IRAQ- Call for merging Nukheib township to Karbala too early, analyst says 

(MENAFN - Aswat Al-Iraq) An Iraqi political analyst has described the massacre that took place in Nukheib township of west Iraq's Anbar Province a week ago as having been executed by al-Qaeda organization, but he expressed conviction that the raising of a call to merge the township to Karbala province was too early, due to the sensitivity of the issue.


"Those who executed the crime have been trying to push politicians against each other under circumstances of distrust among all political parties in Iraq," Ibrahim al-Sumeidae told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Sunday.


"Sumeidae warned from raising the issue of merging Nukheib township, where a group of armed men attacked a passenger bus last Monday, killing all the 22 men that were on the bus after forcing women and children out of the bus; he warned from raising the issue of merging the township, now in a Sunni Province to Karbala Province, with a Shiite majority.


Joint forces from Karbala Province had detained 20 persons from al-Nukheib township, including two Sunni Clergymen, pushing the Anbar Administration to accuse Karbala Council with taking that decision to revenge for the victims of the massacre, charging that those behind the massacre had been citizens of Anbar's Rutba township.