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Insurgents Hit Baghdad; Doubt Voiced on Charter
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They were joined later by leaders of political blocs outside Iraq's legislature, including Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq, who was prevented by weather from traveling to Baghdad over the past two days.
Barzani's presence is considered pivotal to resolving some of the thorniest constitutional issues. He is expected to push for broad autonomy for the Kurdish north and for the return of ethnic Kurds to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Iraq's Sunni Arabs, while not opposed to limited autonomy for the Kurdish region, fear that the Kurds consider it a step toward independence and that the country could break apart if the principle of federalism is extended to Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq. They are against adjusting the demographics of Kirkuk, where many Sunnis were relocated under the former government of Saddam Hussein.
In a brief statement to reporters as meetings got underway, Talabani's spokesman, Kamran Qaradaghi, said politicians would spend the evening discussing how much power to allow regional governments such as Kurdistan's, how to distribute the country's oil wealth, and what electoral system should be used to choose future governments.
"They are committed to the deadline of August 15," he said of the committee members.
After the meeting, Salih Mutlak, a Sunni Arab participant, said that the group had agreed in principle that the central government would control Iraq's oil resources but that the question of federalism was left unresolved.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have long maintained that political progress would undermine the country's violent insurgency. Fighting continued Tuesday in and around the northwestern city of Haditha, where U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers are in the fourth day of an offensive along the Euphrates River. U.S. jets destroyed a pair of safe houses, killing at least seven insurgents, according to an Iraqi army captain who spoke on condition he not be named.
The insurgent group led by Abu Musab Zarqawi posted a statement on the walls of several mosques in the city of Rawah, northwest of Haditha, that said the rebels would engage the United States in a "war of attrition."
