UN warns of 'chaos' as Iraq forces beat back assault
BAGHDAD, July 12, (AFP) - The UN warned Saturday that Iraq's deeply-divided politicians must quickly form a government or risk descent into “chaos”, as security forces beat back one militant assault but lost ground elsewhere.
Iraqi MPs are to hold a parliament session Sunday aimed at reviving flagging efforts to form a government in the face of a jihadist-led militant offensive, which has overrun large areas of five provinces since it began on June 9.
The previous session of parliament earlier this month ended in mayhem, with MPs trading heckles and threats. Too few returned to the chamber after a break meant to cool tempers and the quorum needed to proceed with a vote was lost.
UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov warned Iraqi politicians that “failure to move for- ward on electing a new speaker, a new president and a new government risks plunging the country into chaos”.
“It will only serve the interests of those who seek to divide the people of Iraq and destroy their chances for peace and prosperity,” he said.
“If serious solutions to the current problems are not found, then all political leaders will have to share their responsibility for failing to act with the necessary sense of duty at a time of crisis.” Attendance could be a problem, with parliament not even able to reach a quorum for an emergency session called at the height of the militant offensive last month.
Abdulsalam al-Maliki, an MP from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's list, said point blank that any member of the Shiite National Alliance who stays away is siding with “the enemies of Iraq.” In Anbar province, security forces backed by tribal fighters held off a major attack by militants on Haditha, a town northwest of Baghdad made strategic by the large nearby dam and its oil refinery.
The attack on Haditha, located on the road linking militant-held western areas and the provincial capital Ramadi, began with mortar fire, police said. Gunmen travelling in vehicles, including some captured from security forces, then attacked from two sides but were kept from entering the town in fighting that left 13 militants and four police dead, officers and a doctor said.
Previous attacks on Haditha were of a smaller scale and the capture of the dam by the militants would raise the prospect of it being used to cut water or flood areas downstream, as happened earlier this year elsewhere in Anbar.
In Diyala province, meanwhile, security forces and civilian volunteers Saturday launched a push to retake militant-held areas north of Muqdadiyah, a town on a main road to provincial capital Baquba, a police captain said.