.Iraq clerics call for calm after bombing
KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) - Muslim clerics appealed for calm Friday, one day after a suicide bomber killed 55 people - including women and children - at a local restaurant in the deadliest attack in Iraq in six months.
The attack appeared aimed at a meeting of local Kurdish, Arab and Turkomen leaders who had gathered at the Abdullah restaurant to discuss ways to reduce ethnic tension in this oil-rich city.
But many of the victims had simply come to the restaurant with their families to celebrate the end of the four-day Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.
"Yesterday, the terrorists killed innocent people regardless of their religious and ethnic background," Serwan Ahmed, a Kurdish preacher, told 900 worshippers at the Iskan mosque.
"Thus, all the groups living in Kirkuk should be united and work together to enhance peace and solidarity. We must deprive the terrorists from the chance to create more tension in the city," he added.
At another mosque, preacher Hussein Zangana said al-Qaida "murdered" people who were simply enjoying the religious holiday.
"The terrorists are trying to kill innocent people whether they are Kurds or Arabs," he said.
Most of the victims were buried late Thursday. In keeping with local customs, neighbors of the dead joined families of the victims in digging graves in city cemeteries.
By Friday morning, however, markets and restaurants were open again. Black banners hung on many walls, serving as a grim reminder of the bombing.
The deadly attack occurred at a time of tension between Kurds and Arabs over Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oil fields. Kurds want to annex Kirkuk and surrounding Tamim province into their self-ruled region of northern Iraq.
Most Turkomen and Arabs want the province to remain under central government control, fearing the Kurds would discriminate against them.
Iraq's parliament exempted the Kirkuk area from provincial elections to be held on Jan. 31 because the different ethnic groups could not agree on how to share power.
President Jalal Talabani's party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, sponsored the reconciliation luncheon. Talabani had planned to meet with the group later in the day.
The president, who is Kurdish, later issued a statement saying that the "terrorists and their groups" would never "destroy the great security gains achieved across the country."
Among the dead was a locally popular Turkomen singer who was killed along with his three children, newly married brother and sister-in-law.
Kanaan Mohammed Saleh, 39, who hosted a show called "The Sweet Voice" on a Kurdish television channel, had been invited to the restaurant to attend the reconciliation meeting.
He took his wife, Bushra, three young children and his newly married brother and sister-in-law. All were killed except the wife, who was seriously injured, according to the singer's brother Karim Mohammed Saleh.
"We never expected such a thing to happen, especially at a restaurant outside the city," the brother said as he received mourners at a funeral tent. "After this loss, life has become without meaning or taste for me. I cannot cope with this disaster."
Lt. Col. David Doherty, spokesman for U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said the bomber used a suicide vest packed with metal to maximize casualties. The bomber apparently detonated the vest near a fountain at the center of the main dining area where most of the people were killed, he said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but U.S. officials suspected al-Qaida in Iraq. Two other groups that operate in the north, Ansar al-Sunnah and Ansar al-Islam, have used suicide attacks during the five-year war.
Provincial police chief Brig. Gen. Jamal Tahir said the identity of the bomber and details about how he managed to pass the checkpoints leading to the restaurant were under investigation.
"We know that al-Qaida is always trying to find and make use of weak points in any security system," he said.
MyWay
The attack appeared aimed at a meeting of local Kurdish, Arab and Turkomen leaders who had gathered at the Abdullah restaurant to discuss ways to reduce ethnic tension in this oil-rich city.
But many of the victims had simply come to the restaurant with their families to celebrate the end of the four-day Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha.
"Yesterday, the terrorists killed innocent people regardless of their religious and ethnic background," Serwan Ahmed, a Kurdish preacher, told 900 worshippers at the Iskan mosque.
"Thus, all the groups living in Kirkuk should be united and work together to enhance peace and solidarity. We must deprive the terrorists from the chance to create more tension in the city," he added.
At another mosque, preacher Hussein Zangana said al-Qaida "murdered" people who were simply enjoying the religious holiday.
"The terrorists are trying to kill innocent people whether they are Kurds or Arabs," he said.
Most of the victims were buried late Thursday. In keeping with local customs, neighbors of the dead joined families of the victims in digging graves in city cemeteries.
By Friday morning, however, markets and restaurants were open again. Black banners hung on many walls, serving as a grim reminder of the bombing.
The deadly attack occurred at a time of tension between Kurds and Arabs over Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oil fields. Kurds want to annex Kirkuk and surrounding Tamim province into their self-ruled region of northern Iraq.
Most Turkomen and Arabs want the province to remain under central government control, fearing the Kurds would discriminate against them.
Iraq's parliament exempted the Kirkuk area from provincial elections to be held on Jan. 31 because the different ethnic groups could not agree on how to share power.
President Jalal Talabani's party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, sponsored the reconciliation luncheon. Talabani had planned to meet with the group later in the day.
The president, who is Kurdish, later issued a statement saying that the "terrorists and their groups" would never "destroy the great security gains achieved across the country."
Among the dead was a locally popular Turkomen singer who was killed along with his three children, newly married brother and sister-in-law.
Kanaan Mohammed Saleh, 39, who hosted a show called "The Sweet Voice" on a Kurdish television channel, had been invited to the restaurant to attend the reconciliation meeting.
He took his wife, Bushra, three young children and his newly married brother and sister-in-law. All were killed except the wife, who was seriously injured, according to the singer's brother Karim Mohammed Saleh.
"We never expected such a thing to happen, especially at a restaurant outside the city," the brother said as he received mourners at a funeral tent. "After this loss, life has become without meaning or taste for me. I cannot cope with this disaster."
Lt. Col. David Doherty, spokesman for U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said the bomber used a suicide vest packed with metal to maximize casualties. The bomber apparently detonated the vest near a fountain at the center of the main dining area where most of the people were killed, he said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but U.S. officials suspected al-Qaida in Iraq. Two other groups that operate in the north, Ansar al-Sunnah and Ansar al-Islam, have used suicide attacks during the five-year war.
Provincial police chief Brig. Gen. Jamal Tahir said the identity of the bomber and details about how he managed to pass the checkpoints leading to the restaurant were under investigation.
"We know that al-Qaida is always trying to find and make use of weak points in any security system," he said.
MyWay
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