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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka ęape-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ózeti

cepted constitution and elections, but a “Lebanonization,” a fracturing into separata warlord-ruled fiefs, with the gun supplanting the rule of law.

This was hardly what America in-tended when it came here promising

Iraqis something far better than Saddam. “With different militias controlling different cities, that obviously doesn’t promise the political stability Iraq needs,” he said.

John F. Burns can be reached at [e-mail]. John Vinocur is on va-cation.

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International Herald Tribune

Wednesday, August 25,2004

A young Iraąi in front of a burning building Tuesday in Najaf, where U.S. forces battled Shiite rebel militiamen.

2 Iraąi ministers escape bombings

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By Erik Eckholm

BAGHDAD: Within a single hour in twó Baghdad neighborhoods Tuesday moming, two ministers in the interim Iraqi government were the targets of bomb explosions that killed at least five bodyguards and injured several bystanders.

The two, ministers of environment and education, were unscathed in the closely sequenced attacks, one in-volving an apparent suicide bomber in a car and the other a roadside explosive. The blasts reverberated across the Capital, and together the attacks were a blunt reminder of the dangers facing of-ficials of the U.S.-backed govemment, which is under siege from multiple in-surgent forces.

It was not elear if the attacks had any link to the violent standoff that contin-ued in Najaf, to the south, where U.S. forces were battling the militia of the Shiite elerie Moktada al-Sadr.

In a statement posted on an Islamie Web site, a group linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian linked to Al Qaeda who is believed to be hiding in Iraq, took credit for the car bomb attack on the environment minister, The Associated Press reported. The authenticity of the claim could not be confirmed.

As U.S. troops, newly aided by Iraqi forces, tightened their stranglehold on militia members in and around Najafs revered Imam Ali Shrine, Iraq‘s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, held a news conference Tuesday to wam neighbor-ing countries against pushing for inter-national mediation or negotiations.

“We regard this as an intemal affair,” he said. “We will not welcome any effort to internationalize or regionalize it.” The statement was apparently promp-ted by Iran’s recent cali for regional dis-cussions on the crisis in Najaf, as well as concems about the bloodshed being voiced in intemational Islamie forums.

Iran has a mainly Shiite Muslim pop-ulation with close ties to the Shiites of Southern Iraq, and officials here have accused the Iranian govemment of sup-porting militant Islam in Iraq.

Joumalists have reported seeing what appeared to be Iranian-made weapons and Iranian men among the ranks of Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army.

While drawing a linę against outside mediation or interference, Zebari sought to convey a conciliatory mes-sage to the govemment of Iran.

“We are reaching out to Iran, trying to engage them positively,” he said. The govemment has decided to send a dele-gation to Iran “soon,” he said, “to ex-plain our position and to encourage them to play a constructive role.”

Zebari stressed the government’s commitment to crushing the militia in Najaf, saying, “We are determined to end this with the minimum of blood

Joao Silva (or The New York Times

shed, but we will not waver." He added that the credibility of the govemment was at stake.

At the same time, Zebari repeated the recent promise by the interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, that if Sadr will disarm and disband his militia, he can join in the country’s fledgling electoral politics.

Implicit in these statements is the suggestion that criminal charges pending against the elerie could be set aside as he seeks Office.

Iraq’s defense minister, Hazim al-Shalaan, told Al Arabiya television Tuesday that the Mahdi Army members remaining in the old city of Najaf and its shrine have only hours to surrender. He said the govemment believed that Sadr himself was still in Najaf, though not in the shrine.

Meanwhile, an Italian joumalist* Enzo Baldoni, who has been missing in Iraq sińce last week, has been kid-napped by militants, the AP reported, citing a video broadcast Tuesday on the pan-Arab Al Jazeera television station. The group, calling itself “The Islamie Army in Iraq," said in a statement it could not guarantee Baldoni’s safety unless Italy announces within 48 hours that it would withdraw its 3,000 troops from Iraq, the AP said. In response, Italy’s government insisted that it would keep its troops in Iraq.

The New York Times

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