Feuding Iraq gov't groups launch charges

[ProSense]

Feuding Iraq gov't groups launch charges

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and LEE KEATH, Associated Press Writers 1 hour, 25 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gatherings of Iraq's top politicians start with polite greetings and dinner. But once tea is poured after the meal, the tone changes: Sunnis and Shiites lash out, accusing each other of supporting death squads.

Mistrust is deep in what was once lauded as Iraq's national unity government. The tensions between them mount with each new tragedy — and it is even worse when the bloodshed becomes personal, as it did this week with the slaying of a brother of Iraq's most prominent Sunni Arab politician, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi.

Sunnis blamed Shiite militias for the killing — the third sibling of al-Hashimi to be gunned down. The political leaders had been planning to meet to flesh out a plan to stop the sectarian violence, but now it will likely have to be put off a few days until tempers cool, Shiite lawmaker Bassem Sherif said Tuesday.

U.S. officials have said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has a matter of only two or three months to show he can stop the violence that has left thousands dead and threatens to tip Iraq into civil war. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met last week with most of the party heads and gave them a blunt warning that the American public won't support a government torn by internal feuds.

But al-Maliki has to find a solution at the head of a government which, many say, includes the killers themselves.

"The trust between them is destroyed," Hassan al-Shimari, a lawmaker from the Shiite Fadila party, said of the government's coalition of Sunni and Shiite parties. "Each side is afraid of the other, and in these meetings, the fear is increasing."

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