BAGHDAD, 28 May 2006 — Iraqi politicians struggled yesterday to reach agreement on candidates for two key security posts that remained vacant a week after Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s government of national unity took office.
Al-Maliki said Thursday that he could be ready soon to name the two men who will be charged with carrying out his pledge to take over security for Iraq within 18 months, but Friday passed without word of the appointments.
The main Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish political blocs in the 275-member Parliament resumed talks on the candidates yesterday afternoon, hours after Al-Maliki’s spokesman, Yassin Majid, said “probably this issue will be settled today.” Prominent Sunni politician Adnan Al-Dulaimi said no agreement had been reached, however, and offered a less optimistic timeframe.
“We hope the agreement will be reached within two or three days,” he said at a press conference at his office in Baghdad. “I think that to linger and take some time in choosing the ministers is better than rushing into it.”
Al-Dulaimi also said Iraq would not allow its territory to be used “as a launching pad against any other country,” when asked about Iran’s warning on Friday that it would retaliate against any US attack, amid tensions over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
Al-Maliki left the top interior and defense posts vacant when he formed his government last Saturday because of ethnic and sectarian disagreements. He said problems included the large number of candidates presented by his Shiite United Iraqi Alliance and the Sunni Arabs’ Iraqi Accordance Front and concerns about links of some nominees to the former regime.
Violence resumed yesterday, with at least 21 people killed and dozens wounded nationwide.
A bomb in a parked car exploded near a busy bus station in southern Baghdad, killing at least four civilians and wounding seven, police Capt. Jamil Hussein said.
Gunmen also broke into a gardening store in Baghdad and killed the Shiite owner, Ali Hussein Kadhin, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said.
Both attacks occurred in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora, and came a day after bombs hit three different outdoor markets in largely Shiite areas of the capital, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 60.
Elsewhere, gunmen attacked the convoy of Col. Qahtan Al-Bawi, the office manager of the Diyala police chief south of Baquba. The colonel was injured and five of his guards were killed, local officials said.
The US military said a Marine was killed Friday by “enemy action” in the volatile Anbar province. The US military also said six terror suspects had been captured Friday in Ramadi, saying information from recent detainees led to the raid.
