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Iraqi Forces Battle Sunni Rebels Over Control of a Military Base Iraqi Forces Battle Sunni Rebels Over Control of a Military Base
(about 4 hours later)
BAGHDAD — Iraqi government soldiers backed by Shiite militias fought Sunni rebels for control of a military base northeast of Baghdad on Saturday, as a United Nations envoy warned of chaos if divided lawmakers do not make progress on Sunday toward forming a government. BAGHDAD — The fighting for small patches of territory continued in Iraq on Saturday as security forces battled for hours to regain control from Sunni extremists over a military base in an area northeast of Baghdad.
In the early morning, forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki began a push to repel militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria who fought their way on Thursday into a military base on the edge of Muqdadiya, 50 miles northeast of the capital. This battle was at a military base in Muqdadiya in the center of Diyala Province, and it appeared that after six or eight hours of fighting, the army had won it back from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, the Sunni militant group that has swept through large areas of northern and western Iraq in recent months. It remained unclear if the militants might be regrouping to try to grab the base back.
Heavy fighting raged for hours and continued Saturday afternoon, security officials said. Seventeen militants and six members of the security forces were killed, according to a doctor at the provincial hospital, which received the bodies.
Seven civilians, including children from nearby villages, were killed by helicopter gunship fire, police officers and medics said. Morgue and hospital workers in the town of Baquba said they had received the bodies of 15 Shiite militia fighters. “There are no civilians in the area,” said a man who lives near the area and could hear the fighting. He asked not to be quoted by name because he was fearful that one side or the other would find out.
State television also reported that 24 “terrorists,” as the government calls the Sunni militants, had been killed. “It’s a war zone, only ISIS and the army are there, and the army is not really an army,” he said, explaining that many of those participating in the fight are Shiite militia members.
The Sunni militants had moved toward the base after seizing the town of Sadur just to the north, another security official and witnesses said. Other local residents said they, too, believed that militias were heavily involved in the fighting now in Diyala. This fight, residents said, included members of both Asaib al-Haq and the Peace Brigades, a new group of volunteer fighters started by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
Bickering lawmakers in Baghdad are under pressure from the United States, the United Nations and Iraq’s own Shiite clerics to form a new government swiftly to deal with the Sunni insurgency, which seized territory in the north and west last month and has held it in the face of ground and air attacks. South of Baghdad in Babil Province, the southern front of the fighting against Sunni extremists remained difficult for the Iraqi military. After four police officers were killed, the army went in to retrieve the bodies, but were ambushed by ISIS fighters who killed four of them, according to the operations command in Hilla, the capital of Babil Province.
Few doubt that an inclusive government is needed to hold Iraq together, but there is no consensus on who should lead it. Also on Saturday, officials raised the death toll from Friday’s suicide bomb in Kirkuk from 13 to 28.
The national Parliament elected in April met for the first time on July 1, but failed to agree on nominations for the top three government posts. Despite the violence and tensions with the Kurds, who recently took over Kirkuk, all political parties said they would go to Parliament on Sunday to make another effort to form a government. The divide between the country’s ethnic and sectarian groups has deepened since an election in April, and so far they have been unable to bridge the gaps and form a government.
The United Nations representative in Iraq, Nikolay E. Mladenov, said the country could plunge into chaos if Parliament failed on Sunday to move forward on forming a government. The United Nations envoy to Iraq, Nickolay E. Mladenov issued a statement saying that “failing to move forward on electing a new speaker, a new president, and a new government risks plunging the country into chaos.”
Fewer than a third of the lawmakers attended the first session, as Sunnis and Kurds walked out after the Shiites failed to nominate a prime minister to replace Mr. Maliki. Mr. Mladenov urged all lawmakers to show up on Sunday.
Most of Iraq’s Sunnis and Kurds demand that Mr. Maliki leave office, and the Shiites are divided, but he shows no sign of quitting.
The death toll rose to 30 on Saturday from a suicide bomb attack on Friday at a Kurdish-controlled checkpoint on the southern edge of Kirkuk Province, where families fleeing violence in Tikrit and other areas overrun by militants last month were waiting to pass through.
The head of the Kurdish Gorran bloc, Aram Sheikh Mohammed, said that Kurdish factions would attend Sunday’s session, but that the prospects for progress were poor.