The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 27, 2006, Page 4, Image 4
Bombs, bullets kill more than 50 as U.S. steps up efforts to calm Iraqi mayhem
Robert H. Reid
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHOAD, Iraq — Bombs
and gunfire killed about 60
people as another daytime
curfew Saturday failed
to halt violence that has
claimed nearly 200 lives
since the destruction of a
Shiite shrine set off a wave
of retribution against Sunnis
and pushed Iraq toward civil
war.
In an unusual round
of telephone diplomacy,
President Bush spoke with
seven leaders of Shiite, Sunni
Arab and Kurdish political
parties in a bid to defuse the
sectarian crisis unleashed by
the bombing of the Shiites’
Askariya shrine in Samarra.
Bush “encouraged them to
continue to work together
to thwart the efforts of the
perpetrators of the violence
to sow discord among Iraq’s *
communities,” said Frederick
Jones, a spokesman for the
White House’s National
Security Council.
I he U.S. presidents
personal intervention
appeared to ease Sunni fears
and‘give new impetus to
political moves to resolve
the crisis. During a late
night meeting at Prime
Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s
residence, representatives of
Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish
parties agreed to renew
efforts to form a national
unity government.
“I am very happy and very
optimistic,” al-Jaafari said.
“Our people are very far
from civil war and everyone
asserted that the first enemy
of Iraqis is terrorism and
there isn’t a Sunni who is
against a Shiite or a Shiite
who is against a Sunni.”
Sunni leaders did not
explicitly say they would
end their boycott of
coalition talks, announced
Thursday after a wave of
Shiite reprisal attacks bn
Sunni mosques. But a Sunni
leader, Tariq al-Hashimi,
said all sides agreement that
one of the solutions to the
sectarian crisis “is to form
the government as soon as
possible.”
“(Friday) they were
fighting each other,” Kurdish
politician Mahmoud Othman
told The Associated Press.
“Until noon (Saturday)
there were no improvements
but suddenly aifter Bush
called them, they all went
to the meeting. There is
strong American pressure
because they are very much
concerned about Iraq.”
Reprisal attacks that
followed the Wednesday
blast in Samarra had
derailed talks on a forming
new Iraqi government and
threatened Washington’s
goal of building up a self
sufficient Iraq free of U.S.
military involvement.
A 1 *11
bccunu Miaigiii uay
of curfew in Baghdad and
three surrounding provinces
kept the city relatively
calm, raising hopes the
worst of the crisis was past.
Authorities lifted the curfew
in the areas outside Baghdad
but decreed an all-day
vehicle ban Sunday for the
capital and its suburbs.
“I think the danger of civil
war as a result of this attack
has diminished, although
I do not believe we are
completely out of danger
yet,” U.S. Ambassador
Zalmay Khalilzad told
reporters Saturday night.
Nevertheless, bloodshed
continued.
A car bomb exploded
in the Shiite holy city of
Karbala, killing at least six
Mukhtar Khan / The Associated Press
Kashmiri Shiite Muslims shout anti-U.S. slogans during a protest rally in Srinagar, India
on Sunday. Thousands of Shiite Muslims took part in the rally protesting the bombing
of the major Shiite Askariya Shrine in the Iraqi northern town of Samarra.
people, hospital officials
said. Gunmen broke into
a Shiite home northeast of
Baghdad and massacred 13
male members, police said.
Bodies of 14 Iraqi police
commandos were found
near their three burned
vehicles near a Sunni
mosque in southwestern
Baghdad, police Maj. Falah
al-Mohammedawi said.
Two rockets slammed into
Baghdad’s Shiite slum,
Sadr City, killing three
people, including a child,
and wounding seven, police
said.
Two Iraqi security officers
guarding the funeral of
an Al-Arabiya television
correspondent Atwar Bahjat
were killed and four other
people were wounded when
a car bomb exploded as
mourners left a cemetery
in western Baghdad. Bahjat
was slain Wednesday along
with two colleagues after
covering the Samarra shrine
bombing.
Earlier, shooting broke
out as the funeral procession
was carrying her coffin near
the home of Harith al-Dhari,
head of the Association
of Muslim Scholars, a
prominent Sunni clerical
group. One policeman was
killed and two people were
wounded in the shooting,
police said.
At least 21 other people
died in small-scale shootings
and bombings in Baghdad
and western areas of the
city, according to police and
hospital reports.
Gunmen also shot at two
Sunni mosques in Baghdad
Saturday, police said. And
two rockets damaged a
Shiite shrine late Friday in
Tuz Khormato, 130 miles
north of Baghdad, police
and witnesses said.
The crisis has distracted
attention from the
approaching deadline set by
the kidnappers of American
journalist Jill Carroll,
abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad.
Carroll, a freelancer for the
Christian Science Monitor,
was last seen on a videotape
broadcast Feb. 10 by a
Kuwaiti television station.
It said the kidnappers
threatened to kill her unless
the U.S. met unspecified
demands by Sunday.
