Al-Jaafari's candidacy for a second term as prime minister is at the center
of the political logjam that delayed parliament's first session for over a month
after the results of Dec. 15 elections were approved.
Under the constitution, the largest parliamentary bloc, controlled by
Shiites, has the right to nominate the prime minister. Al-Jaafari won the Shiite
nomination by a single vote last month.
Politicians involved in the negotiations have said part of the Shiite bloc,
those aligned with al-Hakim, would like to see al-Jaafari ousted but fear the
consequences, given his backing from radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and
al-Sadr's powerful Mahdi Army.
Sunni, Kurdish and some secular Shiites argue al-Jaafari is too divisive and
accuse him of not doing enough to contain waves of revenge killing after bombers
destroyed an important Shiite shrine on Feb. 22 and ripped apart teeming markets
in an al-Sadr stronghold in Baghdad on Sunday.
Police reported the discovery of 27 more bodies discarded in various parts of
the Baghdad overnight and Thursday morning. The victims were all men, some with
their hands bound, who had been shot execution-style and dumped in both Shiite
and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods, said Interior Ministry official Lt. Col. Falah
al-Mohammedawi.
North of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded near a girl's primary school
near Baqouba, killing three students aged 12-13, police said. Another bomb
missed a U.S. patrol in Mosul, killing one civilian, police said.
In Ramadi, residents picked through the rubble of a home they said was
destroyed in a U.S. raid. Residents have reported repeated clashes in the city
in an insurgent-plagued area west of Baghdad.
Recent AP Television News video showed a gunbattle in which a gasoline truck
was set on fire, and at a separate location the killing of an unidentified man
with heavy gunfire audible in the background. The U.S. military has not
responded to repeated requests for information.
A pianist played as representatives of the countries main ethnic and
religious blocs — many in traditional Arab and Kurdish dress — filed into a
convention center behind the concrete blast walls of the heavily fortified Green
Zone for parliament's first meeting.
The inaugural session started the clock on a 60-day period in which
parliament must elect a president and approve a prime minister and Cabinet.
But there was little sign of progress after a second full day of meetings
Wednesday among leaders of the major political blocs. U.S. Ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad brokered the sessions, designed to speed agreement on the next
government's shape.
"I expect that there still will be difficulties over choosing the prime
minister," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish politician who was in Wednesday's
session.