Shi’ite leaders propose religious conservative PM

IRAQ’S main Shi’ite alliance proposed a religious conservative for prime minister yesterday, signalling that he will almost certainly get the job after the alliance’s success in last month’s election.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a religious Shi'ite and head of the Islamist Dawa Party, had faced competition from inside the alliance from former exile Ahmad Chalabi, once favoured by the US.

But Mr Chalabi withdrew as a candidate at a meeting in Baghdad and the alliance unanimously approved Mr Jaafari.

"The priority now is security... it affects all other issues, such as the economy and rebuilding," Mr Jaafari told a news conference to announce his nomination.

He said if he became prime minister he would work to improve the capability of security forces and increase their numbers.

The bearded 58-year-old still faces a challenge from incumbent interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

But Mr Allawi's list won only 14% of the vote in the election, while the Shi'ite alliance won 48% enough for a majority in the National Assembly.

Mr Jaafari, a physician and father of five, was a member of the US-appointed Governing Council that ran Iraq after the 2003 war. He joined Dawa Iraq's oldest Islamic movement in 1966, but fled to Iran in 1980 after a crackdown on the party in which thousands of his comrades were killed.

Insurgents reminded the future government of the challenges it will face by detonating a car bomb near an Iraqi army convoy as it left Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. Two soldiers were killed and 30 wounded by the blast, which sprayed shrapnel over a wide area and could be heard across the city.

Human rights group Amnesty International also gave Iraq's future leaders food for thought, publishing a report which said Iraqi women were no better off now than under Saddam Hussein.

The report, entitled Iraq Decades of Suffering, accused some US soldiers of abusing Iraqi women.

Washington said it would study the report and investigate the allegations.

The US military said one of its Marines had been killed in western Anbar province, where American and Iraqi forces have launched a major campaign to flush out insurgents.

The death took the number of US troops killed in action in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 1,125.

In a Shi'ite region of Baghdad, an Iraqi army brigade became the first in the country to take control of its area from US-led forces a symbolic moment the Americans hope will be repeated across the country, allowing it eventually to withdraw its 150,000 troops.

The Iraqi commander of the brigade hailed the handover as "a historic event in the history of Iraq."

The alliance's decision to nominate Mr Jaafari for the prime minister's job is likely to herald more horse-trading between his supporters and those of Allawi.

But with 140 seats in the new 275-seat assembly to Mr Allawi's 40, Jaafari's list has the upper hand.

A Kurdish list, which came second in the election and has 75 seats, appears happy to settle for securing the presidency for its man, Jalal Talabani.