Iraq Puts Autonomy Issue on Hold, Heading Off Crisis

Iraq’s leaders stepped back from a simmering constitutional crisis Sunday, agreeing to wait at least 18 months before setting up autonomous regions that would shift power away from the central government.

During the cooling-off period, parliament would consider amendments to the constitution, providing a public forum for the divisive issue of autonomy.

The deal, which was still being fine-tuned Sunday night, allows lawmakers to avoid a looming deadline that threatened to exacerbate the sectarian violence ravaging the country.

The compromise leaves intact southern Shiite Muslims’ and northern Kurds’ goal of creating a federal system that would strengthen their hold on the vast oil resources of their two regions. At the same time, Sunni Arabs, who dominate in the resource-poor central and western provinces, would have time to seek constitutional changes to limit the effects of autonomy.

The breakthrough occurred on a day in which bombings and killings claimed dozens of lives and Iraqi TV broadcast a videotape of two dead American soldiers being mutilated.

The military reported the deaths of two Marines in Al Anbar province Sunday. It did not release their names.

The video, a longer version of a clip aired in the summer, purported to show the two soldiers killed in June in an area south of Baghdad. The Mujahedin Shura Council, a group linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed responsibility for that attack.

The group said the deaths were in retaliation for the March raid in which U.S. soldiers allegedly raped an Iraqi girl and killed her and members of her family. Five U.S. soldiers and a former member of their unit face charges that range from failure to report the incident to rape and murder.

The video aired several times Sunday on the Al Arabiya channel. It showed masked men tying the partly unclad bodies to a truck by their heels and driving off. A later scene showed the bodies engulfed in flames. A narrator said the soldiers should be shown no mercy.

Lawmakers of all the major political blocs participated in the closed-door talks that led to the constitutional compromise. The deal will be put before the parliament this week for approval.

“I feel this agreement has ended a political crisis,” said Dhafir Ani of the minority Sunni bloc that opposed the federal system. “I think for us this deal is good but not perfect.”

Those present said the agreement called for the parliament to appoint a committee that would have a year to recommend amendments to the constitution. The members are to be named today.

On Tuesday, the parliament is to begin debate on proposals for forming a federal system. At least four groups have offered their own drafts of the power-sharing law, but the one provided by the majority Shiite bloc is expected to prevail. The 18-month waiting period for implementation will begin once the law is passed.

A clause allowing amendments was added to the constitution as a last-minute concession to Sunnis who objected to the mandate for a federal system. The constitution also set a deadline that would have required implementation of the new federal system by Oct. 22.

Party leaders downplayed the idea that the federalism clause would be the primary item on the new committee’s agenda.

Ayad Samaraie, a Sunni member of parliament who was involved in the talks, said the committee would provide an opportunity to put aside sectarian issues and consider a variety of amendments in the national interest.

Authorities in Baghdad, meanwhile, reported that 45 bodies were received at the morgue Sunday -- eight victims of assassination and the remainder killed and dumped after being kidnapped.

Several car bombs went off in east Baghdad. Two Iraqi policemen were killed and several officers and civilians injured in a 10:30 a.m. blast in the Rusafa neighborhood, and a second bomb targeting police in Alwiya killed a civilian.

In the afternoon, a car bomb near the Baghdad morgue killed four policemen and two civilians and injured eight.

Health Minister Ali Shammari escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb detonated as his motorcade passed in Yarmouk, in south Baghdad. There were no casualties.

Five people were killed in separate attacks in Baqubah, north of Baghdad.

Police in the northern city of Kirkuk said they found the bodies of four unidentified shooting victims who had been tortured.

A curfew was imposed in the southern city of Samawah after a former Iraqi interpreter for the U.S. military was gunned down late Saturday, the Muthanna provincial police chief said.

Armed men stormed into a government building in Hillah in the south, killing a guard.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said Sunday that American and Iraqi forces had killed 14 people and detained more than 25 in strikes on terrorist cells last week. The raids, in five provinces, also yielded caches of weapons and explosive devices. In one attack, three men in explosives vests were killed by aircraft fire in Al Anbar, the statement said.

doug.smith@latimes.com

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Times staff writers Zeena Karim and Raheem Salman in Baghdad and special correspondents in Baghdad, Hillah, Kirkuk and Kuwait contributed to this report.