Shiites Try to Drive Wedge Between Jafari Opponents

BAGHDAD — As a political deadlock continues over the formation of a new Iraqi government, Shiite Muslim leaders have launched a new offensive in favor of beleaguered Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari by trying to drive a wedge between Kurds and Sunni Arabs who oppose Jafari’s winning a full term in office.

Jafari and his supporters have suggested that Iraq’s presidency could be awarded to a Sunni rather than a Kurd, sowing a potential rift between the two groups who, until now, have joined to fight Jafari. In Iraq’s interim government, the Shiites had received the prime minister post, Kurds the presidency, and a Sunni has served as speaker of the parliament.

As the political stalemate continued, at least 32 Iraqis and three U.S. soldiers were killed Wednesday amid the ongoing insurgency and sectarian violence.

North of Baqubah, a car bomb exploded near a Shiite house of worship as people were leaving after evening prayers, killing at least 26 and injuring 70, police said.

The Baqubah bombing was the latest in a series of attacks targeting the nation’s majority Shiite population and its religious establishments. On Friday, suicide bombers killed at least 80 people at a mosque in Baghdad. A day earlier, at least 10 people were killed near the Imam Ali shrine in the holy Shiite city of Najaf. The surge in attacks began with the February bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra.

Analysts say the attacks are meant to stir sectarian passions and hasten the country’s drift toward all-out civil war.

The Bush administration has urged that a new government be formed quickly to help stabilize the nation four months after it held legislative elections.

On Wednesday, acting parliament Speaker Adnan Pachachi, a Sunni who is a former foreign minister, said he had called on parliament to convene Monday “to preserve the credibility of the political process.”

“The Iraqi people want to see the new government as soon as possible,” he said. Setting a date “will urge the officials and the politicians to double their efforts.”

Pachachi added that there were “encouraging indications that an agreement will be reached” before the session.

But the latest machinations appeared to be creating a new round of ill will, with the prospect of the presidency going to the Sunnis angering Kurdish politicians.

“Partnership means getting either the presidency or the prime minister’s post,” said Abdul-Khaleq Zangana, a Kurdish legislator. “Renegotiating the [presidency] was brought up as a reaction to what is happening now to Jafari.”

Saleh Mutlak, a leading Sunni politician, said Jafari backers were “trying to make some sort of division between Kurds and Sunni Arabs.”

Both he and representatives from a secular group backed by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi have expressed a new willingness to consider Jafari as head of the next government.

“We see that this matter can be solved,” said Izzat Shahbandar, a politician from Allawi’s slate. “We made it clear to Jafari that we need a new political program that expels the ghost of sectarianism. We also want Jafari to take a clear stance toward the militias.”

Shahbandar said he was encouraged by Jafari’s response.

Nasir Saaidi, a politician from Jafari’s Dawa Party, said, “We have reached good results in convincing some of the opponents to accept our candidate.”

Shiite leaders also said they were hopeful that a deal could be reached in the next four days. “But the dialogues are very tough and sensitive,” said Adnan Ibaidi, spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main Shiite party.

“We have objections about their candidates just like they have objections about our candidate,” said Jawad Maliki, a leading member of Dawa. “Because Iraq is an Arabic country, I think it is wise to have an Arab president and foreign minister.”

Despite the political scheming and haggling, not everyone was convinced.

Iyad Samirai, a leading Sunni politician from the Iraqi Islamic Party, said his party was still opposed to Jafari. He liked the idea of a Sunni Arab president, though. “We have no objections against [Kurdish acting President Jalal] Talabani as a person, but we believe it’s an Arab right” to hold the presidency, he said.

Since the election, Iraq has lurched closer to civil war. Violence has increased and government projects have been stymied as politicians haggled over key posts.

The three U.S. soldiers killed Wednesday, targeted in separate roadside bombing attacks south and east of Baghdad, brought the total number of Americans killed this month to 34, more than the total during all of March, according to a count by the Associated Press.

Two Iraqi police officers were killed and four were injured in an attack on an oil convoy on the highway between Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi officials said. A roadside bomb later exploded on the same highway, injuring two soldiers.

In another attack near Baqubah, a car bomb killed two people and injured 10 at a busy local market.

In Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one police officer and wounded three civilians in the Waziriya neighborhood. A police officer was gunned down on his way to work.

The bodies of five men who had been shot execution-style were found in various parts of Baghdad.

According to authorities in Najaf, two of the men were intelligence officers from that city who had been abducted a month ago in Baghdad.

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Times staff writers Saif Hameed, Shamil Aziz and Zainab Hussein in Baghdad and a special correspondent in Baqubah contributed to this report.