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Iraq Violence, Political Deadlock Continue
An Iraqi policeman looks at the wreckage left by a car bomb explosion Wednesday April 12, 2006 in Khalis, 80 kms (50 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Car and roadside bombings killed at least 12 people, including two U.S. soldiers, and six civilians were gunned down in Baghdad, as the acting parliament speaker said he will convene the Iraqi legislature next week to push forward the formation of a new government, stalled over the issue of who will serve as prime minister.(AP Photo/Mohammed Hameed
(Mohammed Hameed - AP)
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Shiites get to nominate the prime minister because they are the largest bloc, but the presidency, parliament speaker and some Cabinet posts are to go to different religious and ethnic groups.
"If we haven't reached an agreement, what will we do in this session?" asked Haidar al-Obaidi, a senior official in al-Jaafari's Dawa party.
Another Shiite lawmaker, Khaled al-Attiyah, said that Pachachi was simply trying to pressure the Shiites to resolve the al-Jaafari issue.
Iraqis are growing frustrated over the lack of progress on a government. An editorial cartoon Wednesday in the newspaper Al-Sabah al-Jedid depicted an enormous turtle struggling to move with a group of politicians on its shell. "Expediting the political process," the caption read.
U.S. officials have been urging the Iraqis to speed up talks on the new government to confront the violence sweeping the country. Tensions between Shiites and Sunni Arabs have risen since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra triggered a wave of reprisal attacks.
Wednesday's car bomb exploded as worshippers were leaving a Shiite mosque in the village of Huweder northeast of Baghdad. The blast killed at least 22 people and injured about 60, police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said.
Huweder, a village on the outskirts of Baqouba, was the scene of a truck bombing Oct. 30 that killed 30 people. The village is in a religiously mixed area where Sunni-Shiite tensions are high.
Casualties among U.S. forces have risen in recent weeks. In March, 31 U.S. service members died in Iraq, the lowest monthly figure since February 2005, according to an Associated Press count. So far this month, the U.S. death toll stands at 35.
Three U.S. soldiers were killed Wednesday in roadside bombings _ two south of Baghdad and a third on patrol east of the capital, the U.S. military said.
The military also reported that an American soldier from the 101st Airborne Division died Monday from a "non-battle injury" near Tal Afar in northern Iraq.
At least 2,362 U.S. personnel, including seven civilians working for the military, have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to AP's count.
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Associated Press writers Qassam Abdul-Zahra and Mariam Fam contributed to this report.
