Iraq Watch: December 24, 2005

Shiite Bloc Rejects Re-Vote Request

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The conservative Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), Iraq's largest and most powerful political bloc, on Saturday rejected calls from Sunnis and some moderate Shiites demanding a re-vote in provinces where voting irregularities were reported. Yesterday, tens of thousands of angry Iraqis took to the streets to protest the balloting results calling the elections "fraudulent." In rejecting the calls for a re-vote senior UIA official Jawad al-Maliki claimed that the massive demonstrations were orchestrated by former Baath party officials and Islamic militants.

In another political development likely to stir sectarian tensions, Knight Ridder reported on Saturday that the Iraqi Committee for De-Baathification has disqualified numerous Sunnis who were likely to occupy seats on the nations new parliament. The controversial committee, created soon after the U.S.-led overthrow of former President Saddam Hussein in 2003, has earned the hatred of many Sunnis who see it as a way for majority Shiites to punish the minority sect for the years of brutality endured under the Sunni former dictator.

In reported violence Saturday, three employees of Iraq's Ministry of Health were among the, at least, eight people gunned down throughout the capital on Saturday. Also in Baghdad, the executed bodies of seven unidentified civilians were found in the southern part of the city.

Elsewhere, the previously unknown militant group the "Hawk Brigades" released a video threatening to kill Jordanian hostage Mahmoud Suleiman Saidat within three days if its demands are not met. Saidat, who is a driver for the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, was abducted earlier in the week. On the grainy video Saidat, who is seated in front of three masked and armed militants, pleads with the Jordanian government to "withdraw its diplomatic mission from Iraq and not to deal with this illegitimate government (in Baghdad)." Saidat also asks for Sajida al-Rishawi to be released from Jordanian captivity. Al-Rishawi was the failed female suicide bomber in the November Amman hotel bombings, which were later claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq.