Iraq Watch: February 27, 2006

Sunnis Agree to Rejoin Government Talks

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni leaders announced on Monday that they have agreed to end their self-imposed boycott and rejoin talks regarding the nations fledgling political process. "We haven't ended our suspension completely but we are on the way to end it," senior Sunni Adnan al-Dulaimi told the AP.

Sunni political blocs, including al-Sulaimi's Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF), decided to boycott the political arena in protest of reprisal attacks against Sunni worshippers and mosques following last Wednesday's bombing of the holy Shiite Askariya shrine in Samarra.

Baghdad's citywide daytime curfew, meanwhile, was lifted Monday allowing Iraqis to once again venture outside and commute to work. Iraqi tanks were positioned throughout the capital city in an effort to deter would-be attackers.

In ongoing sectarian bloodshed Monday, a mortar barrage in western Baghdad's predominately Shiite Shula district killed at least four people and injured 16 more.

Later Monday, four people died when a roadside bomb planted near a Sunni mosque in the New Baghdad area exploded. The bomb, which detonated shortly after evening prayers, also wounded 15.

Also in the capital, the executed bodies of four people were discovered in the notorious Dora neighborhood of southern Baghdad.

In other violence Monday, four people were shot to death in two separate incidents in Baqouba, located 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The Washington Post, citing Iraqi morgue officials, reports that over 1,300 people have been killed in sectarian related violence since Wednesday's mausoleum bombing.

Elsewhere, in Nahrawan, Iraqi security forces and insurgents engaged in a firefight which left some eight Iraqi police dead and six injured according to Reuters. Five militants were killed in the gun battle southeast of the capital while 25 others were reportedly apprehended. CNN reports that the battle ensued after guerillas attempted to overtake an area police station.

Meanwhile, Iraqi authorities announced Monday that Interior Ministry forces have captured a suspected senior al-Qaida in Iraq militant. Abu al-Farouq, a Syrian, was detained in a raid near al-Bakr, west of Ramadi. The previously unknown al-Farouq was said to be in charge of planning attacks and financing insurgent groups in the Ramadi area.