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Bombings in Baghdad Kill More Than 2 Dozen Civilians Failed Talks With Militants Prompt Many to Flee in Iraq
(about 9 hours later)
BAGHDAD — More than two dozen civilians were killed when seven bombs exploded in public markets and courts in Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad on Monday, medical and security officials said, in yet another flare-up in sectarian violence. BAGHDAD — Thousands of residents have fled Falluja in recent days, fearing worsening violence after the failure of negotiations between local leaders and jihadist militants to end a standoff that has lasted weeks, leaders from the city said Monday.
The deadliest of the blasts was set off by a car bomb in a neighborhood called Abu Dshir in southern Baghdad, killing eight people near a market and wounding 18. A tentative agreement to allow the local police and other officials to return to the city fell apart on Sunday after militants, who took control of the city this month, briefly kidnapped tribal sheikhs and a local imam with whom they had been negotiating, people involved in the talks said.
Other car bombs erupted at the entrances of two courts in the Baya area in the western part of the capital, while bombings struck the neighborhoods of Shurta Raba, Dora, Husseiniya and Baghdad Jadeeda. The failure of the negotiations was a blow to the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who has pledged that the army will not storm the city to dislodge the militants, including some linked to Al Qaeda. Instead, Mr. Maliki has empowered local Sunni leaders to negotiate an end to the crisis, while at the same time paying and arming Sunni tribesman to fight the militants.
Altogether, the death toll from the seven sites reached 27 people dead and more than 70 wounded, the officials said. But as the stalemate has persisted for a third week, it has raised questions about the effectiveness of the government’s approach, as well as fears for the fate of Falluja’s remaining residents, who say the militants are consolidating their grip, including by threatening to impose religious edicts.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the string of blasts, but they sharpened the focus on an escalating cycle of violence in Iraq that underlines the country’s sectarian tensions, and on the Sunni fighters affiliated with Al Qaeda who are pitted against the Shiite-dominated government. One resident, Mahmood al-Naimi, said he woke up on Monday and heard the news that the talks had failed. “I went out and I saw dozens of gunmen patrolling the streets — no police or any sign of government employees,” he said, adding that militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria were in control. He went home, gathered his family and his belongings and left the city, he said.
That fighting is taking place mostly in Anbar Province west of Baghdad, where on Sunday and Monday the army’s security forces and armed tribes have engaged in fierce battles with Qaeda-affiliated militias. The fighting in Falluja and other cities in the western province of Anbar has come during persistent, lethal militant attacks elsewhere in Iraq, deepening fears of a return to the sectarian bloodletting that plagued the country during the American occupation.
Security forces from the province and a government ministry official in Baghdad said 67 militia fighters were killed in those two days in Anbar, mostly in eastern Ramadi and other areas. There was no information about any losses from the government and tribal side. On Monday, at least 27 civilians were killed when seven bombs exploded in public markets and courts in Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, according to medical and security sources.
In the eastern part of Anbar Province, a journalist was killed and another was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded as they were covering the opening of a police station that had been taken over by Al Qaeda, according to a police official. The deadliest blast was set off by a car bomb in a neighborhood called Abu Dshir in southern Baghdad, killing eight people near a market and wounding 18.
Other car bombs exploded at the entrances of two courts in the western part of the capital.
Security officials said that government forces had killed at least 67 militiamen during fighting in Anbar Province over the last two days, including during heavy clashes in the city of Ramadi. They did not release any information about losses on the government and tribal side.
An Iraqi journalist, Firas Mohamed, was killed near Ramadi by a roadside bomb while he was covering the reopening of a police station that had been taken over by militants. A police officer was killed in the same explosion, and another journalist was injured, a police official said.
Mr. Maliki, whose government has been accused of marginalizing the Sunni minority, has come under pressure from Sunni leaders, officials within his own government and foreign diplomats to defuse the crisis without deploying the army in force. The faltering negotiations appeared to leave Mr. Maliki with fewer options, as government forces continue to take heavy casualties during the fighting.
A leader from Falluja who was involved with the discussions to end the standoff, Sheikh Majeed al-Juraifi, said he and other negotiators had persuaded the government not to shell the city while they tried to negotiate with the militants. In a meeting on Sunday, Mr. Juraifi said, he warned the militants not to give the army an excuse to raid the city, telling the militants to withdraw their fighters from the center of Falluja to the periphery and allow police officers, expelled after the takeover, to return.
After much debate, “they finally agreed,” Mr. Juraifi said.
But a few minutes later, gunmen in a dozen vehicles appeared at the meeting and detained him and three other negotiators, including a local imam. The four were taken to a local Islamic court set up by the militants and interrogated, Mr. Juraifi said.
The men who had abducted them suggested that they belonged to a group of militants different from those that the sheikhs had been negotiating with, and said local security forces would not be allowed to return. “The city is under our protection,” one of the militants told Mr. Juraifi, and berated him and the others for siding with the “Iranian” army — a derogatory reference to Mr. Maliki’s Shiite-led government.
By that point, word had gone out to some of Falluja’s local police officers to return, according to Ismael Hassan, a police officer who had started to head back to Falluja on Sunday. But he and his colleagues were accosted by gunmen north of the city.
One of the gunmen told Mr. Hassan and the others that there was “no deal.”
“This is your last chance,” Mr. Hassan quoted one of the gunmen as saying. “We will let you go, but don’t show your faces again.”
Residents in Falluja said the militants were trying to impose strict Islamic codes, like telling men not to wear Western clothes and women not to wear makeup. Mr. Juraifi said that when he and the others were released, they left the city. “There is no hope,” he said on Monday. “People gave up on the last chance of a peaceful solution.”