FALLOUDJA, Iraq (Reuters) - A Sunni MP at the forefront of the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq was killed Tuesday by a suicide bomber in Anbar province in the west of the country, announced the police political crisis between the government and the Sunni minority chiite.
While visiting a site, Efam al Essaoui member of the alliance Irakia, was approached by a suicide bomber disguised as a workman who took her in his arms and detonated the bomb he was carrying, reported police and témoins.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred near Falluja, but the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda, the Islamic State of Iraq, could seek to exacerbate sectarian tensions as Sunnis emerged since three weeks against Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.
"This man was targeted because he led the fight against Al Qaeda," said the vice-president of the provincial council in Anbar, Sadoun Oubaïd.
Efam al Essaoui was one of the architects of the creation of tribal militias to fight against Al Qaeda in Sunni bastions, a decision that proved decisive to weaken the jihadist insurgents at the height of violence in Iraq in 2006 and 2007.
members Sahoua brigades, formed several years ago with the help of U.S. forces, are targets of the guerrillas, who finds the strength to fight with Islamist rebels against Syrian President Bashar al Assad.
TEST FOR MALIKI
Meanwhile, Iraq's Sunni minority, which feels marginalized since the collapse in 2003 of the regime of Saddam Hussein, one of his evident since three weeks, which has revived fears of renewed sectarian violence and ethniques.
The movement began in late December, after the arrest of the bodyguards of the Minister of Finance, Rafaie al Essaoui for terrorism. Sunnis believe that these arrests in the context of a broader campaign which unfairly targets their minorité.
Friday, tens of thousands of Iraqi Sunnis took to the streets of Baghdad and several other cities after the great weekly prayer, to express their dissatisfaction with the Prime ministre.
Thousands of demonstrators camped always in Anbar province, where they block the roads leading to Jordan and Syria near the city of Ramadi, a stronghold sunnite.
The Baghdad government has announced the release of over 300 prisoners detained under anti-terrorism legislation, reflecting the will of the Prime Minister to appease the discontent of the community sunnite.
This itself is divided between those calling for the resignation of Maliki and those seeking an amnesty law and to amend discriminatory laws they deem their encontre.
Talks are scheduled Wednesday between the National Alliance Shiite prime minister and secular Irakia alliance, which brings together many sunnites.
Nearly 4,500 civilians were killed in violence related to the insurgency in Iraq last year, according to the NGO Iraq Body Count, which notes the first time in three years the number of victimes.
Duvigneau Helen, and Jean-Guy Kerivel Stéphane Brosse for the French service, edited by Gilles Trequesser
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