More Sunnis Approved for Constitution Panel

Iraqi lawmakers have approved a list of 15 Sunni Muslim Arab representatives to join the committee charged with writing the country’s constitution, several people involved in the negotiations said Saturday.

Baha Araji, a member of the constitutional committee, confirmed the agreement on the new Sunni representatives, as did several Sunni politicians who had been chosen to join. The agreement is expected to be ratified early this week by the National Assembly.

The deal ends weeks of sectarian wrangling and clears the way for the committee to begin drafting the constitution with the participation of Iraq’s former ruling minority. Sunni Arabs hold only two of the 55 seats on the committee, whose numbers will swell to 70.

But the progress toward Sunni inclusion in the government came as comments from Interior Minister Bayan Jabr drew a harsh response from Sunni Arab leaders.

Jabr, in an interview with the Al Arabiya news channel, said that Kurdish and Shiite Muslim militias “are going to join the security forces. This does not mean that they are going to join the police or the army as one bloc, but some of their employees can be used as soldiers or officers with their real ranks.”

Jabr specifically named the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of one of the top Shiite political parties, as well as the Kurdish fighters known as the peshmerga. He also mentioned firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr’s Al Mahdi militia.

His comments weren’t particularly controversial -- members of the Kurdish and Shiite militias have been steadily joining the army and police forces. But the militia question is a sensitive one.

Sunni Arabs, who had dominated the Iraqi government and army since the 1920s, now find themselves outside the new Shiite-Kurdish political order.

They fear being further marginalized by the creation of a largely Kurdish and Shiite military.

Sunni Arab leaders complained that the move would produce a factionalized army whose loyalty to Iraq was secondary to diverse political allegiances.

“This is a dangerous decision.... It will be a historical mistake,” said Salih Mutlaq, a spokesman for the National Dialogue Council and a new Sunni representative on the constitutional committee.

“There will be a sectarian and racist basis for the army.... The army has to be professional, far away from political parties. These militias are connected to political parties, and their presence will politicize the army.”

In other developments, multiple insurgent attacks left at least 32 Iraqis dead and the U.S. military announced the death of two more Marines from a car bomb attack on a convoy in Fallouja on Thursday evening. The two men were originally listed as “duty status whereabouts unknown” pending identification of remains.

Saturday’s announcement brings the death toll from the attack to four, including one female Marine. Another Marine and a U.S. sailor remain listed as whereabouts unknown.

Thirteen Marines were wounded in the attack, including 11 women. Although female soldiers are forbidden to serve in forward combat positions, the Army and Marines deploy female troops to handle searches of Iraqi women at checkpoints. The Marine convoy was returning to base from checkpoint duty when it was attacked.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber drove up to a district police headquarters early today, bringing down part of the building and killing at least four officers and a civilian, Reuters news service reported. On Saturday night, a car bomb exploded near a police convoy in the city, killing four officers.

In west Baghdad, a pair of mortar shells struck a cafe in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Shula. An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five Iraqi civilians had been killed and six others had been injured.

In Ramadi, a rebellious Sunni Triangle town near Fallouja, five carloads of armed men attacked a local police station Saturday morning, killing eight police officers and wounding seven, local hospital officials said.

Witnesses said about 20 men had battled police officers for an hour, leaving three squad cars destroyed.

“The weapons that we have are not enough to face such attacks of the armed groups,” said Abbas Mahmoud, a police officer at the station who hadn’t been on duty Saturday.

In Samarra, north of Baghdad, a car detonated in a busy section of the Old City, killing 10 Iraqis, injuring 17 and destroying five homes. According to some reports, the attack targeted the home of a prominent Iraqi police commando.

Times staff writer Raheem Salman and special correspondent Asmaa Waguih in Baghdad, special correspondent Zaydan Khalaf in Samarra and special correspondents in Mosul and Fallouja contributed to this report.