Disagreement between Iraqi leaders as violence continues

Baghdad_(dpa) _ Disagreement among the Iraqi leadership escalated Wednesday as Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, accused Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, of giving terrorists in the capital Baghdad a free hand by deciding to remove blockades there.

On al-Maliki's orders US troops ended Tuesday evening their blockading of parts of the predominantly Shiite Sadr City area of Baghdad. The blockade was imposed following the kidnapping last week of a US soldier of Iraqi origin.

The Iraqi premier complained that the blockade had paralyzed much of Baghdad.

A meeting of the Iraqi parliament postponed from Tuesday again failed to take place Wednesday as just 95 of 275 members attended. The session, scheduled to debate national reconciliation, was postponed till Sunday.

Meanwhile US aircraft on Wednesday morning destroyed an alleged "bomb factory" in southern Baghdad believed to have been operated by militants linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, according to US military officials.

The "factory" housed explosives and around 80 barrels of unknown chemicals, the military said in a statement. No information on possible casualties was given.

Violence in western Baghdad on Wednesday claimed the lives of thirteen Iraqis. An explosive device was detonated on a commuter bus, killing two passengers and wounding three.

In another incident, an explosives-laden car was detonated near a police patrol in central Baghdad, killing five policemen and two civilians and wounding at least 10.

Two people were killed and 10 wounded by a bomb in one of the city's biggest commercial marketplaces. The device was placed in the trunk of a taxi and caused extensive damage to nearby vehicles.

In the west of the capital, two policemen were killed when mortar shells were fired at their patrol.

The military also said Wednesday that US forces killed one militant the previous morning in an exchange of fire during a raid in the Shiite town of Balad, 80 kilometres north of Baghdad, the scene of heavy recent fighting.

The source said that another man, believed to have strong links with foreign terrorist groups and to be a possible leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, was captured during the same raid on Tuesday.

One US soldier died on Tuesday from injuries sustained in an operation in the western province of Anbar, the US army said.

In Samara, 125 kilometres north of Baghdad, a senior judge in the Tikrit court was kidnapped near his private residence Tuesday, police sources said.

Judge Saadoon Hassan al-Azawi was abducted by an armed group as he was preparing to leave for work. The incident marks the third attack on an Iraqi judge in the Salah el-din governorate.

Meanwhile, Iraqi television announced that a university professor of history was shot dead by gunmen west of the capital. The professor formerly taught at the university in Anbar.

dpa wa pmc