While news of the formation of the Iraqi government gripped news headlines, violence continued unabated, report Mohamed El-Anwar from Baghdad and Nermeen Al-Mufti from Talaafar Only one day after the new Iraqi government was sworn in as negotiations are underway to pick the Sunni candidates to fill vacant ministerial posts, violence continued to claim more victims. On Wednesday, Irbil was the scene of bloodshed as a suicide bomber hit a police recruiting centre leaving at least 50 killed and 150 injured. The incident, the latest in a string of attacks during the week, was the deadliest attack in two months time. It, nonetheless, served as a reminder of the difficult challenges facing the new Iraqi government on top of which is the ever deteriorating security situation. Several Iraqi cities were also gripped by a wave of violence this week. The city of Talaafar, where a car bomb went off recently, is a symbol of Iraq's current turmoil. Situated 60 kilometres west of Mosul and 400 kilometres northwest of Baghdad, Talaafar is home to 400,000 Iraqis, of whom 95 per cent are Turkomans. Talaafar which in 1920 was a symbol of resistance to British occupation, is facing a severe humanitarian and political crisis. Ali Akbar of the Iraqi Centre for Human Rights in Talaafar told Al-Ahram Weekly that the city needs 10,000 syringes as well as medicine and food stuff. Akbar added it was difficult at present to leave or enter the city. What Talaafar needs most, said Mohamed Samanji, director of the Iraqi Centre for Human Rights in Kirkuk, is moral support. "The inhabitants of Talaafar must not feel they are abandoned by the international community," said Samanji, whose centre has issued several statements about the conditions in Talaafar. Last week, United States forces in Iraq cordoned Talaafar off. Saadeddin Akej, head of the Turkoman Council, told the Weekly that he had been in touch with the US consul in Kirkuk, the British consulate, and the American military commander in Kirkuk, and was informed that routine searches were in progress. Akej said that 300 of the city's inhabitants have been killed and 3,000 wounded. He added that about 1,000 people were arrested in the city. Hundreds of families, particularly in the suburbs, have been evacuated from their homes and marksmen have taken positions on rooftops to tighten the siege on the city, Akej added. A man who fled Talaafar to Kirkuk told the Weekly that 35 per cent of the Turkomans in Talaafar are Shia and that attempts have been made to initiate sectarian strife in the city. "Since the first days of the occupation, Talaafar was swarmed by Kurdish Peshmerga militiamen, who wanted to occupy the city and drive away the Turkomans. As the attacks continued, the locals began fighting back to defend their lives and property. Attempts were made to cast the Sunnis as terrorists." The US troops stationed in Talaafar are cooperating with Peshmerga fighters to foment trouble, a man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added. When asked if there were non-Iraqi fighters in the city, which is only 60 kilometres away from the Syrian border. He said that non-Iraqis, including Syrians, have left the city when it came under heavy bombardment last year. He said they were not more than a handful to begin with. The extremists who are now in the city are mostly locals, and their extremism has been fuelled by the difficult circumstances. Political analyst Saad Al-Hudeithi told the Weekly that Talaafar was not the only town living under siege and coming under daily attacks. The security operations launched to curb terrorism regularly cause loss of life among civilians. We need to draw up alternative plans to preserve the lives and property of civilians so that the tragedy of Falluja may not be repeated, said Al-Hudeithi. Over 100 Iraqis were killed and many more, including women and children, were wounded in Talaafar in the week following the formation of Ibrahim Al-Jaafari's government. The new prime minister promised to eliminate terror, admitting that the country has a "heavy legacy" on its hands. The new interior minister is a nominee of the Shia Alliance List and is expected to appoint new aides a move which could make things worse. Former interior minister Fallah Al-Naqib had already purged the security apparatus, dismissing and investigating many on charges of collaborating with the insurgents. The formation of the Iraqi government at the end of last week was in the words of many analysts a step forward but it hardly ushers in the end of Iraq's troubles. The fact that 90 members of the 275-member National Assembly didn't show up for the vote of confidence was not particularly encouraging. The government won the votes of 180 of the 185 members who were present. The Unified Iraqi Alliance, Al-Daawa Party, as well as the Kurdish List control most of the key posts in the new government, while the Iraqi List has been left out of the equation. One day before the government formation was announced, a National Assembly member of the Iraqi List was assassinated. One of the reasons the government's formation took so long, the new Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari noted, was that Sunni Arabs kept changing their government candidates. Some cabinet posts have been given to Sunni Arabs, but then left vacant upon their request. Sunni Arabs are underrepresented in the parliament, Al-Jaafari admitted. The prime minister voiced the hope that this situation would be redressed in the elections slated for the end of this year.
