It's all about intimidation. Militant Muslims see no problem in killing women, kids, guys on the way home from work, in order to ensure that everyone stays in line. Become to un-Islamic for their liking, or have a different interpretation of Islam, or oppose the establishment of a theocracy, and you, your relatives and family, are grist for the mill. They have no problem deliberately killing a little kid just to intimidate. Political islam must be killed off, for all of our sakes.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Suspected al Qaeda militants in Iraq killed 21 people on Tuesday in bomb attacks targeting Sunni Arab tribes who have formed an alliance against the hardline Islamist group, officials said.
The attacks came the day after outgoing U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said al Qaeda was trying to undermine efforts by the Iraqi government to court tribal leaders and some insurgent groups to collaborate against al Qaeda.
In the worst attack, a suicide bomber exploded his car outside a restaurant on a main road north of Ramadi, killing at least 17 people and wounding 32, a source at Ramadi hospital said.
The restaurant was frequented by police in an area where local tribes have joined the tribal alliance against al Qaeda. Many police were among the casualties, police said.
Earlier four people were killed in two blasts in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. One of the dead was the son of tribal leader Sheikh Thahir al-Dari, said Ahmed al-Dulaimi, head of the provincial council media office in Anbar province.
Dulaimi said it was a double suicide car bombing, but a relative of the sheikh, a member of the anti-Qaeda alliance, said the son was killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the car he was in. Another person was wounded in the car.
Relatives blamed al Qaeda for the attack.
Dari's dead son, Harith al-Dari, is the nephew of his namesake who leads the Sunni Muslim Scholars' Association, an influential body of hardline clerics. The cleric has spoken out against the anti-Qaeda alliance that includes his own tribe.
Thahir al-Dari is the head of the al-Zobaie tribe, to which Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie belongs. The deputy prime minister was the target of an assassination bid last week.
Al Qaeda's adherence to a hardline form of Sunni Islam and indiscriminate killings have brought it into conflict with some Sunni tribes in Anbar.
GROWING STRUGGLE
Suicide bombers have targeted a number of tribal leaders in the anti-Qaeda alliance amid a growing struggle in Anbar between the militant group and tribes who oppose it.
Zobaie was wounded in last week's attack at his home in Baghdad. An aide said that suicide bomber was one of his own guards and said the tribe was itself divided between those loyal to the government and those supporting al Qaeda.
Zobaie's office said on Tuesday he had recovered and might be discharged from the U.S. military hospital later in the day.
Khalilzad, who left Iraq on Monday at the end of his tenure as U.S. ambassador, said U.S. and Iraqi officials had held contacts with Sunni Arab insurgent-linked groups and were continuing to engage them to bring them into the political process.
In a move to address Sunni Arab concerns, Iraqi officials on Monday approved amendments to ease rules under which former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party were banned from jobs in government and the security forces.
Under the proposal, which has to go to parliament, only senior members of the former Baath party will be banned from public life, and they will still be given pensions.
Others banned in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of 2003 will be allowed to return to their jobs in public service.
Sunni Arabs have complained that many thousands of middle- and low-ranking party members were caught up in the sweep of the law even though they joined the Baath party only to get jobs.
The de-Baathification process and the dismantling of the army contributed to widespread anger among formerly dominant Sunni Arabs, leaving many people without incomes and, especially in the case of the soldiers, open to recruitment by insurgents.
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