IRAQ: Western governments and Muslim clerics expressed horror yesterday at co-ordinated suicide attacks in Iraq which killed Shia worshippers.
A member of Iraq's governing council blamed the attacks on foreign groups bent on fomenting sectarian violence in Iraq after the US-led forces removed Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated government last year.
Britain, Germany and France condemned the attacks outside mosques in Baghdad and the holy city of Kerbala as pilgrims marked Ashura, one of the holiest days in the Shia calendar.
Condemnation also came from Sunni and Shia leaders, who urged Muslims to unite against those trying to divide them.
The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, described the attacks as "outrageous" and said that they were aimed at hurting Iraq's majority Shias and political progress made by the governing council.
"It is no coincidence . . . that these events have occurred both on the days of celebration and devotion by the Shia community and also just a day after there was the very good news from Iraq of the agreement for what amounts to an interim constitution," Mr Straw told reporters in London.
On Monday, the governing council agreed an interim constitution, preparing the way for US plans to return power to the Iraqis by June 30th.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schröder, said after meeting King Abdullah of Jordan in Berlin that the bombings highlighted the need for the United Nations to play a greater role in Iraq.
"We both believe it is now important to do everything to achieve a stable and democratic Iraq and we also agree that this requires a special role for the United Nations, a process which surely will be very difficult to implement, as is clear when looking at today's terrible attacks in Iraq," Mr Schröder said.
Mr Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a member of the governing council, blamed the attacks on Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian whom Washington suspects of working for al-Qaeda.
The US military in Iraq said last month that they had intercepted a computer disc containing a letter from Zarqawi urging suicide bomb attacks on Shia to inflame sectarian tensions in Iraq.
"The civil war and sectarian strife that Zarqawi wants to inflict on the people of Iraq will not succeed. Zarqawi failed, his gang and their evil plans have failed," Mr al-Rubaie said.
"Sunnis, Shia, Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, all Iraqis are determined to move forward," he said.
Sheikh Ali Salman, a Shia cleric in Bahrain, the only Gulf state with a Shia majority, called for unity. "I hope this event will not trigger a reaction in the wrong direction," he said in Manama. "All Muslims should work together to build a peaceful and democratic Iraq."
Between 40 and 50 Iranian Shia pilgrims were killed or injured in the blasts, according to Iranian officials.
"Unfortunately, the continued presence of occupation forces has not provided security for the Iraqi people, and they [the occupiers\] should accept their responsibility for this incident," said Mr Hamid Reza Asefi, a foreign ministry spokesman. - (Reuters)