Posted on 05/19/2005 7:52:23 AM PDT by SmithL
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari called on neighboring countries Thursday to help prevent foreign terrorists from crossing into Iraq as a series of attacks killed at least 13 Iraqis and one American soldier.
Al-Jaafari's appeal came a day after a top U.S. military official said the leaders of Iraq's most notorious terrorist group recently held a secret meeting in neighboring Syria, where they plotted the recent wave of insurgent violence that has killed hundreds of people.
"There are infiltrations of non-Iraqis through the border to carry out sabotage activities," al-Jaafari said of the meeting that may have been attended by most-wanted militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi himself. "It's up to our geographical neighbors. We are keen to preserve relations between us and neighboring countries, and these relations should be good."
He was speaking after a meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who said al-Zarqawi's aim was to divide Iraqi society.
"Part of these attacks stem from the successes of the new government. The insurgents wanted to stop the elections and failed. The insurgents wanted to stop the formation of a new Iraqi government and they failed, so now they are trying to split the society," Zoellick said.
He added that "it's very clear that this evil wants to destroy a democratic Iraq. These people will not be easy to counter because they commit suicide in a random way."
The Syrian meeting has led to one of the bloodiest periods since the U.S.-led invasion two years ago. Nearly 500 people have been killed - including an oil ministry employee gunned down in front of his house Thursday - since the country's new Shiite-dominated government was announced April 28.
The oil ministry employee Ali Hamid Alwan al-Dulaimy, 31, was killed by three men firing pistols from a minivan as he walked out of his house toward his car in Baghdad, his brother, Ahmed Hamid Alwan al-Dulaimy, said in a telephone interview.
Also Thursday, eight people were killed and three injured in an ambush in the northern city of Mosul against Fawaz al-Jarba, a member of the Iraqi National Assembly who was a recent candidate for parliament speaker.
At least eight bodies were taken to the Jamhouri Teaching Hospital after they were killed in or near al-Jarba's house, Dr. Bahaa-Eddine al-Bakri said. Al-Jarba was not injured.
Witnesses and Ali al-Faisal, a member of the Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance, said U.S. troops were involved in the incident, but their role remained unclear. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
In southeastern Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was killed when his convoy struck a roadside bomb, the military said. The name of the soldier was withheld pending notification of relatives. At least 1,623 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
A suicide bomber also drove his car into an Iraqi army checkpoint in southern Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, killing one soldier and injuring eight, Iraqi army Capt. Firas Aied said.
Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister met Thursday with Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.
Kamal Kharrazi, the highest level official from any of Iraq's six neighbors to visit Iraq since Saddam Hussein's ouster two years ago, met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. No details were available, but both men have called for calm in Iraq amid an increased number of apparent tit-for-tat killings between the Shiite and Sunni populations.
Also this week, a chilling, rambling Internet audiotape purportedly by al-Zarqawi surfaced. It denounced Iraq's Shiites as U.S. collaborators and said killing them is justified.
The Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi and his key militant leadership have met at least five times in foreign countries during the conflict, most recently during the past 30 days in Syria, according to the senior U.S. military official, who briefed reporters on condition he not be named.
He did not identify the other countries but said neighboring Iran, a Shiite theocracy, was not one of them.
He said the military obtained information during questioning of insurgent prisoners, from Iraqi military sources and field intelligence in determining that the most recent meeting had taken place in Syria.
He said that U.S. forces were constantly disrupting insurgent activities, but success was not guaranteed and could take "many years."
"If we fail, the different groups would be at each other's throats and warfare would continue for some time," he said. "If we take our foot off their throats, this country could be back into civil war and chaos."
The Syrian foreign and information ministries were unavailable for comment on the alleged terrorist gathering on their soil.
In Washington, Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, said he couldn't confirm or deny reports that the meeting had occurred but noted that "insurgent-inspired" activities are "clearly" taking place in Syria - though without Syrian government collusion.
In other developments:
_A roadside bomb killed two Iraqi police officers in Baqouba.
_Gunmen killed policeman Omar Majeed Shakir al-Dosh and his father in Samarra, officials said.
Iraquis need to quit talking, those border countries are deaf. Time to start a nukin :)
First they call, then we nuke.
The headline is misleading. They are calling on neighbors to stop the terrorism, the mass-murder. "Insurgency" is a devil's euphemism.
Funny, the media keeps referring to them as "insurgents" implying that they are Iraqis upset about the policies.
They are and have always been TERRORISTS.
The Iraqis need to tell Syria that if Iraq captures a Syrian committing an act ot terrorism, Iraq will regard it as an act of war. The same for Saudi, Iran, Jordan, Egypt, etc.
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