Constitution celebration turns violent: 3 killed

A US Army soldier from the 1st Infantry Division arrests an Iraqi suspect engaged in anti-coalition activities during a night raid in the city of Tikrit yesterday. The 1st Infantry Division, which is usually based in Germany, is now moving into the complex perched on cliffs above the Tigris river while the 4th Infantry Division heads home to Fort Hood in Texas.. PHOTO: AFP

"Thousands of Kurds poured into the street to demonstrate their happiness," said Turhan Yussef, head of the police in Kirkuk, a city 255km north of Baghdad.

"Some of them started to shoot into the air but the rally soon degenerated," Youssef told AFP.

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"Three people, one Arab woman and two Turkmen, were killed in the shooting. Twelve among the 20 wounded were taken to hospital in a serious condition," he said, adding that a curfew had been imposed in the town.

Meanwhile, several Western governments joined US, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Jordan in welcoming the new interim constitution signed in Iraq Monday, but Turkey voiced unhappiness over the interim law, warning it would pave the way for more instability in the country.

"The interim law does not satisfy us, it increases our concerns," Anatolia news agency quoted the Turkish government's spokesman, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, as saying.

Hours earlier Iraq's 25-member Governing Council overcame ethnic and religious differences to endorse an interim law expected to pave the way for Washington to hand power back to a sovereign Iraqi government by June 30.

In Dallas, Texas, US President George W. Bush congratulated Iraqis and their governing council Monday on their new interim constitution, calling it "an important step" towards the June 30 transfer to self-rule.

"I congratulate the Iraqi Governing Council and the Iraqi people on completing the Transitional Administrative law for Iraq," the president said in a statement released by the White House.

"This document is an important step toward the establishment of a sovereign government on June 30th," added Bush, who was in Texas raising money for his reelection bid.

But Cicek said Turkey sees the constitution "as an arrangement that will not help the establishment of permanent peace in Iraq and one that will allow for the continuation for a long time of unrest and instability there." He did not specify which provisions of the interim constitution irked Turkey.

Turkey has repeatedly warned against moves in its southern neighbor that could help Iraqi Kurds enhance their self-rule in the north of the country.

It fears that increased political influence for the Iraqi Kurds could set an example for their restive cousins in adjoining southeast Turkey, where a bloody Kurdish rebellion has only recently subdued.

Under the interim constitution, Iraqi Kurdistan will retain its federal status and the rest of Iraq will be given the right to prepare to form states.