KIRKUK, Iraq, April 11, (Agencies): Two Saudis who planned to commit suicide bombings were killed alongside an al-Qaeda leader in a joint raid by Iraqi and US forces north of Baghdad, a police chief said on Sunday.
The operation was conducted on Saturday in a valley 70 kms (44 miles) south of the oil city of Kirkuk.
“They were hiding in a grass house and they clashed with our forces for two hours. Two Saudis and an Iraqi were killed,” said Major General Torhan Yussef, acting police chief for Kirkuk province.
The Saudis had intended to kill themselves in attacks planned for Sunday and Tuesday, and the Iraqi who died was an al-Qaeda Iraq leader, Yussef said.
“We found two explosives-laden belts. All three men were around 25 to 30 years old,” he added.
Meanwhile, three brothers who were members of the US-allied Sahwa “Sons of Iraq” militia that helped tame the nation’s insurgency were killed when a roadside bomb engulfed their car on Sunday, officials said.
The incident, in which a fourth brother was wounded, occurred around 10:00 am (0700 GMT) in Adhaim in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, said a security official who confirmed the men were Sahwa fighters.
A hospital official in the provincial capital Baquba said three brothers had died and a fourth was hurt.
In the meantime, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal denied his country boosted Iraq’s former premier Iyad Allawi in last month’s election, a Saudi-owned newspaper said Sunday.
“We do not interfere in (Iraq’s) internal affairs. We support all Iraqis, and Iraq’s unity, independence and sovereignty over its territory, and we maintain the same distance from all politicians,” Saud told the London-based Asharq Alawsat.
Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani held talks in Saudi Arabia on Sunday as politicians in Baghdad feuded over the formation of a new government following an indecisive March 7 general election.
Talabani was greeted at Riyadh international airport by Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, the official SPA news agency reported.
No reason was given for the visit. Talabani’s arrival followed a denial by Saud on Saturday that the Saudi government was meddling in the post-election politicking in Iraq in support of former premier Iyad Allawi.
Sunnis
In the meantime, the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad said Saturday that Iraq’s new government should include all political blocs — including Sunnis — in a shift for a country that has long advocated an Iraqi government dominated by fellow Shiites.
Hassan Kazemi Qomi’s comments were a sign that Iran, which has promoted Shiite power since the fall of Saddam Hussein, recognizes that the March 7 parliamentary vote was simply too close to completely sideline any one political bloc.
“All the blocs must participate,” Qomi said at a news conference in Baghdad. “It must be comprehensive.”
Former prime minister Ayad Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc, which drew on heavy Sunni support, came out two seats ahead in the national vote. But neither Allawi’s list nor the Shiite-led bloc of incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which came in second, got enough support to govern alone.
Now the sides are scrambling to cobble together enough backing to form a government.
Iran has played a powerful role in Iraqi politics. Iran and Iraq both have majority Shiite populations, and are bound by strong religious ties. But the two nations fought a ruinous, eight-year war in the 1980s in which a million people were killed or wounded. Memories of that conflict continue to feed mutual suspicion between Iraqis and Iranians.