Baghdad, April 12: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki gave his backing Monday to calls for a Sunni Arab former rebel militia, called Sahwa (Awakening) or Sons of Iraq, to be reactivated to help stop deadly bombings.
Maliki was beaten into second place in elections last month largely because he was rejected by voters in Sunni provinces.
“There are demands from security commanders to make use of the Sons of Iraq, within the intelligence effort because they know a lot about dormant terrorist cells,” Maliki told a conference on national reconciliation in Baghdad.
Maliki, who pledged to “give support to the Sahwa and respond to their needs,” told the conference Iraq did not need “more tanks and soldiers” because “only intelligence efforts can put an end to terror and terrorists.”
“We promise to be by your side, the ministers council and the security forces will be by your side,” he added, referring to the Sunni fighters.
In April last year, Maliki alienated the Sahwa — who joined American and Iraqi forces in fighting insurgents in 2006 and 2007 — by charging that they had been infiltrated by Al-Qaeda and loyalists of Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime.
Control of the Sahwa passed from the US to Iraq last October, and for the past year their wages — said to have been cut from 300 dollars under US leadership to 100 dollars — have been paid, often late, by Maliki’s Shiite-led government.
The Iraqi premier is fighting to cling on to his job having narrowly lost a March 7 general election — by 89 seats to 91 — to Shiite former prime minister Iyad Allawi, whose Iraqiya alliance won strong support in Sunni areas.
Both men are locked in protracted bargaining with other political parties to try and secure the 163 seats necessary to form a government in Iraq’s new 325-seat parliament.
Baghdad has seen a series of deadly suicide attacks since August last year, on government buildings and most recently foreign embassies, which have killed hundreds of people and stoked fears that security is weakening.
Four killed, 37 wounded in Iraq attacks
A suicide bomber blew up a car in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Monday killing a policeman and a civilian, as two soldiers were killed near Baghdad, security and medical officials said.
A total of 37 people were wounded in the attacks, the first of which struck around 2 pm (1100 GMT) in the centre of Mosul, 350 kilometres (220 miles) north of the capital.
“Two people were killed, a policeman and a civilian, and 22 people wounded, including five police, when a suicide car bomber targeted their patrol,” Mosul police Major Hussam Aldeen Mohammed said.
Dr Abdul Latif al-Juburi, from Medical City Hospital in Mosul, confirmed the casualties.
In Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad, meanwhile, a bomb in a parked car targeting an army patrol killed two soldiers and wounded 15 people, including three troops, around 3 pm (1200 GMT), an interior ministry official said.
Iraq’s Najaf airport closed on security grounds
An airport south of Baghdad used by thousands of Shiite pilgrims has been closed over security concerns and a row with the Kuwaiti company responsible for its passenger operations.
Najaf airport, 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of the Iraqi capital, was shut on April 7 on orders from the transport ministry, causing daily losses of 100,000 dollars according to provincial authorities angered by the move.
“We want Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to intervene,” Najaf provincial councillor Khaled al-Jaishami said, adding that the airport’s closure was unreasonable.
Transport ministry spokesman Akeel Kawthar, retorted that the decision had been taken on safety grounds after the Kuwaiti company, Al Aqiq, failed to meet its contractual obligations to provide security equipment at the hub.
He said the company had been given months to meet its obligations but had repeatedly prevaricated and ignored requests to rectify the situation.
No one from Al Aqiq was immediately available for comment.
Around 800 people use the airport each day, most of them from Shiite-majority Iran and Bahrain, according to aviation officials.
But numbers surge during major festivals such as Ashura, when Shiite pilgrims flock to Najaf’s Imam Ali shrine.
The airport opened in July 2008. It was previously used as a military helicopter base under the regime of now executed leader Saddam Hussein.
—Agencies