The offices of an organization headed by an Iraqi leader who has been an ally to the U.S. was destroyed by two bombs yesterday after earlier in the week he made comments downplaying the abuse of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
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Jalal Talabani, who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan sits on the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. The explosions destroyed the local headquarters of the PUK in the town of Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad. A hospital source said the attack had wounded at least four people, Reuters reported.
On Tuesday, according to news service, Talabani sought to downplay the prisoner-abuse scandal, saying the incidents of humiliation by U.S. forces that have been captured on film and distributed throughout the world are "very isolated."
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"This kind of violation of human rights is happening in every army," Talabani told reporters in English after meeting Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in Washington. "I know for example in the history of the Iraqi army many things happened like this."
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Continued Talabani: "I don't think this is representing the policy of the United States of America. ... I think it is very isolated."
Talabani didn't think the scandal should cause any shift in the policy of the U.S. occupation.
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"[The abusers] should be punished. There is no excuse for them. But it is not also a matter to be so much exaggerated as if what happened is something very cruel, something ... to make a change in policy," he said, according to Reuters.
The Kurds have been generally more supportive of U.S. efforts in Iraq than the Shiites and Sunni Muslims.
