Sharon has said he would not hold talks with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas members. A March vote would come just a few weeks after Palestinians hold a parliament election in which the Islamic militant Hamas is competing for the first time. It was seen as unlikely Sharon would seek a coalition with Likud, after hard-liners in the party spent months trying to halt the Gaza pullout, and came close at times to bringing down the government. Sharon’s decision, to be formally announced later today, sent shock waves through Israeli politics, and set the stage for a dramatic election campaign.
It would pit a smaller, hard-line Likud, possibly under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Sharon and the new Labour Party leader, former union boss Amir Peretz. One poll today said an alliance of Sharon’s new party with the moderate Labour and leftist parties would command 74 seats in the 120-member parliament. This morning, Sharon arrived at President Moshe Katsav’s house to ask for the dissolution of parliament, a step that would move up the date of the vote to the beginning of March. Sharon’s decision redraws Israel’s political map, formalising his transformation from hard-liner to centrist and increasing chances of progress in peacemaking with the Palestinians after March elections.
Sharon felt Likud hard-liners, who had tried to block this summer’s Gaza pullout, were imposing too many constraints on him and would prevent future peace moves. In a bold political gamble, the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has decided to leave his Likud Party, form a new political movement and push for quick elections. “It was one of these regrettable, tragic incidents and it wouldn’t happen if Zarqawi (followers) weren’t driving” car bombs, said Warren, referring to terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.. “They fired warning shots, but the vehicle kept moving and the gunner had to make a decision and he engaged them,” said Warren U.S.
troops performed first aid to the victims and later transported them to a nearby hospital, Warren said. Associated Press photographs taken at the morgue showed at least two dead children and a man, but Warren said some of the dead may have been victims of a car bombing in the nearby village of Kanan. But US officials said they only knew of three deaths in the incident, including one child, and three others wounded. A US soldier protecting vehicles returning to a US base in the city of Baqouba fired on a vehicle that he thought was moving erratically, said Major Steven Warren of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.
Five people returning from a relative’s funeral, including three children, were killed and two others wounded, according to Dr Ahmed Fouad of the Baqouba city morgue and the local police command. American troops fired mistakenly at a civilian vehicle outside an American military base north of Baghdad today, killing at least three people, including one child, a US spokesman said. The disclosure, in The Los Angeles Times, came after a week of vitriolic debate on Iraq, amid growing demands for a speedy withdrawal of US troops and tirades from Bush spokesmen who all but branded as a traitor anyone who suggested that intelligence was deliberately skewed to make the case for war..
