Sunni Arab group U-turn over Iraqi constitution

It has been another bloody day in Iraq with more than 30 people killed in bomb attacks, three days before the country votes on its draft constitution.

But in a glimmer of hope, one of the main Sunni Arab political groups – the Iraqi Islamic Party – has decided to urge its supporters to back the new charter. Some 24 people died when a car blew up in a market in the northern town of Tal Afar and at least 36 people were wounded. In another market attack, this time in Baghdad, a mortar shell exploded, killing two people and injuring 14 others, including two children. Elsewhere in the capital, a suicide car bomber attacked an Iraqi army convoy, leaving five dead and injuring 12 more. Iraqis will vote in a referendum on a draft charter on Saturday. After last-minute talks aimed at getting Sunni Arabs on side, the Shi’ite and Kurdish-led ruling coalition offered to discuss amending the constitution four months after an election in December. Other Sunni leaders have said they will still oppose the document. It needs a majority in its favour to pass but a two-thirds majority in any three of Iraq’s 18 provinces would see it rejected.

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