Iraq parliament speaker strikes MP at end of stormy session

Iraq’s parliament speaker slapped a fellow Sunni Arab lawmaker on the face today as he was leaving a stormy session in which he accused “three-quarters” of the house’s 275 members of involvement in sectarian violence.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani has a track record of violent behaviour and is given to making undiplomatic comments about MPS and members of the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.