Tuesday, December 05, 2006
SCIRI leader calls for harsher crack down on insurgents
Politics, Security
A leading Iraqi Shi'ite politician has said the only way to avert civil war in Iraq is for U.S.-led forces to strike harder against Sunni-led insurgents. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim was speaking on December 4 in Washington at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Earlier, he met with U.S. President George W. Bush who told al-Hakim that he is not satisfied with the pace of progress in Iraq.
Al-Hakim is the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the biggest party in Iraq's Shi'ite dominated government. Minority Sunnis accuse the SCIRI's militia -- the Badr Brigades -- of targeting them. Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General George Casey, issued a joint statement urging Iraqis "not to become pawns of those" who seek to destroy Iraq. The statement came after police found more than 50 bodies -- many showing signs of torture -- dumped at two sites in Baghdad.
Al-Hakim is the leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the biggest party in Iraq's Shi'ite dominated government. Minority Sunnis accuse the SCIRI's militia -- the Badr Brigades -- of targeting them. Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General George Casey, issued a joint statement urging Iraqis "not to become pawns of those" who seek to destroy Iraq. The statement came after police found more than 50 bodies -- many showing signs of torture -- dumped at two sites in Baghdad.
