Iraqi governor killed by bomb as Maliki visits Syria

IRAQ:The governor of a southern Iraqi province was killed by a road-side bomb yesterday morning on his way to work.

Muthanna governor Muhammad Ali Hassani was the second provincial chief to be assassinated this month. He and Qadisiyah governor Khalil Jamil Hamza were senior members of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) founded in Tehran in 1982.

A spokesman for the interior ministry promptly blamed "militias", suggesting the bombing had been carried out by the Mahdi army militia led by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which has been battling the SIIC militia, the Badr Corps, for control of the south.

Sadrist spokesman Sheikh Ahmad al-Shaibani condemned both killings and said the Sadrists had "no links to the two assassinations". Hamid al-Saidi, a SIIC deputy, accused members of the ousted regime and foreign elements.

Muthanna was the first province to be handed over to Iraqi forces at a time when British troops had pacified the south, but since then the area has been torn by inter-factional strife.

The bombing did not compel prime minister Nuri al-Maliki to cancel his first visit to Damascus since taking office last spring.

There he began three days of talks on security, refugees and trade with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and senior officials.

Baghdad and Damascus restored relations last November after a 26-year rift caused by Syria's support for Tehran in its eight-year war with Iraq. During the 1990s Mr Maliki headed the Damascus office of the Shia fundamentalist Dawa party banned by the ousted regime.

Last week Mr Maliki was in Tehran, where his cordial meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad elicited criticism from the White House.

Although the date has not been set, plans have been announced for Mr Ahmadinejad's first visit to Baghdad, risking further US disapproval.

Washington accuses Iran's Revolutionary Guards of providing training, guns and explosive devices to Shia militias in Iraq and says Damascus is failing to halt the infiltration of Arab fighters into Iraq.

Consequently, the US is displeased by Mr Maliki's warming relations with Iran and Syria. Both countries have called on the Maliki government to fix a timeline for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, while Syria has asked Mr Maliki to make a serious effort to court Iraq's disaffected Sunni community. But he has done neither.

In an interview published yesterday in the Independent, al-Sadr said the Maliki government "will not survive" because it had failed to work with all Iraq's communities. He has recently stepped up pressure on Washington to commit the US to a departure timetable by arguing that Britain, the main US ally, is planning to leave Iraq soon.

"The British have realised that this is not a war they should be fighting or one they can win," he said, claiming the Mahdi army had contributed to armed resistance. He has called upon tribal leaders to co-operate in expelling "all foreign elements" from Iraq, including al-Qaeda, and said he would welcome an expanded role for the UN if it replaces US and other foreign forces.