Amid Iraq’s political turmoil, Shiite pilgrims offer tempting target for insurgents

Attacks highlight Iraq’s tempestuous politics

BAGHDAD — Two days of attacks targeting hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims in the Iraqi capital have killed almost 70 people, casting a spotlight Thursday on Iraq’s security challenges as militants focus on stoking sectarian tensions that have hindered efforts to form a new government.

The violence linked to the anniversary of the death of a revered Shiite holy man bears the hallmark of Sunni insurgents in Iraq. While it pales in comparison to attacks in previous years, the bloodshed comes at a crucial time for the country as officials jostle for power while struggling to ensure security and stability as U.S. forces begin their return home.

Despite a force of some 200,000 Iraqi soldiers and police officers that fanned out along the pilgrims’ route in Baghdad to ensure security, insurgents were still able to pull off a string of attacks, including at least two by suicide bombers.

“Those who benefit from such acts are the enemies of humanity, the enemies of democracy, the enemies of openness,” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday in Beirut, where he was paying his respects following the death of a leading Shiite cleric.

The Iraqi premier is locked in a power struggle for his post with Ayad Allawi, the secular politician who served as Iraq’s first prime minister after the 2003 invasion and whose Sunni-backed coalition narrowly won the March 7 election.

With the July 14 constitutionally-mandated deadline to select a new government approaching, the political uncertainty in Iraq is providing the militants with greater opportunity to strike.

The deadlock between al-Maliki’s State of Law party and Allawi’s Iraqiya party prompted a visit last week by Vice President Joe Biden. A compromise appears far off, but Iraqi and U.S. officials have tried to quell concerns.

“The talks between all the blocs that participated in the elections and won are continuing on a daily basis,” al-Maliki said.

His reference to all the blocs that “won” appears to indicate he is not about to relinquish his post without significant concessions.

But al-Maliki is in a tight spot. Along with finding common ground between the two parties, he also must appease powerful Iranian-backed Shiite parties, like those headed by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Iraqi National Alliance. A State of Law official involved in the negotiations told The Associated Press that the INA had informed them that they rejected al-Maliki’s candidacy for a second term.

Both al-Maliki and Allawi must also win the support of the influential Kurds, who hold the presidency and seek greater autonomy in Iraq’s oil-rich north. A statement released Thursday by President Jalal Talabani’s office said Kurdish provincial leaders agreed that his retention of the post was a “main demand” for their participation in forming of a new government.

“It is one of the great ironies of the Iraq war that the primary threat to Iraqi security and stability is now the lack of unity among its democratically elected politicians, not its insurgents or its sectarian and ethnic tensions,” Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert with the Center for Strategic and International Relations, said in a report Thursday.

Militants have taken advantage of the uncertainty this week to target pilgrims commemorating the death of the eighth century Shiite imam, Moussa al-Kadhim. Each year, Shiite worshippers gather at the gold-domed mosque in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah that is believed to sit atop his tomb.

On Thursday, three separate roadside bombings in eastern and northern Baghdad, left 14 people dead and at least 63 wounded, Iraqi hospital and police officials said. A car bomb in southern Baghdad killed another person.

The incidents followed a particularly gruesome night in which nearly 60 people were killed in a series of attacks that marked the worst violence since late April.

The deadliest attack Wednesday was a suicide bombing that killed 35 people and wounded more than 100. The bomber struck just as the pilgrims were to cross a bridge from the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah into the predominantly Shiite area of Kazimiyah.

The Imams Bridge was also the site of a deadly stampede in 2005 sparked by a rumor that a suicide bomber was in the crowd; 900 people were killed in the ensuing melee.

The anniversary is not the most important one for Iraq’s Shiite majority, but still draws huge crowds and makes an easy target for insurgents.

Hundreds of tents were erected along roads leading to and from the shrine, where the marchers were offered food, tea and water as they walked under a scorching Baghdad sun. Young men showered the pilgrims with water sprinklers.

The threat of violence, however, only seemed to strengthen the resolve of the pilgrims.

“Even Saddam’s regime could not prevent us from taking part in this march,” said Athraa Ali, 30, as she pushed her mother in a wheelchair. “We cannot stop living because of these explosions.”

Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, Bushra Juhi, Sameer N. Yacoub and Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.