BAGHDAD, May 3 -- Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari struggled Monday to reach a last-minute consensus within his broad Shiite political coalition on a Sunni Arab to fill the key post of defense minister, while his new cabinet prepared for a swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.
The political negotiations took place on another day of insurgent violence in which bombings killed more than 20 Iraqis, raising the death toll to nearly 140 since Jafari announced the formation of his government last week.
Late Monday night, two U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet aircraft from the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier were reported missing in Iraq, the U.S. military said early Tuesday. The status of the aircraft and their crew was not immediately known, the military said in a statement.
Five cabinet positions in the new Shiite-dominated government are reserved for Sunni Arabs, including a deputy premiership, and have been filled with candidates acceptable to both sides. The Sunni Arab nominee for a sixth position, minister for human rights, is also expected to be approved.
But Jafari's United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of several Shiite parties and independent individuals, has rejected several candidates for defense minister proposed by a Sunni negotiating committee led by Vice President Ghazi Yawar. Though some candidates were acceptable to Jafari, others in the alliance rejected them because of their past association with the Baath Party of former president Saddam Hussein.
Sunni Arabs argued that such rejections are unrealistic since the Baath Party dominated political life for more than 30 years. In any event, the Sunni Arabs argued, their candidates had left the party years ago. Yawar, the highest-ranking Sunni Arab in the government, said that the candidates had been carefully screened.
Late Monday, a spokesman for Yawar said Sunni Arab cabinet nominees planned to boycott the swearing-in ceremony if the defense ministry job was not filled beforehand. "If our candidates are rejected again," said Ahmed Najati, the spokesman, "the Sunnis will not go to the swearing-in."
Though a minority, Sunni Arabs ruled Iraq for centuries until Hussein was toppled by the U.S. invasion in 2003. Most Sunnis boycotted Iraq's milestone democratic elections in January, some out of fear of violence, others because they rejected the U.S. occupation.
The Sunnis are also seeking commitments that the new government halt the removal of former Baath Party members from government jobs; bring back Sunni officers to the army; move quickly to rebuild war-wracked cities such as Fallujah; and release detainees, including those held by U.S. forces.
Laith Kubba, a spokesman for Jafari, has said that the Sunni Arab concerns are valid and will be addressed in the program that Jafari intends to unveil after the swearing-in.
In one attack on Monday, authorities said a suicide bomber handcuffed to his car steering wheel slammed on his brakes to avoid a taxi, causing a police car to ram into the explosives-laden vehicle in the Zayouna district of Baghdad. Two policemen were killed.
Earlier, a bomb exploded in a car parked in a commercial strip in the upscale Karrada neighborhood, killing six people. Police Lt. Ali Amer, who was at the scene, said seven people were injured.
Hospital officials in Mosul, 220 miles north of Baghdad, said that four Iraqis were killed and 15 injured when a U.S. military patrol was targeted in two bombings, the Associated Press reported.
Eight Iraqi soldiers were killed and 20 were wounded by a suicide bomber who set off an explosives-filled truck at a checkpoint in Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad, Iraqi army Capt. Qassem Sharif told the AP.
Special correspondents Naseer Nouri and Bassam Sebti contributed to this report.
