Iraqi militia leader survives assassination attempt

Oct 28, 2009, 14:44 GMT

Baghdad - The leader of an Iraqi Sunni militia allied with the Iraqi government on Wednesday survived an assassination attempt, as violence continued to wrack disputed areas in the north of the country.

Rahim Muzab, the leader of the local Sahwa, or 'Awakening,' militia in the city of Samarra, narrowly escaped death when a bomb stuck to the wall of his compound exploded as he was departing by car, police there told the German Press Agency dpa, adding that Muzab's car had been badly damaged.

Iraqi and US security officials credit the Sahwa militias, many of whom were drawn from former Sunni insurgents and Iraqi soldiers, with a dramatic drop in violence in the areas they patrol. US and Iraqi forces enticed the militiamen to battle insurgents with promises of weapons, money, training and jobs in the Interior Ministry.

Wednesday's assassination attempt was the latest in a string of attacks targeting those who work with the government in the area, roughly 150 kilometres north of Baghdad.

On Tuesday night, an 11-year-old boy was killed in nearby al-Hajaj after he tried to remove a bomb stuck to the bottom of his father's car. His father, Barzan Ibrahim Hassan, is an employee of the Ministry of Commerce, police told dpa.

Tensions were also high in the disputed areas to the north of Samarra on Wednesday, after the Iraqi parliament once again postponed voting on a law to govern the conduct of parliamentary elections scheduled to be held in January after failing to resolve a debate on voting in the disputed city of Kirkuk.

Many Iraqi Kurds hope to make the city, and its nearby oil fields, the capital of a future independent state. Iraqi Arab and Turkmen politicians regard the city and the surrounding al-Tamim province as an integral part of the country.

Iraqi soldiers on Wednesday moved into the disputed area of Daquq, 45 kilometres to the south of Kirkuk, Amir Khawa Karam, the head of the local council, told dpa.

Karam, a politician from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the partners in the Kurdish Regional Government in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region to the north, said the soldiers had told Kurdish Peshmerga militias to leave the area.

'The Iraqi army searched the Kurdish villages and told the Peshmergas to leave, despite the fact that the Peshmergas entered the area with the consent (of the local government), and the Iraqi army entered the area without our agreement,' Karam told dpa.

'We will not accept any form of interference from ... the Iraqi army in the administrative affairs of the region of Daquq,' he said.

Violence also continued in the similarly divided city of Mosul, where an assertive, Arab-nationalist provincial government elected last January has been seeking to rid areas bordering the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

Three civilian bystanders were killed and four others were injured when a bomb targeting a passing police patrol exploded in the district of Kraj. A policeman was also injured, police in Mosul told dpa.

Mosul and its environs, which are among the most ethnically and religiously diverse areas of Iraq, remain the site of near-daily fatal attacks.