Iraqi lawmakers elected Industry Minister Hajim al-Hassani, a Sunni Arab, as parliament speaker yesterday, ending days of deadlock and moving forward on forming a new government two months after the country's historic elections.
The decision was a step toward repairing the tattered image of the newly elected National Assembly, which had bickered for days over who would take the speaker post. A session last Tuesday to choose a parliament speaker disintegrated into shouts and accusations.
"It's time for the patient, Iraqi people to be treated with the dignity that God has given them," al-Hassani said, accepting his new post.
In western Baghdad, officials were investigating an attack by dozens of insurgents who blew up car bombs and fired rocket propelled grenades late on Saturday outside the Abu Ghraib prison.
A statement purportedly made by al-Qaida's wing in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack, which injured 44 U.S. servicemen and 12 prisoners.
The group, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has said many of its latest killings were in revenge for Iraqi women being held by coalition authorities.
The U.S. military denies it is holding any Iraqi women.
Abu Ghraib was at the center of a prisoner abuse scandal that broke out last year when pictures showing soldiers piling naked inmates in a pyramid and humiliating them sexually became public.
Al-Hassani meanwhile urged his fellow lawmakers to work together, adding that "if we neglect our duties and fail, then we will hurt ourselves and the people will replace us with others."
Former nuclear scientist Hussain al-Shahristani, a Shiite, and Kurdish official Aref Taifour were elected as al-Hassani's deputies.
The three were chosen by secret ballot, with lawmakers allowed to write the names of no more than three of five possible candidates on pieces of paper that were dropped into a box. The votes were then read out loud and marked down, one-by-one, on a large, white board. Two ballots were left blank.
The three top candidates -- Al-Hassani with 215 votes, al-Shahristani with 157, and Taifour with 96 -- were elected.
Al-Hassani urged legislators to pledge their "allegiance to the country and the people, not to the party or the sect or the ethnicity." His statement was greeted by applause.
Lawmakers had focused on picking a Sunni Arab as speaker in an effort to reach out to the minority dominant under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein. Sunni Arabs, believed to make up the backbone of the insurgency, have a disproportionately small number of seats in parliament because many boycotted the election or stayed home because they feared attacks at the polls.
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