Iraqi Politicians Discuss New Cabinet

04/25/2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraqi politicians on Monday again tried to end a deadlock over the formation of the country’s new transitional government, and the death toll from two well-coordinated militant attacks against Iraqi police and civilians rose to 29.

Insurgents, meanwhile, launched another attack on Iraq’s oil facilities, using explosives to set fire to oil pumps used for domestic supplies near Kirkuk, an official at Northern Oil Company said on condition of anonymity. No injuries were immediately reported.

On Sunday, lawmakers loyal to Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari said he was ready to announce a Cabinet that would exclude his interim predecessor, Ayad Allawi.

Al-Jaafari had decided, some members of his political bloc said, to shun further attempts to include members of the party headed by Allawi, the secular Shiite politician who had served as prime minister as the country prepared for elections Jan. 30.

Members of Allawi’s Iraqi List, which controls 40 seats in the National Assembly, said his party had not been officially informed of the development. Allawi loyalists were bidding for at least four ministries, including a senior government post and a deputy premiership.

“I heard from the media, and some of the other assembly members told me about it,” lawmaker Hussein Shaalan told The Associated Press late Sunday. But he said the party would continue to support the government even if excluded from the Cabinet.

Al-Jaafari’s list could be submitted to parliament Monday, some officials said, but others indicated Tuesday was more likely. Many such forecasts have proven wrong so far.

Many Shiites have long resented the secular Allawi, accusing his outgoing administration of having included former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, which brutally repressed the majority Shiites and Kurds.

There had been intense pressure to end the political bickering after a recent uptick in insurgent violence that many in Iraq blamed on the continuing political turmoil nearly three months after Iraq’s historic parliamentary election on Jan. 30.

The New York Times reported Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney, frustrated by the political deadlock, were pushing top Kurdish and Shiite politicians to come together and form a new government.

On Sunday, an emboldened Iraqi insurgency staged carefully coordinated dual bombings in Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit and a Shiite neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing and wounding dozens of Iraqi police and civilians.

Also, the U.S. military said it had detained four more suspects in the downing of a civilian Mi-8 helicopter Thursday. All 11 passengers and crew were killed, including a survivor gunned down by insurgents. Ten suspects have been apprehended in all, the military said.

A vehicle packed with explosives was driven into a crowd gathered in front of a popular ice cream shop in Baghdad’s western al-Shoulah neighborhood Sunday, police Maj. Mousa Abdul Karim said. Minutes later, as police and residents rushed to help the victims, a second suicide car bomber plowed into the crowd. At least 23 people were killed and 41 wounded, officials at two hospitals said Monday in an update of the casualty numbers.

Shattered glass, pools of blood, and pieces of flesh littered the scene.

In Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit on Sunday, two remotely detonated car bombs exploded in quick succession outside a police academy, killing at least six Iraqis and wounding 33, police and a hospital official said. The blasts occurred as recruits were about to leave the station and travel to Jordan for a training, said police Lt. Shalan Allawi.

Insurgents also attacked U.S. forces. A roadside bomb hit one convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing one American soldier and wounding two, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said two civilians also were wounded in the attack.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, the country’s most feared militant group, claimed responsibility for the Tikrit and eastern Baghdad attacks in statements posted on militant Web sites. The group also claimed responsibility for a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol near the Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad. The U.S. military said no one was hurt in that attack.

The claims could not be independently verified.