Gunmen Ransack Talabani Party Office In Iraq

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (file photo) (epa) August 11, 2006 -- Gunmen have smashed and burned the offices of the Iraqi president's Kurdish party in the city of Al-Karbala, south of Baghdad.

The assailants were reportedly angry about criticism in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's official newspaper of a Shi'ite cleric.

The article stated that the cleric, Muhammad al-Yakubi, was trying to ignite a war between Shi'a and Kurds.