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At Least Nine GIs Killed in W. Iraq
Iraqi soldiers stand at the site of a car bombing in Baghdad. At least 12 Iraqis were killed Monday in three vehicle bombings in mostly Shiite areas of the capital, police reported. Ten died as worshipers were leaving a mosque.
(By Karim Kadim -- Associated Press)
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In prepared remarks, Rice and Straw offered effusive praise for Ayatollah Ali Sistani, considered the most influential of the country's Shiite clerics, for what they called his wisdom and guidance as politicians navigated the process. These words were meant to soothe some Shiite leaders who had expressed frustration recently over perceived meddling in Iraqi affairs.
But after the delegation departed, spokesmen for several leaders said the involvement of foreign powers undermined Iraqi sovereignty. These critics included the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose followers were instrumental in delivering Jafari the Shiites' nomination.
Also on Monday, the chief prosecutor in the case against ousted president Saddam Hussein said the formal investigation had been completed into Hussein's role in the 1988 Anfal campaign, in which tens of thousands of civilians in Iraq's Kurdish north were killed.
The prosecutor, Jaafar al-Mousawi, said this opened the way for formal charges to be filed in what would be the second court case against Hussein. Hussein is currently on trial with seven co-defendants for the killings of 148 Shiite villagers from Dujail, north of Baghdad, in the early 1980s. The next session is set for Wednesday.
According to Mousawi, at least eight defendants already in custody will be charged with crimes against humanity in the Anfal case, including Hussein and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, nicknamed "Chemical Ali" for his role in the chemical weapons attack that killed more than 5,000 Kurds in the town of Halabja in 1988.
Elsewhere, the prime minister of the Kurdish regional government said he had pardoned Kamal Kadir Karim, an Iraqi-born journalist with Austrian citizenship who was arrested in October. On March 26, Karim was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison for writing articles critical of Massoud Barzani, the Kurdish regional president.
Karim's release came at the urging of international and Iraqi human rights advocates and journalist organizations. This act "proves that the government maintains and supports democracy in this region," government spokesman Mumammad Khoshna said, according to news service reports.
Correspondent Ellen Knickmeyer and special correspondents K.I. Ibrahim in Baghdad and Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.
