IRAQ: Former Prime Minister of Iraq, Iyad Allawi, says strong security forces can save Iraq while guerillas attack police headquarters in Miqdadiya, at least 22 dead

Record ID: 354395

  • Title: IRAQ: Former Prime Minister of Iraq, Iyad Allawi, says strong security forces can save Iraq while guerillas attack police headquarters in Miqdadiya, at least 22 dead
  • Date: 21st March 2006
  • Summary: (BN11) MIQDADIYA, IRAQ (MARCH 21, 2006) (REUTERS) DAMAGED MILITARY VEHICLES AT POLICE HEADQUARTERS (2 SHOTS) SPENT BULLETS ON GROUND WOMEN CRYING SPEAKING TO IRAQI SOLDIER ARMOURED VEHICLE NEAR SITE OF ATTACK IRAQI SOLDIERS STANDING GUARD
  • Embargoed: 5th April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5EMOMPG7PEOV784BTT3ET3OLE
  • Story Text: Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, tipped to be security supremo in a new administration, called on Tuesday (March 21) for Iraq's forces to be reinforced to prevent sectarian conflict exploding into all-out civil war.
    Since talks on forming a national unity government were dragging on, leaders should consider a quick, temporary deal to install a crisis cabinet and review its line-up in a year or so, the secular, Shi'ite politician told Reuters in an interview.
    "We are in the early stages of a civil war. We hope we don't get to the point of no return," he said at the headquarters of his Iraqi List, a cross-sectarian party that is the fourth biggest bloc in parliament with a tenth of the seats.
    Bloodshed and "sectarian and ethnic cleansing" were already happening but "there is still hope" of avoiding war, he said.
    Allawi spoke as fresh violence broke out in the country. In one of their biggest attacks on Iraqi forces, insurgents stormed the police headquarters and another official building in the town of Miqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad, on Tuesday, killing at least 22 people, mostly policemen.
    Ten suspected Sunni Arab insurgents were also killed, but the attackers freed 33 prisoners, an Interior Ministry source said, adding that 15 policemen and nine civilians were killed.
    A police source put the death toll at 18 police officers, four civilians and one gunman.
    Allawi, whose secular outlook and decades in exile as an ally of U.S. intelligence against Saddam Hussein make him popular in Washington, said although he hoped to see the withdrawal of multi-national forces in the future, he believed they currently played an important role in Iraq.
    "Definitely, the presence of the multi national forces is very important in this country at this stage, but down the road, inshallah, we hope that there is a withdrawal. This is what the UN Security Council Resolution calls for. But I see the role of the multi-national forces as not only to prevent civil strife in Iraq but also to expedite the training of the Iraqi capabilities and forces and security. So, Iraqi forces would be able to force the challenge themselves," he said.
    U.S. and Iraqi forces have been on high alert as Iraq teeters on the brink of all-out sectarian conflict since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra a month ago.
    North of Baghdad, hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops pursued a sweep for insurgents, arresting three more suspects and seizing three ammunition caches. U.S. and Iraqi officials have trumpeted Operation Swarmer as proof the newly formed Iraqi army is growing stronger.
    A day after the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, The Red Crescent society brought truckloads of relief goods to Samarra for displaced residents affected by the offensive.
    President George W. Bush on Monday vowed not to abandon Iraq and tried to counter fears among Americans and Iraqis that the communal violence was spiralling into civil war.
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