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 In Baghdad, a bomber rammed a vehicle into an intelligence
headquarters on Saturday, killing at least eight people, police and
medical sources said. Near Tikrit, a suicide bomber driving a
military Humvee packed with explosives attacked a gathering of
soldiers and Shi'ite militias on Friday night, killing nine.
Shi'ite militiamen machinegunned 68 worshipers at a village mosque
in Diyala Province on Friday as politicians try to form a
power-sharing government capable of countering Islamic State
militants.
An advance by Islamic State through northern Iraq has alarmed the
Baghdad government and its Western allies and drawn U.S. airstrikes
in Iraq for the first time since the withdrawal of American troops
in 2011.
Although the air campaign has caused a few setbacks for Islamic
State, they do not address the far broader problem of sectarian
warfare which the group has fueled with attacks on Shi'ites.
Bombings, kidnappings and execution-style shootings occur almost
daily, echoing the dark days of 2006-2007, the peak of a sectarian
civil war.
Two of Iraq's most influential Sunni politicians suspended
participation in talks on forming a new government after the
militiamen carried out the mosque attack.
Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Mutlaq and Parliament Speaker Salim
al-Jibouri have pulled out of talks with the main Shi'ite alliance
until the results of an investigation into the killings are
announced.
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Jibouri, a moderate Sunni, condemned both Islamic State as well as
the Iranian-trained Shi'ite militias who Sunnis say kidnap and kill
members of their sect with impunity.
"We will not allow them to exploit disturbed security in the country
to undermine the political process. We believe the political process
should move on," he told a news conference on Saturday.
Iraq's new Shi'ite prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, faces the
daunting task of trying to draw Sunnis into politics after they were
sidelined by his predecessor Nuri al-Maliki.
(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by
Rosalind Russell)
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