By Monday.......ain't gonna happen
Sunni Arabs reject Shiite proposal for federal Iraq
BAGHDAD (AP) — Sunni Arab leaders on Friday rejected calls for a Shiite federal region to be enshrined in the constitution, saying the proposal would fracture Iraq along religious and ethnic lines. The dispute threatens to delay completion of the charter by a Monday deadline.
Sunni Arab leaders were responding to a demand by a leading Shiite lawmaker for provisions to allow local Shiite control in the southern and central parts of the country. Sunni Arabs fear they will lose out on oil revenues if the country is split into federated zones.
"We reject it wherever it is, whether in the north or in the south, but we accept the Kurdish region as it was before the war," said Kamal Hamdoun, a Sunni member of the committee drafting the constitution. Some Shiite leaders want to replicate the success of Kurdish leaders in the north who govern an autonomous part of the country.
"The aim of federalism is to divide Iraq into ethnic and sectarian areas. We will cling to our stance of rejecting this," Hamdoun said.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Apache helicopter crashed Friday in northern Iraq, injuring two U.S. troops, and a roadside bomb killed an American soldier in the central city of Tikrit, the military said.
The two injured servicemembers were being evacuated in the area of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, said Staff Sgt. Duane Brown, a spokesman for the 42nd Infantry Division. He said the helicopter crash was under investigation.
In central Iraq, a U.S. soldier was killed Friday in a roadside bombing while on patrol in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The soldier, whose name was not released, was assigned to Task Force Liberty.
The American casualties came as the death toll among the National Guard and Reserve in Iraq soared to at least 32 in the first 10 days of August, according to a Pentagon count. That total is more that in any full month of the entire war.
More broadly, Pentagon casualty reports show that the number of deaths among Guard and Reserve forces has been trending upward much of this year, totaling more than 100 since May 1. That ranks as the deadliest stretch of the war for the Guard and Reserve, whose members perform both combat and support missions.