BAGHDAD, 3 April 2005 — Iraq’s new Parliament was set to meet again today to choose a speaker as car bombs killed five and wounded nine others. Insurgents killed four policemen and one civilian in a car bomb on a highway 20 kilometers north of Baghdad.
The policemen were killed as they inspected the booby-trapped vehicle, which had been parked on the main highway outside Khan Bani Sad, Iraqi Army and medical sources said. A civilian driving by also died, while two civilians and another policeman were wounded.
The US military announced the death of a US Marine killed by small arms fire in the strife-torn western city of Ramadi Friday.
In Mosul, six people were wounded by a car bomb that set a house on fire, the US military said, without elaborating on the target of the attack. It was the fourth car bomb in Mosul in five days. Iraq’s caretaker government pledged to repair the damage done to the ninth century Malwiya spiraling minaret in the city of Samarra, after its top tier was bombed by insurgents Friday.
Amid the violence, leaders of Iraq’s Shiite majority issued an ultimatum to Sunni MPs to accept a compromise nominee for the post of Parliament speaker as MPs prepared to meet for their third session since Jan. 30 elections.
The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which controls 146 seats in the 275-member Parliament, said it would veto Sunni MP Mishaan Al-Juburi and told Sunnis who did not like the decision to leave the assembly. “We have agreed on the nominees, and the candidate for the speakership has been endorsed by a majority of Sunnis,” Jawad Al-Maliki, a senior member of the UIA, told AFP. He was referring to Hajem Al-Hassani, a compromise candidate more acceptable to Shiites, who maintains he is only interested in the post as a last resort.
“If there is a minority of Sunnis that does not agree with the choice, well, they are free to withdraw from the assembly.”
-— With input from agencies
