IRAQ: Iraq's ruling Shia Alliance nominated Jawad al-Maliki for prime minister yesterday, winning support from the main Sunni Arab bloc and raising a possible end to a four-month deadlock over forming a coalition government.
No reaction was available from the Kurdish alliance, whose support would be key to a national unity government that Washington hopes can avert any slide towards a sectarian civil war and draw Sunni Arab insurgents into the political process.
Mr Maliki, a leader in the Dawa party who spent years living in Shia-dominated Iran during Saddam Hussein's rule, had previously been seen as an unlikely candidate for prime minister because he was widely viewed as a sectarian politician.
"When we heard Maliki was nominated we held discussions and decided we welcome him and we have informed the [ Shia] alliance," said Iyad al-Samarraie, an official in the Iraqi Accordance Front, the main Sunni bloc.
"We know he has made tough statements in the past, but we have sat down with him for long periods of time and we feel he has a strong intention to treat the problems facing Iraq."
Shia Alliance officials said Maliki won six out of seven votes in the bloc for the nomination, on the eve of a parliamentary session today - only the second time the chamber has sat since December elections because of the impasse.
The Shia Alliance's original choice for the job, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, signalled in a speech on Thursday he was ready to step aside at the request of the bloc after resisting widespread calls for his resignation for months.
Critics accused Dr Jaafari of monopolising power, pursuing sectarian policies and failing to curb raging violence, charges he denied.
Gunmen yesterday killed five Iraqi soldiers as they left a restaurant in the northern city of Baiji, police said, highlighting the security nightmare that a new government faces.
Much also hinges on the performance of US-trained, Shia-dominated Iraqi forces, who are meant to eventually take over security but are accused by Sunnis of working alongside pro-government militia death squads.
Violence has exploded since the February bombing of a Shia shrine touched off reprisals and counter-reprisals.
Hundreds of bodies with bullet holes and torture marks have turned up on streets and six more corpses were found in several parts of Baghdad yesterday.
Iranian forces shelled Kurdish rebels in Iraq yesterday to repel an attack, Iraqi Kurdish officials said.
A website sympathetic with Turkish Kurdish rebels said six Iranian soldiers and five rebels were killed. There was no immediate comment from Iran.
- (Reuters)