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27 killed in Iraq, 62 wounded

* 7 killed in suicide bombing in Musayyib
* Over 1,000 people march to protest against Constitution in Ramadi

BAGHDAD: A suicide car bomber attacked an elite Iraqi police unit in Baghdad, killing 13 commandos in the worst of several violent outbursts to hit the country on Sunday.

Iraqi police said the car bomber targeted a patrol of police commandos as they travelled on a highway in the east of the capital. Ten commandos were also wounded, police said.

The bomb followed clashes overnight between United States troops and Shia militiamen loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Sadr City. Police said eight militia fighters were killed and five wounded in the fighting.

In Hilla, a bicycle-bomber blew himself up in a crowded vegetable market, killing four people, including a woman and child, and wounding 48, police said. They added that gunmen held up an armoured Finance Ministry convoy in western Baghdad, killing two guards and wounding nine before fleeing with $850,000 in cash.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber on a motorbike killed himself and six other people when his motorbike exploded on Sunday in the mainly Shi’ite city of Musayyib, south of Baghdad, police said.

Nineteen people were wounded in the blast.

The string of attacks comes three weeks before Iraq holds a referendum on a new draft Constitution and amid a general increase in unrest both in central areas and in Basra, where Shia militia have fought British troops. The US military has said it expects a surge in violence in the run-up to the referendum, set for October 15, with Iraqis strongly divided over a document that was supposed to unite them and lay the foundations for a more stable future.

In Ramadi, over 1,000 people marched to protest against the Constitution, which they say would divide Iraq along sectarian lines by giving too much autonomy to Kurds in the north and pro-Iranian Shias in the south. The crowd in Ramadi was largely made up of Sunni Arabs, whose leaders are strongly opposed to the Constitution, but also included Shia supporters of Sadr, a nationalist young cleric who heads a militia called the Mehdi Army. The march followed a rally in Basra on Saturday at which several thousand Shi’ites gathered in support of the constitution, which was largely drawn up by the Shia and Kurdish-led government over Sunni Arab objections.

They fear the new charter will allow Shia and Kurds to form breakaway regions in the north and the south, where Iraq’s vast oil reserves lie, leaving Sunnis with no resources. More broadly, they fear the break-up of the entire Iraqi nation, with its religious Shia leaders increasingly allied to Iran and independence-minded Kurds in the north ultimately longing for the creation of a separate Kurdish state.

On Thursday, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric who holds wide influence among the 60 percent Shia majority, urged followers to vote “Yes” in the referendum. At the same time, Sunni religious and political leaders have been urging their community to register to vote - since most boycotted elections in January and are therefore not on the electoral register - and to vote “No” come October 15. If two-thirds of voters in three or more of Iraq’s 18 provinces vote “No” then the referendum is defeated.

Sunnis are hoping to secure the support of Sadr and his followers, whose nationalist principles oppose the federal structure laid out in the constitution. reuters

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