Efforts to form a unity government suffered a new setback Sunday as Iraqi
leaders postponed a parliament session after failing to agree on a prime
minister. Bombs targeted Shiites near a mosque and on a bus as attacks
nationwide killed at least 35 people.
An Iraqi soldier
secures the scene of a car bomb explosion Sunday April 16, 2006 in
Mahmoudiya, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq. A car bomb
exploded in the public market in Mahmoudiya, a short distance from a
mosque, killing at least 10 people and wounding 25, police said.
[AP] |
Four more Marines were reported killed in fighting west of Baghdad as the
U.S. death toll for this month rose to 47 — compared with 31 for all of March.
U.S. officials believe the best way to stem the violence is for the Iraqis to
establish a government comprising Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, paving the way for
the United States to start withdrawing its 133,000 troops.
But progress has stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition to the Shiite
choice of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to head the new government. With
al-Jaafari refusing to step aside, acting speaker Adnan Pachachi called a
parliament session for Monday, hoping the full legislature could agree on a new
leadership after the politicians failed.
On the eve of the session, Pachachi announced a delay of "a few days" to give
the religiously and ethnically based parties more time to agree on the new prime
minister, president and five other top posts that require parliamentary
approval.
Before the announcement, Shiite official Hussain al-Shahristani told Sunni
and Kurdish leaders that his bloc, which controls 130 of the 275 parliament
seats, would decide what to do about al-Jaafari "within the coming two days,"
Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said.
Majority Shiites have been giving similar assurances for the past two weeks,
and it was unclear how soon the issue could be settled.
Voters chose the new parliament on Dec. 15, but the legislature met briefly
only once last month.
The bitter fight over al-Jaafari has heightened friction among the rival
parties, raising the spectre of deadlock over other top jobs. Some Shiite
officials say that if they must change their nominee for prime minister, other
parties may not win approval of their first choices for major posts either.
For example, the Shiites rejected the Sunni nominee for parliament speaker,
Tariq al-Hashimi. Disputes also emerged Sunday over the two deputy speakers and
two vice presidents — jobs expected to go to Sunnis and Kurds.
"This delay will affect everything," Sunni lawmaker Naseer al-Ani said. "The
Shiites did not tell us the reasons behind rejecting al-Hashimi like we did
about al-Jaafari. We're still waiting to hear the reasons."
Pressure has been mounting on the Shiites to replace al-Jaafari, whom critics
accuse of failing to curb sectarian tension that has soared since the Feb. 22
bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, which triggered a wave of reprisal
attacks against Sunnis.
Shiite politicians not affiliated with major parties have proposed that
al-Jaafari step aside in favor of another candidate from his Dawa party. In
return, the biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution
in Iraq, would not push Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi for the post.
However, Dawa leaders complained of interference by outsiders and insisted
they should decide al-Jaafari's fate, according to several Shiite officials who
spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were at a sensitive
stage.
In an interview Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition," Iraq's ambassador to the
U.S., Samir Sumaidaie, said Shiite lawmaker Ali al-Adeeb had emerged as a
possible prime minister candidate. Al-Adeeb is a member of al-Jaafari's party
but spent many years in Shiite-dominated Iran — which could cause problems with
the Sunnis.
Al-Jaafari won the nomination in a vote last February by Shiite lawmakers due
to strong support from radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The
mercurial young cleric, who heads the dreaded Mahdi Army militia, has vowed to
stand behind the incumbent.
With little progress on the political front, Iraq's slide toward chaos
continued.
Four Marines — three from Regimental Combat Team Five and one from the 2/28
Brigade Combat Team — died Saturday in Anbar province, the U.S. command said
Sunday.
Their deaths raised to at least 2,376 the number of U.S. military members who
have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press
count. The rise in U.S. casualties followed a sharp drop in March, which saw the
lowest number of American dead in Iraq since February 2004.
At least 10 people died in a car bombing near a Shiite mosque in an outdoor
market in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, police said. Three others were
killed when a bomb exploded on a minibus in a Shiite area of eastern Baghdad,
police said.
Earlier Sunday, six people were killed when U.S. troops stormed a house
looking for an al-Qaida suspect in Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad, the
U.S. military said. Six people, including the suspect, were arrested. The
military didn't identify the suspect but said he worked with foreign fighters to
plan bombings.
In other developments, according to officials:
Gunmen killed seven people in the northern city of Mosul as they drove from a
police station where they had been working on renovations.
A minibus north of Baqouba also came under fire and five passengers were
killed, police reported.
Two civilians were killed in an ambush south of Kirkuk.
Two policemen died in an ambush near Baghdad's Sadr City area.
Gunmen disguised as police commandos abducted 12 employees of a trading
company in Baghdad.
The bodies of three police recruits were found Sunday just west of Ramadi.
Police said notes left on the bodies said: "This is the punishment for new
police recruits."
Police discovered three corpses of handcuffed men in Baghdad — two that were
pulled from the Tigris River and a third that was found in a gutter in an
eastern neighborhood.
Police found the body of an Iraqi soldier in Hillah.
In Najaf, Brig. Gen. Abbas Maadal said 29 policemen remain unaccounted for
three days after their convoy was ambushed near the U.S. base at Taji just north
of Baghdad. Nine police were killed in the attack Thursday night. Maadal said
officials were trying to determine if the missing police were dead, captured or
in hiding.