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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Iraqi car bomb kills 7, government to meet |
| 2005-03-29 |
| A car bomber killed seven people and wounded nine in Iraq on Monday near a crowd of Shi'ite pilgrims traveling to an annual religious ceremony. In Baghdad, political leaders met again to try to agree on cabinet posts two months after an election. Iraq's National Assembly is due to meet for its second session on Tuesday and may unveil some senior positions, but not the full cabinet. Three journalists from Romania, a U.S. ally which has 800 troops in Iraq, were kidnapped in Baghdad on Monday, Romania's President Traian Basescu said. Police in Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, said the bomber struck on a road leading toward Kerbala, a sacred Shi'ite city where this week hundreds of thousands of pilgrims will mark Arbain, an annual mourning ceremony. Shi'ites have frequently been attacked by Sunni-led insurgents over the past two years, particularly during religious occasions. At ceremonies in Kerbala and Baghdad last year, more than 130 pilgrims were killed by suicide bombs. Iraqi police have strengthened security in and around Kerbala over the past week, fearing attacks in the buildup to the commemoration of the death of a 7th century martyr, Imam Hussein. The ritual climaxes on Thursday. Traditionally, Shi'ites walk from their hometowns to Kerbala for Arbain. The pilgrims were attacked on Monday as they passed through an area south of Baghdad dubbed the "triangle of death" because of the frequency of insurgent strikes. In apparently related violence, a bicycle strapped with explosives blew up near a police car on the main road from Baghdad to Kerbala, killing two policemen and wounding several other police and civilians, local police said. In the Doura district of southwestern Baghdad, police chief colonel Abdel Karim al-Fahad was gunned down by unknown assailants as he drove to work. His driver was also killed. In an Internet statement, al Qaeda claimed responsibility. And in Najaf, south of Kerbala, police major Nour Karim Nour was shot dead by U.S. troops after approaching a checkpoint on the wrong side of the road, Najaf's police chief said. The U.S. military said it had no immediate information. Despite the violence, Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib told a news conference the insurgency was weakening. "I think they will collapse very soon," he said. "Maybe by the end of this year we will see a change." Two of the kidnapped Romanian journalists worked for Romania's Prima TV, where an editor had received a phone call from them saying they had been abducted, Romania's TVR1 said. It named the two Prima reporters as Marijan Ion and Sorin Miscoci. Also kidnapped was Ovidiu Ohannesian of Romania Libera newspaper, it said. The three had been making a short reporting trip to Baghdad from Romania. "We have alerted all the secret services and the foreign intelligence services of our allies to solve the case," Basescu told Romanian TVR1 television after returning from a whistlestop visit to Iraq. Efforts to form a government two months after elections inched ahead on Monday, with Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders -- representing the two groups that did best in the ballot -- saying they were closer to deciding the top jobs. The votes of two thirds of the 275-seat national assembly are needed to approve the top government posts, a majority the Kurds and Shi'ites can only achieve if they join forces. That mutual dependence has created tensions that have delayed formation of the government. The National Assembly, which met for the first time on March 16 but has not done so since, was due to reconvene on Tuesday. Political sources have said the names of the country's president and two deputy presidents, as well as the assembly's speaker and two deputies should be announced at that meeting, and possibly the name of the prime minister. With about 30 cabinet seats to decide, Shi'ites and Kurds are battling for the most influential ministries, while also trying to ensure that Sunni Arabs, most of whose supporters did not turn out to vote in the election, are not left out. Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab who is currently Iraq's president, was suggested by Shi'ites and Kurds as a candidate for speaker. But aides said on Monday he had declined. Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd, said political leaders would meet before Tuesday's session to try to agree on an alternative to Yawar. "The matter will be ultimately decided on the assembly floor tomorrow. We want to preserve balance through an Arab Sunni speaker," Zebari told Reuters. There are fears the insurgency could intensify if the Sunnis are seen to be marginalised in the composition of the new government, and in the leadership of the assembly which will draft a new constitution. Shi'ite politicians said Finance Minister Adel Abdel Mehdi was their candidate for one of the vice president posts, and Hussein al-Shahristani, a nuclear scientist who spent 12 years in Saddam's jails, was likely to be a deputy speaker. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |