Iraqi PM looks to tribes for unity

Sunni and Shia Sheikhs sit together in Baghdad yesterday as several hundred hereditary chieftains -- the leaders of the tribes to which all Iraqis owe varying degrees of allegiance -- met with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and senior officials in a hotel in the capital. PHOTO: AFP

"Iraq needs all of its sons during this stage. There is no difference between Sunnis and Shias," he told the meeting, the first in a series to promote dialogue between the warring sects as part of his national reconciliation program.

Washington says a major security crackdown by Iraqi and American troops in Baghdad, where the communal bloodshed is worst, is not a durable solution to Iraq's instability and must be accompanied by movement on the political front.

"Yes, we differ in opinion and that's a healthy sign but we must hold dialogue to solve our problems," Maliki said.

"The liberation of the nation from any foreign hand cannot be without national unity, the unity that our forefathers built during hundreds of years."

Shia Muslims, the majority sect in Iraq, were oppressed under Saddam Hussein but now lead the government of national unity. Minority Sunnis were politically dominant under Saddam and form the backbone of the three-year-old insurgency.

Police, meanwhile, found seven bodies of men shot dead in apparent sectarian killings in northern Iraq, while rebels killed an Iraqi soldier in a roadside bomb attack in the same area, police said.

Four handcuffed and bullet-riddled bodies were found on the highway between the northern cities of Kirkuk and Tikrit, while three bodies were recovered from near Tikrit.