Iraq seeks talks on Turkey threats

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi arrived in Ankara yesterday in an apparent bid to persuade Turkey not to stage a cross-border offensive to fight separatist Kurdish rebels based in the mountainous border region.

Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad yesterday, killing at least six people and sending black smoke billowing into the sky. The Iraqi government also reiterated its call to Turkey to join it in an urgent dialogue and to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis instead of a military one.Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the government would not tolerate violence from the separatist rebels but he urged the Turks to ‘seek a diplomatic solution and not a military one in dealing with the terrorist threats that target it’.Washington has pressed Nato-ally Turkey not to enter Iraq, fearing that unilateral Turkish military action could destabilise the autonomous Kurdish region in the north which is one of the country’s few relatively stable areas.The Kurds are a longtime US ally.The explosives-laden car was parked near a gas station across the street from the checkpoint on Saadoun Street when it blew up just before noon, according to police and army officials.The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to release the information, said four civilians and two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 25 people were wounded, including 19 civilians.Flames shot out from a military pickup with an Iraqi flag painted on the side as ambulances raced to the scene, driving past a long concrete barrier that recently was decorated with murals by local artists in an attempt to beautify the city.The blast was the latest in a series of car bombings to strike the capital despite stringent security measures in place as part of US-Iraqi military operations and celebrations marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents, particularly al Qaeda in Iraq.A car bomb also exploded in western Baghdad’s religiously mixed Harthiyah neighborhood on Monday night, killing at least six people and wounding 25, police said.Most of the victims were among families on their way home after spending the day in a nearby amusement park for Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan.The vehicle apparently was left on a side street with several other cars to avoid a parking ban on the capital’s main streets designed to prevent such bombings.Nampa-APThe Iraqi government also reiterated its call to Turkey to join it in an urgent dialogue and to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis instead of a military one.Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the government would not tolerate violence from the separatist rebels but he urged the Turks to ‘seek a diplomatic solution and not a military one in dealing with the terrorist threats that target it’.Washington has pressed Nato-ally Turkey not to enter Iraq, fearing that unilateral Turkish military action could destabilise the autonomous Kurdish region in the north which is one of the country’s few relatively stable areas.The Kurds are a longtime US ally.The explosives-laden car was parked near a gas station across the street from the checkpoint on Saadoun Street when it blew up just before noon, according to police and army officials.The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to release the information, said four civilians and two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 25 people were wounded, including 19 civilians.Flames shot out from a military pickup with an Iraqi flag painted on the side as ambulances raced to the scene, driving past a long concrete barrier that recently was decorated with murals by local artists in an attempt to beautify the city.The blast was the latest in a series of car bombings to strike the capital despite stringent security measures in place as part of US-Iraqi military operations and celebrations marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents, particularly al Qaeda in Iraq.A car bomb also exploded in western Baghdad’s religiously mixed Harthiyah neighborhood on Monday night, killing at least six people and wounding 25, police said.Most of the victims were among families on their way home after spending the day in a nearby amusement park for Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan.The vehicle apparently was left on a side street with several other cars to avoid a parking ban on the capital’s main streets designed to prevent such bombings.Nampa-AP