“There are no new
developments on her case
so far because we are busy
with a lot of things right
now,” Deputy Interior
Minister Hussein Kamal said
Saturday. “We know about
the deadline and we hope
that we can reach her before
they manage to kill her.”
Faced with one of the
gravest threats of the
turbulent U.S. presence
in Iraq, American officials
mounted a furious effort
to get the political process
back on track while Iraqi
authorities defended their
handling of the crisis.
Defense Minister Saadoun
al-Dulaimi, a Sunni
Arab, told reporters the
government had one army
division and one Interior
Ministry armored brigade
ready to move in case of a
new outbreak of violence
around the capital.
“All honorable Iraqis are
asked today to do all they
can to preserve Iraqi blood
and avoid strife, which in
case it breaks out will bum
everyone,” al-Dulaimi said.
“We do not want to burden
the public with our security
measures but the more
we take, the more we can
control acts of violence. If
we have to, we are ready to
fill the streets with (armored)
vehicles.”
netting taiKS on a new
government back on track
is critical for the Bush
administration plan to
establish a broad-based
government that can win |
the trust of Sunni Arabs,
who form the backbone
of the insurgency. With a
new government in place,
Washington hopes to begin
withdrawing some of its
138,000 soldiers this year.
Without such a
government in place,
U.S. officials have said a
drawdown could threaten
the stability of Iraq, which
lacks a fully trained and
equipped military and police
force to face the insurgents.
The speed with which
the reprisal attacks spread I
Wednesday raised new
doubts about the capability
of Iraq’s security forces to
maintain order.
■ — —1
CORD • COflTinUED PROfTl I
not cause prices to rise.
Jennings said he doesn’t
expect much of an impact
on total concession sales
from the new system, but
that he does expect many
students to use the option
because they already have
their IDs with them to get
into the game.
“A lot of individuals don’t
have cash or credit cards,
but they have Carolina
Cash,” he said.
Second-year international
studies student Amie Dillard
said she would definitely
use her CarolinaCard at the
stadium.
“It’s a hassle to carry
around cash because it could
get lost or stolen,” she said.
Jennings said he will
begin looking at installing a
system in earnest beginning
April 1.
Kenyon said ne is in
talks with Parking Services
Director Derrick Huggins
about installing a system
that would allow students
to pay for parking at meters
with Carolina Cash.
“These are just
preliminary conversations,”
he said. Still, Kenyon
was optimistic about the
feasibility of the system,
which might be wireless.
“As campus has more
wireless capabilities, that
just expands the options of
what we can do,” Kenyon
said.
Kenyon said he has been
working on this project for
the past three weeks and
is exploring a partnership
with the City of Columbia
to allow Carolina Cash to
be used at city meters in
the immediate campus area.
He said his office is in the
research stage of finding
equipment and exploring
how the system would
work.
The CarolinaCard office
is also in the process of
installing a new building
access program at the
Computer Services building
and will install them next
at the USCPD building
and the School of Health.
Kenyon said the building
access program will allow
students to swipe their card
and unlock the doors to
the buildings after hours.
Individual departments
will set a time schedule for
access to the buildings.
“This will make campus
more secure,” Kenyon said.
Kenyon also said installing
the system in each building
usually takes a minimum of
one week, but could take
much longer, depending on
the age of the building. The
Computer Services building
took four weeks to install,
and the USCPD building
will likely take one to two
weeks, he said.
Kenyon said the
discussion is underway
with the Thompson Health
Center’s eye clinic to
allow students to pay their
bill with Carolina Cash.
Students can already pay for
prescriptions and laboratory
fees with Carolina Cash,
Kenyon said.
Currently, students cannot
pay their bills for the rest
of the health center with
Carolina Cash, however.
Because the eye clinic is
run by the University of
South Carolina School of
Medicine, its finances are
handled separately from the
rest of the health center,
Kenyon said.
Kenyon said that his focus
for the use of Carolina Cash
is on campus and he will not
look into off-campus uses
for several years.
“So many people are
requesting different aspects
of the card, we want to take
care of on campus first,” he
said.
Kenyon said that the
office is also in talks with
five out of USC’s seven
regional campuses about
being able to use their
CarolinaCards for more
than identification.
“It’s up to the regional
campuses how much they
want to do with the card,”
he said. “We are a resource
for them. Our long-term
goal is to give them the tools
to maintain and function
(independently). ”
Funding for these
initiatives comes partly from
the money students pay to
get a new CarolinaCard
when it’s lost and partly
from state appropriations.
Our goal is never to be
profitable,” Kenyon said,
explaining that the office
puts any money they make
into funding new uses of
the CarolinaCard. Installing
CarolinaCard capabilities
into one of the vending
machines on campus costs
about $1,500, he said.
There are currently 60
snack machines and 30 soft
drink machines on campus
with CarolinaCard-reading
capabilities, Kenyon said.
However, possible soft drink
vendor change would allow
the office to stipulate in the
contract that all machines
be CarolinaCard capable.
Kenyon said that the
office is also installing
CarolinaCard readers at
more copiers and printers
around campus.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu
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