November 3, 2006

Coup in Iraq reportedly in the making

The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca

Iraqi army officers are reportedly planning to stage a military coup with US help in order to oust the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, reports the United Press International.

"Washington is becoming increasingly impatient with the failure of Maliki's government in quelling sectarian violence threatening to plunge Iraq in an all-out civil war," reports UPI.

In response to increasing US pressure for a crackdown on Shia militias hostile to the American occupation and public criticisms of Maliki by American military commanders and politicians, the Prime Minister complained that the US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and the Bush administration were undermining the idea that he was the sovereign head of a democratic government, reports the WSWS.

"I'm a friend to the United States, but not America's man in Iraq," Maliki told Khalilzad, according to Hassan Senaid, one of Maliki's advisors.

The proposed plan, according to the UPI source, stipulates that the new Iraqi army, with the assistance of US forces, will take control of power, suspend the constitution, dissolve parliament and form a new government. The military will also take direct control of the various provinces and the administration after imposing a state of emergency.

Hillary Bain Lindsay