Iraq's president said yesterday he would call the country's new parliament into session for the first time on March 12, staring the clock on a 60-day period during which the legislature must elect a new head of state and sign off on a prime minister and Cabinet.
"We will call today [Monday] for holding the meeting on the 12th of this month because it is the last day that the Constitution allows us to hold the meeting of the new parliament," Jalal Talabani told reporters.
The Constitution requires parliament to hold its first meeting no later than four weeks after the vote was certified, which occurred Feb. 12, nearly two months after the election was held.
Iraq is in the midst of a political crisis, with its many parties deeply divided over the main Shiite bloc's decision to name Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to a new term.
A coalition of Sunni, Kurdish and some secular politicians launched a drive last week to block al-Jaafari from continuing as head of government.
Meanwhile, a series of explosions rocked Baghdad and a market to the north of the capital through the morning yesterday, killing at least 10 people and ending a relative lull in bombings over the past several days.
Toward noon, five mortar rounds could be heard slamming to earth in quick succession in southeastern Baghdad, but there were no immediate details on targets or casualties.
A few minutes earlier a suicide car bomber struck a police patrol near al-Mustansiriyah University in eastern Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding three, according to police Captain Ahmed Qassim.
At 9:30am, a bomb exploded as a police patrol was driving through the northern Azamiyah neighborhood, killing a policeman and a civilian bystander, Interior Ministry official Major Falah al-Mohammedawi said.
Three people were wounded in the blast, including another policeman, he said.
About half an hour later, a car bomb targeting another police patrol exploded in the downtown Nidhal Street, wounding at least seven people, police said. Thick black smoke billowed into the sky.
North of Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded near a market in Baqouba, killing at least six people and injuring 23, police said.
The bomb was detonated by remote control shortly after 10:30am, police said. Four policemen were among the injured; the dead were all civilians, they said.
Baqubah, a mixed Sunni-Shiite city 60km northeast of Baghdad, has been at the forefront of a wave of sectarian and other violence since the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra.
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