Attacks Persist As Iraqi Cabinet Forms
As Iraqis waited for the formation of their new government, at least two dozen people, including four U.S. soldiers, were killed and a police chief narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in attacks in the country's two largest cities Thursday.
Bombers also destroyed a small Sunni shrine near the volatile city of Baqouba, in an apparent reprisal attack less than a week after similar bombings heavily damaged six Shiite shrines in a mixed area where tensions are running high. No one was injured in the attacks.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki said he will unveil his new Cabinet to parliament this weekend, the first sign that the country may finally end weeks of wrangling over the formation of a government, a process that began in December with the election of a new parliament.
There are hopes that sharing power successfully among Iraq's majority Shiites and its minorities of Sunni Arabs and Kurds will help heal the sectarian rift underlying the relentless wave of violence that has swept Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion three years ago and open the way for the 130,000 American troops to begin returning home.
But talks were still under way on choices to head the critical ministries of interior and defense, which control the police and army respectively. Without an eventual agreement, no resolution is possible of the basic conflict between Shiites and Sunnis.
In other developments:
An al-Maliki spokesman said Wednesday that he would present the Cabinet at a parliament session Saturday, with or without a decision on those two posts.
"The government is almost completed. Only the interior and defense ministries remain," said the spokesman, Salah Abdul-Razaq. "If an agreement is not reached, the announcement will be made without these posts."
He did not elaborate, but his remarks suggested that al-Maliki, a Shiite, would appoint himself to head the two ministries until all parties agreed on the two appointees. Saturday would be two days ahead of a 30-day deadline for al-Maliki to present a Cabinet, and it was unlikely that he would present a deal for parliament to vote down.
Parliament must approve each proposed minister by an absolute majority of all 275 members.
Meanwhile, the violence in Iraq continued. Four U.S. soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter died when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. It had earlier said that a U.S. sailor had died Wednesday in western Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency.
The names of the soldiers and sailor were being withheld pending notification of next of kin. Details of the attack were not released. Details of the bomb attack and the fighting which killed the sailor also were not released.
The five deaths raised to at least 2,455 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.