Iraq's Sunnis have warned that while a federal text might be approved by the constitutional charter drafting committee and parliament, it will nevertheless be rejected by Sunni voters in a referendum scheduled for October.
"The people of Iraq will defeat a federal constitution in the October referendum," Sunni committee member Saleh al-Mutlaq said on Friday.
The Sunnis' cause received support from across Iraq's sectarian divide, with thousands of followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia cleric who led a six-month uprising against US-led forces last year, demonstrating against a federal constitution after the main weekly Friday Muslim prayers.
Under the terms of interim legislation, the constitution fails if two-thirds of the voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject the text in the referendum.
Sunnis form a majority in Anbar, Tamim and Salaheddin provinces.
In a related development, Aljazeera said, six armed Iraqi Sunni groups have called on Muslims in Iraq to register their names to vote against the draft constitution and thwart "the US scheme in Iraq".
In a statement issued on Friday, the groups urged Muslims to reject the draft constitution as an act of what they called "a kind of jihad (holy war) and a religious responsibility".
The six groups which signed the statement are Thwart al-Ishrin (1920) Revolution Brigades, Jaish al-Mujahdin, al-Jaish al-Islami (Islamic Army) in Iraq, the Islamic Front for Iraqi Resistance, Islamic Movement for Iraqi Resistance, and Asaib Ahl al-Iraq, according to Aljazeera.
On the ground, seven Iraqis died in attacks, including three Sunni members of the Iraqi Islamic Party, who were gunned down when they were putting up posters to call for participation in the parliamentary elections due in December after the ratification of the new constitution.
Party spokesman Noureddine Hayali said the three were kidnapped in the main northern city of Mosul and later executed.
An Iraqi police source said two Iraqis were killed and another and wounded when a roadside bomb planted on the main road west of the northern city of Tikrit exploded.
In the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, fighters assassinated the Arab member at the local council Omar Nayif in front of his house.
In Baquba, Iraqi police source said that a US military vehicle was destroyed in a car bomb blast targeting a US patrol in al-Hadid area.
PHOTO CAPTION
Young boys practice reciting verses of the Quran during night classes that most in the country's capital would fear due to random insurgent attacks that keep residents indoors after dark at the Abu-Hanifa Mosque, Friday, Aug. 5, 2005, in the Azamiyah area of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP)