By
Samir Haddad, IOL Correspondent
BAGHDAD,
September 12, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The US and Iraqi sectarian
offensives on Sunni towns are aimed to block Sunni Arabs from
registering to vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections, a senior
Sunni leader said on Sunday, September 11.
"We
will take part in large numbers [in the elections] even if we are
bombarded, our homes destroyed, our families displaced and sons
arrested," Adnan Al-Dulaimi, the secretary general of the
National Conference for the People of Iraq, told a press conference in
Baghdad.
He
said Sunni Arabs are resolved to vote to "save Iraq from the
current appalling conditions, put an end to its destruction and turn
off the bloodshed."
Iraqi
Defense Minister Saadun Al-Dulaimi unveiled Saturday, September 10,
that and Iraqi and US forces would strike "insurgents" in
the four northwestern towns of Ramadi, Samarra, Rawa and Qaem, all
heavily populated by Sunnis.
Sunnis
are currently registering in large numbers to vote down the draft
constitution, which is due to be put to a national referendum on
October 15 ahead of elections in December.
They
are a majority in Al-Anbar, Nineveh and Salahudin provinces and Iraq's
interim law stipulates that the draft fails if two-thirds of any three
provinces vote against it during the planned referendum.
“Ethnic
Cleansing”
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An Iraqi boy runs on the remains of a house destroyed in the Tal Afar offensive. (Reuters)
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Dulaimi,
the ex-head of the Sunni Waqfs, branded the US-Iraqi onslaught against
the Sunni-populated northern town of Tal Afar as "sectarian
cleansing".
"It
is an ethnic cleansing operation under a political cloak," he
charged.
The
Sunni leader urged the international community, the Arab League and
human rights watchdogs to break their deafening silence and do
something to stop the bloody assault.
He
further called for brining those responsible for the current tensions
to justice "irrespective of their ethnicity Sunnis or Shiites,
civilians or officers in uniform."
US-backed
Iraqi troops launched an all-out offensive on Tal Afar Saturday,
September 10, and took the incursions Sunday to Al-Radba town, in
central Al-Anbar west of Iraq.
The
Tal Afar offensive prompted the resignation of its mayor Mohammad
Rasheed who called it a "sectarian operation".
Residents
trapped inside the battered city have been sending SOS to the
international community and revealed in statements to IslamOnline.net
over the phone appalling conditions.
Iraq's
Red Crescent said up to 7,000 families were fleeing the fighting in
the town, which US occupation troops say has become a major staging
post for foreign fighters.
A
500-tent camp has been set up in Abu Maria east of Tal Afar, and the
Red Crescent has installed 40 toilets and 20 water tanker trucks.
A
team of doctors and volunteers has also been deployed.
The
offensive is the largest since
a
massive assault
against the western town of
Fallujah in November, which killed hundreds, including women and
children, and displaced thousands.
In
August of 2004 Tal Afar was the scene of a deadly US offensive that
killed hundreds of its residents and displaced thousands.
