Iraqi Police: Bomb targets a party office of Sunni lawmaker barred from running in elections

Iraqi Police: Bomb targets Sunni lawmaker

BAGHDAD — Iraqi officials say a bomb has exploded outside the party offices of a prominent Sunni lawmaker barred from running in next month’s parliamentary election.

A police official says the blast took place Saturday night near the gate of an office belonging to Saleh al-Mutlaq’s party in Baghdad’s Sunni-dominated Azamiyah neighborhood.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Hayday al-Mulla, a spokesman for al-Mutlaq’s political coalition, says three people were wounded in the blast. The explosion also caused minor damage to the building.

Al-Mutlaq is a fierce critic of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He was barred from running in the elections because of ties to Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BAGHDAD (AP) — A political coalition led by one of the Iraqi prime minister’s fiercest critics temporarily halted its campaign Saturday for next month’s parliamentary elections after a number of its candidates were barred from running.

The Iraqi National Movement, led by former Shiite premier Ayad Allawi, suspended campaigning for three days while it attempts to negotiate the return of dozens of its candidates, said spokesman Haydar al-Mulla.

The back-and-forth political wrangling over the ban on more than 450 candidates for the March 7 vote has threatened to undermine Iraq’s political stability, worrying U.S. officials that it could throw the credibility of the elections into question and undo security gains.

Al-Mulla said it was unclear how many of the coalition’s have been banned from running, but said election officials initially put the number at 72.

The biggest blow to the group was the loss of one of its leaders, Sunni lawmaker Saleh al-Mutlaq. Al-Mutlaq — a fierce critic of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — has acknowledged he was a Baathist until the late 1970s but quit the party. A panel confirmed the ban on al-Mutlaq earlier this week.

Al-Mutlaq and other Sunnis leaders have slammed the blacklist as an attempt by al-Maliki’s Shiite-dominated government to sideline Sunnis, even though many Shiites have also been banned.

More than 450 candidates were identified on a backlist by a Shiite-led political vetting committee. All but 177 candidates either dropped out on their own or were replaced by their party.

The election commission chief, Faraj al-Haidari, said an appeals panel only cleared 26 names on the blacklist to run.

U.S. officials are deeply concerned that the ban could undermine Iraq’s political stability ahead of the withdrawal of American combat troops by the end of August.

Violence has fallen off dramatically in recent years, though insurgents still routinely target Iraqi security forces and civilians.

Iraq’s government has warned there could be an surge in attacks ahead of the elections.

In a new audio tape posted on militant Web sites Friday, a man to be purporting to be Abu Omar al-Baghdadi — the leader of an al-Qaida front group in Iraq — vowed to violently disrupt Iraq’s elections and warned Sunnis not to take part in the vote.

Al-Baghdadi is a shadowy figure. The Iraqi government claims to have him in custody, while the U.S. once even questioned his existence, saying he was a fictitious character used to give an Iraqi face to an organization dominated by foreign al-Qaida fighters.

The recording could not be independently confirmed, but the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group that monitors militant Web sites said the voice seemed like that of the person previously identified as al-Baghdadi.

Also Saturday, a barrage of rockets struck a joint American-Iraqi base near Amarah, 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

About 10 rockets struck Camp Sparrowhawk early in the morning, injuring two Iraqi soldiers and damaging equipment, said Maj. Myles Caggins, a military spokesman.

The rocket attack came a day after an Iraqi-U.S. raid searching for weapons smugglers at a nearby village left at least five people dead.

Caggins said the attack appeared to be “retaliation against the Iraqi security forces.”

Iraqi and U.S. forces said they came under fire Friday as they approached the village of Ali al-Sharqi, about 160 miles (265 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad. The troops were searching for weapons allegedly smuggled across the border by suspected Iranian-backed Kateb Hezbollah fighters.

The U.S. military did not respond to multiple requests for additional information about the raid.

Associated Press Writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.