IRAQ: Iraq parliament meets to form government. Meanwhile, two killed and 15 wounded when bombs explode in Muqdadiya.

Record ID: 359020

  • Title: IRAQ: Iraq parliament meets to form government. Meanwhile, two killed and 15 wounded when bombs explode in Muqdadiya.
  • Date: 23rd April 2006
  • Summary: DOCTOR TENDING TO WOUNDED
  • Embargoed: 8th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA4Y9SOWPMQ08AB3320QM5FF7CV
  • Story Text: Iraq's parliament elected Arab Sunni Islamist Mahmoud al-Mashhadani as its speaker on Saturday (April 22), a colourful figure who joked about how he bribed a judge in the past but promised to ban corruption in the future.
    The physician addressed the chamber and mixed humour with serious pledges as politicians began putting together a government seen as the best way to avert a sectarian civil war.
    Mashhadani served as a medical officer in Saddam Hussein's army but was sentenced to death by his regime for joining outlawed Islamist groups.
    He is a member of the most powerful Sunni bloc, which U.S. and Iraqi officials hope will help draw Sunni insurgents and militants into the political process.
    Mashhadani, one of the more lively figures to have appeared in a drab parliament, smiled as he discussed what he said were his flaws, responding to a question about his past before being elected as speaker of the 275-seat national assembly.
    His transparency may be welcomed in a country where suspicions run deep between Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.
    Parliament elected a Shi'ite and a Kurd deputy for Mashhadani, an apparent reflection of constant efforts to strike a sectarian balance in a country ravaged by communal violence.
    Jawad al-Maliki, a tough-talking Shi'ite leader, was almost certain to become Iraq's new prime minister after he was nominated by the Shi'ite Alliance in a compromise vote that won initial backing from main Sunni Arab and Kurdish blocs.
    Al-Maliki is a tough Shi'ite from the Dawa Party who had pushed for executing Sunni insurgents who have killed Iraqis and purging the government of former members of Saddam's Baath party. He had been widely viewed as a sectarian politician, but Sunni leaders said they can live with him.
    An official in Iraq's oldest Islamist party, Maliki sought ahead of the Saturday's parliament session to shake off his hardline Shi'ite image and present himself as a man capable of uniting Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.
    "We are going to form a family that will not be based on sectarian or ethnic backgrounds," he told a news conference.
    Sunni leaders have accused the Shi'ite-run Interior Ministry of running death squads targeting Sunnis so there may be a protracted battle over control of that portfolio. Shi'ites deny condoning death squads.
    The support of the Sunni leaders is vital as the insurgents draw their support from the minority community. Sunni Arabs were dominant during Saddam Hussein's rule but the majority Shi'ite Muslims now hold sway.
    The main Kurdish grouping has made no official comment but independent Kurdish politician Mahmoud Othman welcomed Maliki's nomination.
    Sectarian violence has exploded since the February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine touched off reprisals and counter-reprisals.
    A fireman and a civilian were killed and 15 others wounded when two roadside bombs exploded inside a market in al-Muqdadiya town 90 km (50 miles) north east of Baghdad, police said.
    They said that a bomb exploded in front of a shop and setting it on fire. As police and firemen arrived at the scene, another roadside bomb went off, killing two. Two shops were completely burnt out by the blast.
    Three years after U.S. forces invaded Iraqis have grown disillusioned with Iraq's political class as bombings, shootings, kidnappings and crime plague the country.
    Maliki, who lived for years in exile in Shi'ite Iran and Syria during Saddam's rule, will have to prove to weary Iraqis he can deliver
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