"Iraqis told to arm themselves"

BAGHDAD -- Prominent Shi'ite and Sunni politicians called on Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of violence that claimed more than 220 lives, including 60 who died yesterday in a surge of bombings and shootings around Baghdad.

The proposals to arm civilians reflected growing frustration over the inability of Iraqi forces to prevent attacks, while the string of bombings in the Iraqi capital showed that extremists can still unleash powerful strikes there despite the US security crackdown.

Abbas al-Bayati, a Shi'ite Turkman lawmaker, said yesterday that, in the absence of enough security forces, the Iraqi government should help residents "arm themselves" for their own protection.

The call to arms for civilians was echoed by the country's Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq al- Hashemi, who said "the people have no choice but to take up their own defense."

The idea of organizing communities to handle their own defense has been gaining support here after the success that Sunni Arab tribes in Anbar Province have had in driving Al Qaeda from their towns and villages.

Hashemi said the government should provide communities with money, weapons, and training and "regulate their use by rules of behavior." ....

"People have a right to expect from the government and security agencies protection for their lives, land, honor, and property," he said in a statement.

Another prominent Sunni lawmaker, Adnan al-Dulaimi, said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had failed to provide services and security but he stopped short of saying his followers would seek to topple the Shi'ite-led government in a no-confidence vote.

CBS News reported that a large bloc of Sunni Iraqi politicians will ask for a parliamentary vote of no-confidence against Maliki's government on July 15....

But Iraq's national security adviser, a Shi'ite, insisted that the government still enjoyed broad support and he warned against any effort to replace Maliki.
"I can tell you one thing that after Maliki, there is going to be the hurricane in Iraq," Mouwaffak al-Rubaie told CNN's "Late Edition." ...