media appears to be reporting on the ‘heroic’ characteristics of the Iraqi people resisting terrorism and Islamic thuggery.
I thought the meme was ‘hopeless victim of American imperial aggession.’
Did someone not get the memo?
Interesting and out of the British press no less.
I guess all members of Parliament, no matter what their party, are opposed to being blown up.
Translation: "Better to light one candle than curse the darkness"
Semper Fi
A positive report out of the UK?
The Telegraph is about as conservative as there is in the UK.
Not good news for Al Qaida, but they still have their friends and allies Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. With friends like that, you don’t need the stinkin’ Iraqi Parliment.
Yeah, it's called the truth and that hasn't been seen anywhere near the NYT in years.
So it was OK that Iraqis were killing Iraqis, but as soon as one politician gets killed, they wake up?
Sad, but true.
here’s an interesting bit of news.
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