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Iraq's incoming prime minister struggled to find a
Sunni Arab to run the key Defense Ministry in time
to join Iraq's first democratically elected
government when it takes office today. A torrent of
bloodshed -- at least 140 killed in five days --
followed the approval of a Cabinet that mostly shut
out members of the disaffected Sunni minority.
Disputes persisted over the Defense Ministry
yesterday after Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari
filled six of the seven Cabinet seats left undecided
last week, said Jaafari aide Laith Kuba.
The defense portfolio -- in charge of some 70,000
soldiers and national guardsmen -- is destined for a
Sunni, part of an attempt to balance the conflicting
demands of Iraq's many religious and ethnic
factions.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, was searching for two
missing U.S. Marine jets. The status of the two
F/A-18 Hornet aircraft and their crew was not
immediately known, the military said in a statement.
Contact was lost with the aircraft at 10:10 p.m.
last night, the statement said. There were no
initial indications of hostile fire in the area at
the time.
At least 23 Iraqis were killed yesterday --
including eight soldiers cut down by a suicide
attacker who blew up a truck at a checkpoint south
of the capital, and six civilians caught in a car
bombing that set fire to a Baghdad apartment
building. A British soldier also was killed by a
roadside bomb in the southern city of Amarah.
In Rome, Italian investigators blamed U.S. military
authorities for failing to signal there was a
checkpoint ahead on the Baghdad road where American
soldiers killed an Italian agent, and concluded in a
report released yesterday that stress, inexperience
and fatigue played a role in the shooting.
The investigators found no evidence, however, that
the March 4 killing of intelligence agent Nicola
Calipari was deliberate. The Italians also didn't
object to many of the findings of fact contained in
a separate American report made public Saturday.
The U.S. investigators, in their report, said the
American soldiers gave adequate warning, beaming a
light and firing warning shots, as the car traveled
toward the airport. Their absolving the U.S.
soldiers of any wrongdoing sparked outrage in Italy,
where Calipari had been hailed as a hero.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
issued a statement strongly condemning the "cruel
and heartless" violence apparently aimed at
undermining Iraq's newly formed government.
The skyrocketing attacks are blamed on an insurgency
believed largely made up of members of Iraq's Sunni
minority, who dominated for decades under Saddam
Hussein but were excluded from meaningful positions
in a partial new Cabinet announced Thursday.
Jaafari had promised to form a government that would
win over Sunni moderates and reduce Sunni support
for the insurgency, offering them six ministries and
a deputy premiership. But Sunni politicians insisted
they be given at least seven ministerial portfolios.
On Sunday, Kurdish factions agreed to give up one of
their ministries to meet the Sunnis' demand, said
Azad Junduiani, spokesman for the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, one of two main Kurdish parties.
Salih al-Mutlag, head of the National Dialogue
Council, a coalition of 10 Sunni factions,
identified the Sunni deputy prime minister as Abid
Mutlag al-Juburi, a former major general in Saddam's
army.
Jaafari wants to have all positions finalized before
the new Cabinet is sworn in today, Kuba said. But
the handover between Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's
caretaker government and the new Cabinet will likely
go ahead even if there are still vacancies, the aide
said.
On Jan. 30, millions of Iraqis risked their lives to
elect the Shi'a-dominated assembly, but many Sunnis
boycotted the vote or stayed home for fear of
attacks at the polls.
After months of wrangling, Jaafari has drawn up a
Cabinet that so far includes 15 Shi'a Arab
ministers, seven Kurds, four Sunnis and one
Christian. Two of four deputy prime ministers have
also been approved, a Shi'a and a Kurd.
Jaafari said he would act as defense minister until
one was agreed on. And former Pentagon favorite
Ahmad Chalabi, the Shi'a deputy prime minister, was
given temporary responsibility for the key oil
ministry.
But even with Sunnis in the Cabinet, Iraqi
insurgents have made it clear there will be no letup
in the unrelenting violence of recent weeks. The
country's most feared terror group, al-Qaida in
Iraq, has posted statements on the Internet saying
any Iraqi government is a puppet of the U.S.-led
coalition and that it will attack any Sunnis who
join it.
Meanwhile, Saddam's chief lawyer, Ziad al-Khasawneh,
accused unidentified Iranian-backed Iraqi
politicians of plotting to assassinate the ousted
leader in his prison cell. Iraqi national security
adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie scoffed at the
accusations, describing them as a ploy to have
Saddam moved to another country to face an
international court.
In yesterday's violence, a suicide bomber exploded a
truck at an Iraqi checkpoint near Youssifiyah, 12
miles south of Baghdad, killing eight soldiers and
wounding 20, said Iraqi army Capt. Qassem Sharif.
Two car bombs in Baghdad killed at least nine more
Iraqis. One exploded in an upscale shopping district
in southern Baghdad and set fire to a six-story
apartment building. Six civilians were killed and
seven wounded in the explosion, which missed a
police patrol, said police Lt. Col. Salman Abdul
Karim al-Fartosi. As firefighters fought the blaze,
thick black smoke and flames rose from the ground
floor.
In eastern Baghdad, a car bomb exploded near a
passport office, killing three Iraqis, including two
policemen, and wounding six, three of them also
policemen, said police Lt. Col. Hassan Chalob.
AP
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