Iraqi delays parliament as market blast kills 10

THE speaker of parliament announced yesterday he was postponing a planned session of parliament “for a few days”.

The move signals that talks among political leaders had achieved no breakthrough on the issue of who will head the next government.

Speaker Adnan Pachachi had said the 275-member assembly would meet today to try to jump-start the stalled process of forming a new government four months after parliamentary elections.

But Shi’ite officials said they saw no purpose in convening parliament until all parties had agreed on the new prime minister and other top posts which require legislative approval. Sunni and Kurdish politicians oppose the Shi’ite choice of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to head the next government.

Mr Al-Jaafari has refused to step down and Shi’ite officials have been reluctant to try to force him out for fear of shattering their political alliance.

Also yesterday, US troops detained an al-Qaida suspect in a raid south of Baghdad that killed six people.

A car bomb exploded near a Shi’ite mosque elsewhere, killing at least 10 people and wounding 25, police said.

US troops stormed a house about in Youssifiyah, 19 kilometres south of Baghdad and detained six suspected insurgents, including the al-Qaida militant targeted.

The military said the suspect worked with foreign fighters to plan bombings.

Those inside the house started shooting and the troops fired back, a US statement said.

Soldiers killed two men who were wearing suicide bomb vests and a third detonated his explosives himself, the statement said.

Two other suspected insurgents were killed.

A woman also died in the crossfire and three women and a child were wounded, the US said. Five American troops were injured.

The US military said four US Marines were killed in action in Anbar province west of Baghdad on Saturday. Their identities were not released.

Yesterday’s car bomb hit an outdoor market not far from a Shi’ite mosque in Mahmoudiya, 32km south of Baghdad.

The religiously mixed city on the Euphrates river has been the scene of frequent vehicle bombings over the past two years.

A bomb hidden in a shopping bag on a minibus also exploded near a mosque in the mostly Shi’ite neighbourhood of Kamaliyah in eastern Baghdad, killing at least three passengers and wounding six, police said.

US officials have been pressing the Iraqis to install a new national unity government as quickly as possible to confront armed insurgency and the sharp rise in tensions between Shi’ites and Sunnis.

In a bid to break the deadlock, Shi’ite politicians not affiliated with major parties proposed that Mr al-Jaafari step aside in favour of another candidate from his Dawa party, several Shi’ite officials said.