Allawi's political support at risk

BAGHDAD, Iraq — As Ayad Allawi, Iraq's interim prime minister, starts to position his party for the coming national elections, rising public denunciation of the invasion of Fallujah by prominent Iraqi groups has put his political support at risk when he needs it most.

Allawi will almost certainly run for one of the seats in the 275-member assembly up for grabs in the January elections. In preparation, he and other politicians in his party, the Iraqi National Accord, have begun jockeying to form coalitions in order to secure as many votes as possible.

But depending on the outcome in Fallujah, Allawi, 58, could find himself without a significant political ally. Even if the battle ends quickly and without a large number of civilian casualties, Allawi, by ordering the invasion, has affirmed his image as an ardent supporter of the U.S. presence here. That itself is enough to keep other politicians from wanting to be linked to him.

"The Allawi government has full responsibility for whatever happens in Fallujah," said Redha Jowad Taki, a senior official in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a powerful Shiite party.

"Support for the government has been eroding since last summer," Taki said. "It had big backing among the people then, but it's failed to deal with gangs of terrorists, and that has led to the loss of support."

Further, public condemnation of his role in the invasion has come from a wide band of Iraq's political spectrum.

The leading group of Sunni clerics, the Muslim Scholars Association, singled out Allawi for criticism last week when it called for a boycott of elections to protest the offensive.

"The Iraqi clerics place on the government of Ayad Allawi the entire legal and historical responsibility for what Fallujah is going through, which is genocide at the hands of the occupiers," said Harith al-Dhari, the association's leader.

The group says it represents 3,000 mosques, and its denunciation of the Fallujah invasion comes as no surprise, since it has always supported the Sunni-led insurgency.

What will likely do more political harm to Allawi, who is a Shiite, is the fact that Shiite leaders also are condemning the invasion. Shiites make up at least 60 percent of Iraq and are the largest voting bloc.