BAGHDAD - An early draft of Iraq’s planned constitution has revealed that Islam is set to play a dominant role in the country’s basic law.
Meanwhile the violencc continued with an Al Qaeda linked group releasing footage of two kidnapped Algerian diplomats, saying it will kill them and deadly attacks carried out elsewhere.
Government mouthpiece Al Sabah on Tuesday published what it described as a proposed draft of the constitution aimed at laying out the framework for a new Iraq following the toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein.
The draft states that “Islam is the official religion of the State,” and that “No law that contradicts the universally agreed tenets of Islam may be enacted.”
The violence on the ground continued regardless of any political development, with an Al Qaeda linked group releasing footage of two kidnapped Algerian diplomats, saying it will kill them.
The group of Al Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, released the video on a website, saying it would execute the kidnapped men.
The Organisation of Al Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers showed separate clips of the blindfolded diplomats, who stated their names and personal details.
The group previously claimed responsibility for kidnapping and executing Egypt’s envoy to Baghdad.
Also on Tuesday, 12 Iraqi water plant workers were shot dead and 23 wounded in an ambush just outside Baghdad.
The gunmen boarded the buses filled with workers from the Al Faris water works and opened fire with automatic weapons to cries of “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great), said one of the survivors, Ahmed Dhiya, 30, who was shot in the arm and shoulder.
Another survivor, Amjed Naji, said US armored vehicles were on a bridge nearby but did not intervene.
US military officials said they had heard of the attack, but had no further information because no US troops were involved.
Parliament is to vote on the draft constitution by August 15 before it goes to a national referendum in October. The draft however is still under discussion.
Sunni Arab members of the constitutional committee announced Tuesday that they were ending their boycott of the drafting procedure, called in protest at the killing of two of their colleagues last week. Their absence had threatened to undermine the legitimacy of the document.
The Sunni community, about one-fifth of Iraq’s 27-million population, was dominant under Saddam’s regime but is now under-represented in parliament.
In Algeria, relatives of one of the kidnapped diplomats made a tearful appeal for their release.
In Washington, a top Pentagon official confirmed reports that Iraq’s insurrection was led by eight to ten figures who have held meetings both in Iraq and in neighboring countries.
“We have an index, we think, on who the leadership is. And we do know that they occasionally meet,” said Lieutenant General James Conway, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita said the US holds in detention in Iraq some 12,000-17,000 people, “without knowing the mix between bad guys, criminals, car thieves, people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“It’s going to take time to sort all that out,” DiRita said.
In other developments, Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka visited Baghdad for talks with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
With 1,400 troops in the country, Poland has the third largest military contingent in the US-led coalition in Iraq. Polish commanders are also in charge of a multinational contingent of around 4,000 troops.
Belka, whose visit came a day after a flying visit by Australian Prime Minister John Howard, said Warsaw was determined to keep its military contingent in Iraq, although he suggested they may focus on training once stability returns.
In Washington, President George W. Bush met privately at the White House with officials from Iraq’s Babil province who were visiting the United States to learn how state and local governments work there, US officials said.
In other violence around Iraq, two Iraqi security personnel were killed and three wounded by mortar fire near Baiji while guarding an oil pipeline, police said.
Six Iraqi soldiers were killed in three separate attacks in Samarra, Kirkuk and Baquba, according to police and army officials.
Two unidentified men were found in an open area east of Baghdad where garbage is usually dumped. Two police officer brothers were also found dead inside their parked car in another part of the capital.
As the violence persisted, Defence Minister Saadun Al Dulaimi complained that most of the car bombs were smuggled in from neighbouring Syria.
“We have proof of terrorist infiltration along three points of the Syrian border,” Dulaimi told reporters. “If the Iraqi volcano explodes, Damascus will be the first place hit by lava.”
The 600-kilometre-long (375-mile) border has long been known for its smuggling routes, and Washington and Baghdad charge that Damascus does little to stop militants crossing into Iraq, accusations denied by Syria.
Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Muallem recently said Damascus had enacted “extraordinary measures” to prevent infiltrations, but said no country could fully seal its borders.