Angry debate in Iraqi parliament about new security plan

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's Shiite prime minister exchanged heated words with a Sunni Arab legislator Thursday over the country's new security plan, leading parliament temporarily to suspend a raucous debate and Iraqi television to abort its coverage.

The argument underscored the deep divides that have bedeviled attempts to quell Iraq's civil war.

The parliamentary clash took place as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki presented his arguments in favor of the U.S.-backed security plan he called a Strategy to Impose the Law. The plan would leave no safe havens for militants, regardless of religious or political affiliations, he told legislators.

"Some say that this plan targets Sunnis or Shiites. The fact is that this plan targets all who stand in the way of the law," al-Maliki said.

Abdul Nasir Janabi, a Sunni cleric and legislator from a region south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death, responded by protesting a major sweep by U.S. and Iraqi troops Wednesday through Haifa Street, a Sunni neighborhood near the Green Zone that is dominated by anti-government fighters. Sporadic blasts continued Thursday in the area where more than 30 gunmen have been killed, according to Iraqi officials.

Janabi accused al-Maliki's administration of purging Sunni Arabs from the government, arresting pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia and imposing politically motivated death sentences, a possible reference to Saddam Hussein's execution.

"We cannot trust this premiership," Janabi said, as the shouting escalated around him.

Al-Maliki retorted: "All I could tell our brother the sheik is that he will trust in this premiership once we present his file and hold him accountable for it." As Shiite legislators loudly applauded, he said, "One hundred and fifty kidnapped individuals in his area — why doesn't he talk about that?"

Mahmoud Mashhadani, parliament's speaker and a Sunni, interrupted the exchange, chiding al-Maliki for making "unacceptable" accusations and adding with heavy sarcasm that "the security plan will be very successful because you people are divided from this moment."

He then called for an adjournment to avoid enflaming sectarian tensions. The session resumed soon after, but Iraqiya, the state-run television station, stopped airing it. The station later put out an edited version of events.

In his speech, al-Maliki said the government would hunt down extremists wherever they are, in churches, homes and mosques. "Don't think for one moment that the Baghdad security plan will be limited to this city alone," he told legislators. "We will pursue the criminals outside of Baghdad, on the outskirts and even further, wherever they decide to flee."

He promised to go after any political or community group that shelter outlaws, adding that anyone using government vehicles for unauthorized purposes would be arrested and punished.

In the next day or so, al-Maliki said, authorities plan to inventory homes abandoned by people who've fled the violence. Anyone occupying those homes without permission will be arrested, he said.

The government concedes that Shiite militiamen linked to parliament's two largest political blocs have infiltrated the security forces .

The first of a promised 21,500 U.S. troops have arrived in Iraq to help implement the security plan in Baghdad and Al Anbar province, center of the Sunni-driven insurgency. Al-Maliki also has pledged to move troops to the capital but has not said when the operation will kick off. U.S. officials have indicated the security operation, to which Bush has pledged an additional 21,500 U.S. soldiers, should start in earnest about Feb. 1.

Al-Maliki also called on legislators to pass laws on distribution of the country's oil wealth and reverse measures that have excluded many Sunnis from jobs and government positions because of Baath party membership.

In the end, Shiite and Kurdish legislators approved the plan, but not before al-Maliki conceded that it might not resolve Iraq's violence. The leaders of many armed groups already have left Baghdad with their weapons in anticipation of the stepped-up patrols, he said.

Until Monday, parliament had not had a quorum since late November, when 30 legislators and five Cabinet members loyal to renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced a boycott to protest al-Maliki's meeting with Bush in Jordan.

On Sunday, the Sadr legislators ended their walkout under threat that they would be ousted from the political process and that their allied militia, the Mahdi Army, could face wholesale attack by U.S. soldiers in the coming security sweep.

Information from McClatchy Newspapers and The Associated Press is included in this report.