Iraqi lawmakers recess without tackling key bills

07/30/2007

By Ned Parker,
LA Times Staff Writer
July 30, 2007


BAGHDAD -- Iraq's parliament broke for summer vacation today without having passed any of the U.S.-supported legislation Washington thinks could help heal the deadly divide between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

The lawmakers went home without tackling key bills on provincial elections, the division of oil resources or the status of people purged from government jobs after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that resulted in the ouster of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime.

Meanwhile, the 44-seat Tawafiq bloc, the main Sunni faction, reiterated its threat to quit the government, which its six ministers have been boycotting. The bloc said in a statement that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite, had not taken seriously its demands that Shiite militias be dissolved and that detainees not charged with crimes be released. The government issued a statement over the weekend comparing the bloc's behavior to extortion.

In violence today, a minibus blew up near Tayaran Square in central Baghdad, killing at least six people. The attack came less than 24 hours after Iraqis rejoiced over their national soccer team's victory in the Asian Cup tournament.

The U.S. military announced that three American soldiers were killed in fighting Thursday in Al Anbar province in the west, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed since the 2003 invasion to 3,651, according to icasualties.org, a website that monitors U.S. military deaths in Iraq.