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Iraq to call new parliament into session
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-06 19:57
Iraq's president said Monday that he would call the country's new parliament
into session for the first time on March 12, staring the clock on a 60-day
period during which the legislature must elect a new head of state and sign off
on a prime minister and Cabinet.
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, during a
meeting with Austrian counselor in Iraq Codren Hareber, unseen, in Baghdad
on Sunday March 5, 2006. Pressure mounted Sunday on Prime Minister Ibrahim
al-Jaafari to give up his bid for a new term amid anger over the recent
surge in sectarian killings that has complicated already snarled
negotiations on a new Iraqi government.[AP] |
The constitution requires parliament to hold its first meeting no later than
four weeks after the vote was certified, which occurred Feb. 12, nearly two
months after the election was held.
"We will call today for holding the meeting on the 12th of this month because
it is the last day that the constitution allows us to hold the meeting of the
new parliament," President Jalal Talabani told reporters.
Iraq is in the midst of a political crisis, with its many parties deeply
divided over the main Shiite bloc's decision to name Prime Minister Ibrahim
al-Jaafari to a new term.
A coalition of Sunni, Kurdish and some secular politicians began a drive last
week to block al-Jaafari from continuing as head of government.
On Monday, Explosions killed at least 10 people and wounded 36 in the Iraqi
capital and a northern city Monday, ending a relative lull in bombings over the
past days.
A car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol exploded near a market in
Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing at least six people and injuring
23, police said. Those killed were all civilians; four policemen were among the
injured.
Baqouba, a mixed Sunni-Shiite city, has been at the forefront of a wave of
sectarian and other violence since the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite
shrine in Samarra.
In eastern Baghdad, a suicide car bomber struck a police patrol near
al-Mustansiriyah University, killing two policemen and wounding three, said
police Capt. Ahmed Qassim.
Another bomb exploded as a police patrol drove through the northern Azamiyah
neighborhood, killing a policeman and a civilian bystander, said Interior
Ministry official Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi. Three people were wounded,
including another policeman, he said.
A car bomb targeting another police patrol exploded in Baghdad's downtown
Nidhal Street, wounding at least seven people, police said.
A roadside bomb exploded outside the blast walls surrounding the Buratha
Shiite mosque in the northern Oteifiyah neighborhood, causing no casualties,
police said.
Two roadside bombs went off in Baghdad's dangerous Dora neighborhood. One
targeted an Interior Ministry patrol, wounding one commando, police said. A
second attack struck a U.S. patrol, but police said there did not appear to be
any casualties. There was no immediate comment from the military.
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