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48 die in attack on Baghdad Shiite slum
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-13 19:01
Bomb blasts, rocket and gunfire also killed at least 12 other people 锟斤拷 10 in
Baghdad 锟斤拷 and wounded 34 Sunday. The low thud of mortar fire periodically
rumbled over the city.
The Sadr City bombers struck shortly after U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad
and leaders of Iraq's main ethnic and religious blocs concluded a news
conference to announce agreement to move forward the first session of the new
parliament to Thursday.
The political leaders said they would open marathon meetings on Tuesday in an
attempt to reach agreement on a new government. Khalilzad said he would be
available to join the talks at any time.
Among the issues to be discussed are how many positions various blocs will
get in the new government, which will fill key posts and the government's
program of action.
The first parliamentary session will take place three months after Dec. 15
elections and a month after the results were certified. It sets in motion a
60-day deadline for the legislature to elect a new president, approve the
nomination of a prime minister and sign off on his Cabinet.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, stood by Shiite leader Adbul-Aziz al-Hakim
and other Kurdish, Sunni Arab and secular leaders to make the announcement.
Khalilzad said a permanent government needed to be in place quickly to fill
the "vacuum in authority" at a time of continuing effort by "terrorists to
provoke sectarian conflict."
"To deal with the threat, (there is) the need on an urgent basis to form a
government of national unity," Khalilzad said.
Al-Hakim, head of the powerful Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq, agreed that forming a government was imperative.
"There was a determination from all the leaders to assume their
responsibility to deal with this crisis. We have to get Iraq out of the
situation it is in now," he said, standing outside Massoud Barzani's Kurdish
Democratic Party headquarters.
Present in addition to Khalilzad, Talabani, al-Hakim and Barzani were Adnan
al-Dulaimi, leader of the largest Sunni bloc in parliament and Adnan Pachachi, a
secular Sunni representing Ayad Allawi, a Shiite and former prime minister.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, a Shiite, did not attend the meeting in
the U.S.-controlled Green Zone but met earlier Sunday with Talabani.
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