Iraq's interim prime minister has warned that insurgents are trying to generate civil war as well as derail elections.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said the mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents, blamed for Sunday's bloody attacks, want to "create ethnic and religious tensions, problems and conflicts . . . to destroy the unity of this country."
"These attacks are designed to stop the political process from taking place in Iraq," Mr Allawi said. He added that his administration would not be deterred despite expecting more strikes before January 30th parliamentary elections.
Thousands of mourners attended funerals in the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala after car bombs killed 67 people.
Although members of his Cabinet have made similar warnings about the danger of a civil war, Mr Allawi himself had regularly played down that possibility.
Political and religious leaders of the Shia community also have discounted the threat of an armed conflict with Sunnis, instructing their followers not to react violently to attacks.
These included a bombing in August 2003 that killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, leader of the main Shia party — the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
In a new attack in Karbala yesterday, a bomb exploded at a police checkpoint, damaging nearby buildings but inflicting no casualties. Police said they arrested the attacker. In Najaf, police said they defused a bomb hidden in a car.
Shia Muslims, who make up around 60 per cent of Iraq's people, have been strong supporters of the electoral process, which they expect to reverse the longtime domination of Iraq's Sunni minority. The insurgency is believed to draw most of its support from Sunnis, who provided much of Saddam Hussein's former Baath Party leadership.
Shia officials and clerics blamed Sunnis for Sunday's bombings at a funeral procession in Najaf and a packed bus station in Karbala.
The attacks have undermined confidence in repeated claims by US military commanders that the capture of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah last month dealt a serious blow to the insurgency.
Last night President Bush agreed that violence remains a significant problem in Iraq and said US-trained Iraqi troops are not ready to take over security duties.
AFP