THREE PEOPLE were killed and 23 injured yesterday in Baghdad when a booby-trapped body exploded when shoppers at a grocery tried to move it.
The blast took place as Iraqis berated security forces for failing to stop gunmen and car bombers who killed 119 people on Monday. Strikes against soft civilian targets have prompted reports and denials from the US that it could slow the draw-down of the 92,000 troops still in Iraq, half of whom are scheduled to leave by August.
There is concern that protracted wrangling among Iraq’s politicians could postpone formation of a new government beyond August and leave Iraqi cities and towns open to increased violence, risking renewed sectarian conflict.
The jihadi focus on Shia targets since the March poll appears to have persuaded main Shia factions to drop efforts to disqualify Sunni and secular winners accused of links to the outlawed Baath party.
This campaign led to the banning of more than 500 candidates and threatened to deprive the secular Iraqiya bloc headed by former premier Iyad Allawi of several of the 91 seats it won in the election and its position as the largest single bloc. The effort alienated Sunni, secular and other voters who backed Iraqiya.
The author of the deBaathification campaign, Ahmad Chalabi, a former US favourite now allied to Iran, declared that winning candidates would not be barred from taking up their seats in the 325- member national assembly.
While this could temporarily preserve Iraqiya’s two-seat edge over prime minister Nuri al-Maliki’s State of Law bloc, the ongoing vote recount in Baghdad could still alter the picture by giving State of Law a few extra seats without using deBaathification to achieve this objective. Mr Maliki could then claim the right to be first to try to form a government as leader of the largest bloc.
Mr Chalabi, a winner on the list of the Shia fundamentalist Iraqi National Alliance (INA), has been accused of manipulating the deBaathification effort to serve interests of political Shiism and Iran. His commission had threatened to exclude nine winners, six from Iraqiya, as well as the votes of their supporters, necessitating a retabulation of the result.
Mr Chalabi seems to have been defeated on this issue, but he belongs to the committee chosen by the coalition formed by State of Law and INA to select a prime minister. If this happens, he is certain to have his say.