Iraqi PM plays down kidnap as "militia dispute"

[ECH1969]

Iraq's prime minister played down a mass kidnap of civil servants in which many may still be missing on Wednesday and which has put further strain on his government to disband militias involved in sectarian violence.

A government spokesman said most of the dozens of hostages seized at a Higher Education Ministry building in central Baghdad on Tuesday had been freed. But amid conflicting reports of how many were seized in the first place, employees' families said at least several of their relatives were still missing.

"What happened was not terrorism, rather it was due to dispute and conflict between militias from one side or another," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in televised remarks.

Under pressure from Washington to disband such groups, Maliki has insisted the main threat to Iraq's security comes from minority Sunni Arab insurgents and says he will deal with militias loyal to his Shi'ite Islamist allies in his own time.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&symbol=&storyID=2006-11-15T102854Z_01_IBO132069_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml&WTmodLoc=InvArt-C2-NextArticle-1

[AIJ Alom]

1. After all of his sunni enemies have been eliminated by his shia

enemies, than Maliki will deal with his Shia enemies. This man was a partisan hack and closely tied to his own Shia militia, he has no interests in disbanding such groups. I'd watch this guy's close ties to Iran.

[Kagemusha]

8. Nitpick - al-Dawa (Maliki's party) has no militia of its own

But without the support of the leaders of the Badr Corps and the Mahdi Army, he would not have been confirmed as PM.

[AIJ Alom]

9. I stand corrected. Thank you.

[ToolTex]

2. His own time can jolly well be NOW!

Bring our solders home NOW before 2,800 becomes 58,000.

[maddezmom]

3. al-Maliki is way over his head and needs to get his shit together

"militia dispute"?

CNNI just reported that they are still gettting conflicting numbers from the gov't re: taken and released.

[antiimperialist]

4. Kidnap case cover-up

the figures that have been given by the Iraqi government change every hour. It looks like Maliki has told officials to deny that 150 were kidnapped. The number is too high to bear. Not that it cares because more than a hundred died in separate violence Tuesday.

[independentpiney]

5. So this was just another fraternity type prank?

Move along.. nothing to see here.

[acmavm]

6. The frigging term that just steams me is 'dispute'. This is a

'dispute'?

Screw this guy. He's toast the minute we're gone. And after that off-handed remark, dispute my ass, the sooner the better.

[rodeodance]

7. oh yeah----kidnappings in broad daylight--just a bit of a dispute!!

[Imagevision]

10. al-Maliki is seeming to be as incompetent as the Bush regime

It seems like another Bush appointment that is failing....