|
Iraqi leaders set to finalise Iraq Govt.
cabinet
8.5.2006
|
|
|
|
BAGHDAD, May 8 (AFP)
- Iraqi leaders were holding last-minute talks to
form a new government in the hope it will help curb
raging sectarian bloodshed and the Sunni-led
insurgency that has left thousands dead.
Representatives of the country's parliamentary blocs
were to meet President Jalal Talabani to finalise
the line-up of the first permanent government of the
post-Saddam Hussein era, almost five months after a
landmark election.
But violence continued on the ground, with rebels
gunning down three people in separate attacks.
Police also recovered six bodies of men brutally
murdered in apparent sectarian killings.
Lawmaker Bassem Sharif of the dominant Shiite United
Iraqi Alliance said all political leaders were
meeting at Talabani's house to decide on the new
national unity cabinet.
He said the leaders of the Shiite alliance were also
meeting separately to choose its candidate to run
the crucial interior ministry.
Another political source close to the negotiations
said Shiite leaders were considering independent
Shiite MP Qassem Daoud to head the ministry or
retaining the incumbent Bayan Jabr Solagh.
Sunni Arab politicians have strongly criticised
Solagh and accused his ministry's Shiite-led forces
of operating death squads that indulged in
extra-judicial killings of Sunni Arabs. |
Iraq's Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi (L),
US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad (C), and
Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani (R), in
Erbil. Iraqi leaders were holding last-minute talks
to form a new government in the hope it will help
curb raging sectarian bloodshed and the Sunni-led
insurgency that has left thousands dead.
Photo: AFP |
Hardline Shiite prime minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki
has said he would form the new cabinet by May 10 and
was also considering an independent candidate to
head the interior ministry.
The source also said that former parliament speaker
Hajem al-Hasseni, a Sunni, was being considered to
head the defence ministry.
The United States sees a national unity government
as the only way to curb the violence that has raged
since the toppling of Saddam in 2003 and pave the
way for the withdrawal of its 132,000 troops.
Since the February bombing of a revered Shiite
shrine in the northern town of Samarra, Iraq has
been roiled by Shiite-Sunni tit-for-tat sectarian
killings that has left hundreds dead, mostly Sunni
Arabs.
Bodies of brutally murdered men have been found
scattered across Iraq in these sectarian killings,
while a Sunni-backed insurgency has already left
over 35,000 civilians dead since the end of the
US-led March 2003 invasion, according to some
estimates.
On Monday, Iraqi police recovered six bodies in
Baghdad of men who had been tortured and killed in
sectarian violence.
"One of the six bodies was of a man brutally chopped
into pieces and dumped in a sack in the northern
Kadimiyah neighborhood of Baghdad," an interior
ministry official said.
The corpses were found a day after police announced
the discovery of 45 bullet-riddled bodies of men
across Iraq.
On Monday another three people were shot dead by
gunmen, including a political activist in the
restive city of Baquba, 60 kilometers (35 miles)
north of Baghdad.
A series of roadside bombs and car bombs also went
off, wounding over a dozen people.
On Sunday a car bomb attack in the southern Shiite
holy city of Karbala killed 15.
Meanwhile, a team of British experts was due in Iraq
to probe the cause of a helicopter crash Saturday
that left five servicemen dead. The chopper was
reportedly shot down by an insurgent rocket in the
southern city of Basra.
On Sunday British military spokesman Major Sebastian
Muntz said five British servicemen perished, while
the Ministry of Defence in London only confirmed
that up to five people were on board the stricken
aircraft.
The crash sparked bloody clashes on Saturday with at
least five Iraqis killed and dozens wounded when
British troops sent to recover the dead from the
helicopter encountered an angry mob.
On Monday Muntz said the situation was relatively
calm, although some "troops received indirect fire
in the city. But that is normal."
Meanwhile, the US military announced the release of
299 male detainees from US-Iraqi run prisons. About
14,000 detainees inmates are still held.
AFP
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 